#i have the first draft done but i have some story beats i need to change

[mejomonster]

I wrote 6000 words today!

#rant #tbf #idk if its gonna bite me in the ass or not but like #oh well. my goal is a first draft done by end of year #even if it sucks or its good or whatever i just want a draft completed !!! #i have been hung up on 2nd guessing my own writing for a month ;- #so i switched stories to one with a pov character narrator whos a history nerd of the world (and blackmails/spies on others a lot) #so like. hes a guy who knows a lot of info and happily rants anyway about exposition stuff to other characters #(like. hes literally an ambassador and explains perceived social norms differences between faeverse countries and facilitates cooperating) #so like. i figure at least i wont beat myself up for mentioning exposition #cause i guarantee however much i write. this character would be dumping 10 more page than me per minute. if he could sjdjdj #so ill likely have enough content included in the draft when im done. and itll be easier to cut some stiff #rather than needing to add missing stuff later

[bad268]

Seven

Breaking News (Part 3)

(Max Verstappen X Reader, Charles Leclerc X Ex! Reader)

Fandom: RPF/Formula 1

Requested: Nope (I had an idea, Mr. Krabs)

Chapter warnings: cheating mentioned, sex references, song referenced belongs to Natiale Jane.

Pronouns: They/them

W.C. 1672

Chapter Summary: "Seven" is released during the race week, and Y/n sees Charles for the first time since their split.

As always, my requests are OPEN

MASTERLIST // HITLIST

(^Came from 2 pics on Pinterest)

<- Previous Part

It’s been months since I last saw Charles. It was not really a concern for me anymore. He can do whatever he wants, and I can do whatever I want. And what I want is to attend the race in Austin.

It was Wednesday, and we just flew in a couple of hours ago. We settled into our hotel room before Max went into the bathroom to shower before we went to dinner. Once I was dressed in a semi-fancy outfit, I decided to sit on our bed and wait for him to finish up. I had started scrolling through countless comments on my newest single, “Seven,” when Max came out of the restroom. He was wearing a black button-up and jeans, but at least it wasn’t Red Bull merch. 

“What are you looking at?” He asked, coming up to look at the comments from over my shoulder. “Is that the new song?”

“Yeah,” I chuckled lightly, leaning back into him. “They’re loving it so far.”

“Well, of course, they are,” he retorted, standing up and pushing me to lay on my back as he leaned over me. He placed a couple of small kisses around my face before placing a final one on my nose. “You wrote it. Why wouldn't they love it?”

“It was just really different from my normal songs, I don’t know,” I sighed, setting my phone to the side as I wrapped my arms around his neck and played with the ends of his damp hair. “It’s also the second single for the album.”

“You haven’t even finished the album yet,” He shook his head with a laugh. “They’re your fans, liefde (love). They’ll love anything from you.”

“Doesn’t make the release any less daunting, schat (darling),” I whispered, pulling him down to kiss him. We moved in sync before ultimately needing to pull apart for air. “You ready to go?”

“Of course,” He said, lifting himself up before holding his hand out for me to stand beside him. “What kind of food are you feeling?”

~

Thursday is media day, so Max was off doing his own thing. It works because I had a virtual interview anyway, so I was able to hide out in Red Bull hospitality to do the interview in peace. 

“Y/n L/n, your newest song, ‘Seven,’ is smashing the charts,” They started off, “Tell us about the story behind it.”

“Honestly, I think everyone knows the story behind it,” I chuckled. “I wanted to try something new, so I continued the fuel from my last relationship to make this song. I’ve never really done something like this, but I really liked it, and I think the fans do too.”

“They certainly do!” The interviewer reassured. “The story, the beat, everything is just so catchy! It’s an amazing song! What was your favorite part about writing this song?”

“The lyrics were really fun, and I got a little help from my new boyfriend for the melody,” I admitted. The interviewer’s eyes widened as they let out a gasp, and I just smiled wider. “He was actually the one that came up with the chorus beat.”

“Did he write any of the lyrics?” They asked quickly.

“No, he left that to me. He just listened to every draft,” I laughed as I remembered something. “About a month ago, I woke him up at like two in the morning on a race day because I had a dream about the lyrics. He loved it so much, it’s now the chorus. He also was not very happy that I woke him up that day. He had to be on track at like five, and I woke him up just before his alarm.”

“That is gold,” They laughed as well. “We have some fan questions if you don’t mind. One person asks what is your favorite lyric from the song?”

“Not a lyric, but the laugh before the first chorus,” I answered after a second of thinking about it. “While recording the gap between the first verse and chorus was missing something. I tested with more lyrics, but ultimately, the laugh sounded the best.”

“The laugh does make it better,” The interviewer agreed. “Next question, has your ex or his girlfriend reached out, regarding the songs you’ve released recently?”

“No, but there was an article that announced their relationship right after I released ‘Ava’ and she stole lyrics from a fan cover as her original caption,” I remembered. “I was tagged in a fan cover of ‘Ava’ where they portrayed Ava. It was actually amazing, and I loved it! They did an amazing job, and one of the verses was ‘if he’s your man, why’s he still in my bed.’ I, personally, find it funny, but everyone likes to paint it like there’s bad blood between us,” I explained, going off on a short tangent. ��Sorry, but to answer the main question, no, they have not said anything to me specifically.”

“Do you wish they did? I mean, these two very popular songs of yours are centered around them, so do you wish that they acknowledged them?”

“They did, technically,” I replied. “The fact that they announced their relationship right after I released the song and used a fan cover of my song to jab at me kinda validates that they know about it. Plus, it’s funny that his teammate loved both songs. He’s told me that he blasts them in their garage all the time.”

“Well, that’s all the time we have today,” They wrapped up, satisfied with the answer. “Thank you for your time, and we’ll look forward to the full album.”

“Thank you,” I replied with a smile as I left the call. I let out a sigh as I leaned back in my chair, laying my head back and closing my eyes to rebuild my social battery. 

“What album?” A voice asked from across the room. It was a voice I have not heard for month, causing me to immediately shoot my head up. 

“What do you mean, ‘what album?’ I’m a songwriter, Charles,” I snapped. “Did you forget that’s my job?”

“No, just,” He took a breath, trying to recollect his thoughts. He hesitates for a second as if he didn’t want to say what he was thinking before just spilling, “Is the whole album about the breakup? Are you that caught up on it?”

“I don’t know yet,” I admitted, moving to stand up and approach him. “I haven't written it yet. Might be, the fans seem to love this era. So what if it is? What are you gonna say?”

“This is defamation,” He seethed, coming up to stand chest-to-chest with me. “I could sue you for both songs.”

“I don’t name you in either of them,” I scoffed. “Ava is a basic name. I could mean anyone named Ava, not just your girlfriend. Even in interviews, I won’t answer questions if they mention your names, and my answers are always vague. You have no grounds to sue me for my success. You just want to rain on my parade. I’m climbing in popularity, and you’re not. Admit it.”

“You’re only getting popular because you’re fucking Max,” Charles replied bluntly. Behind him, I could see a door opening, but I couldn't see who it was.

“Oh, please. If anything, I get hate for fucking Max,” I laughed. “At least I’m getting satisfied. With the way you’re acting, I’d say it's been at least a month since you got laid.”

“You’re one to talk,” He tried to start before I cut him off.

“Not like it’s any of my business what you do with your girlfriend,” I said with a sly smile. “On a side note, what are you doing in here? Ferraris aren’t allowed in Red Bull hospitality, last time I checked.”

“Yeah, Charles, you should head back to your own hospitality,” Christian pressed as he was the one to walk through the door with Carlos, Max, and Daniel, who was holding Max back.

“You’ll hear from my lawyer,” Charles spat toward me before turning and walking out the doors. I just rolled my eyes and bit my tongue before I made the situation worse.

“Did I hear an album?” Carlos asks sheepishly.

“I will send a signed copy to my biggest fan once I get it written,” I teased him as Christian and Daniel ushered him out to follow his teammate. Carlos shouted back a thanks before taking off. I shook my head with a small laugh as I walked up to Max who had calmed down since Charles left. “Thank you for mentally killing a man in my honor.”

“Always,” he joked back, “I’d do anything for you. Was he serious about suing?”

“I don’t know, but it’s just going to waste his money cause I worked with my publicist to make sure they couldn’t sue for defamation,” I reassured him, cupping his cheeks and leaning our heads together as he placed his hands at my waist. “Y’know, in case you didn’t know, I love you.”

“I have loved you since we were 18,” He whispered back. My eyes widened as I took in his words.

“Why didn’t you ever say anything?” I gasped out.

“It was before we both thought the same things,” he chuckled. “Your music was taking off, and I was still a rookie. I remember you said that you wanted to wait until you were in a stable place in your career before you started a relationship.”

“I was like 12 when I said that!” I laughed, shocked that he actually remembered that. “Well, if it makes you feel better, I always knew I would end up with you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” He jokingly took offense as he tightened his hold around my waist.

“I told all of my friends and family I would date you at some point,” I admitted lowly. He immediately began beaming at my confession. “No one believed me, but now…oh, if they saw us now.”

~~~

Next Part ->

~~~~~

© BAD268 2023. DO NOT REPOST WITHOUT PERMISSION.

#max verstappen x reader #charles leclerc x reader #max verstappen #charles leclerc #max x reader #charles x reader #formula 1 #formula 1 x reader #f1 #f1 x reader #bad268 breaking news #part 3 #bad268 #ship268 #thing268

[solisaureus]

how do you write a fic and make it like

long?

ok actually i did give a brief workshop in a fandom server on this once. Here’s the sparknotes:

Stage 1: brainstorming

- decide the topic of your story. write down the idea that sparked your inspiration and start there. this is your core concept from which everything else arises. write down everything that you come up with when thinking about your story, even if you don’t end up incorporating it.

- if you don’t have ideas, most of my fic ideas arise when talking about my fav characters with friends who also love them.

- pin down a few essential aspects of your core concept. is it an AU or canon compliant? ship vs gen? is it going to focus on an overarching plot or a particular character’s personal journey? what ao3 rating do you expect it to be? what trope tags do you think you’ll add?

- make a pinterest board and a playlist for your fic concept. i’m serious this helps you solidify the tone, setting, and mood of your story and can provide more inspiration

Stage 2: outlining

- now that you know what your fic is gonna be about, it’s time to break down the story and make it a complete narrative. Your outline can be as detailed or as bare bones as you want. some writers don’t make an outline at all, but i cannot even begin to comprehend their power, and if you’ve never written a long work before i highly recommend starting with an outline.

- the two most important things to keep in mind during this stage are PACING and STRUCTURE. Characterization is secondary in this stage but still important. Now is the time to establish the setting and the major plot beats.

- decide the narrator, point of view, and tense during this stage

- if you’re stuck for ideas, here’s a cheat for pacing — come up with just 3 things: a goal, a time limit, and stakes. What does your protagonist want to accomplish, how long do they have to do it, and what are the consequences if they don’t achieve it in the time limit? Character A is in love with Character B and wants to be with them (goal), but Character B is moving away at the end of the summer (time limit). Character B risks rejection, and losing their friendship with Character A (stakes). Boom, you already have the skeleton of a story. Try to identify these elements in your favorite stories, it helps you practice this and can give you ideas for your own story. Frodo has to deliver the Ring to Mt. Doom (goal) before Sauron’s armies overwhelm Gondor (time limit) or else the world will fall into shadow (stakes). Obviously, this is just one plot formula among a wide variety and there’s no one right way to write a story, but it can get you started.

- Another way you can start is by detailing some exposition events, some rising actions, a climax, and resolution. If you already have a climactic scene in mind, you just need to figure out how your characters get there and what they do afterwards.

- once your outline is done, you should have a general feel for how long the project will be

Stage 3: drafting

- now it’s time to write the damn thing. sounds simple but it’s not

- practice getting into Da Writing Zone. when it’s time for me to get serious, I have a few video game soundtracks i’ll put on through my noise cancelling headphones, i’ll make myself some tea, and i’ll light a candle. i have basically conditioned myself to write when i hear the journey soundtrack or when i smell my pomegranate candle.

- Each scene that you write should serve a purpose in the overall narrative. I personally determine whether each scene contributes to at least one of the following: worldbuilding, progressing the plot, or characterization. a good scene will accomplish two or even all three.

- consider the voice, whether you’re writing from first or third person. are you telling the story with stern reverence, poetic wonder, snarky indifference? consistency in voice strengthens the story.

- keep suspense in mind, too. you dont want the protagonist to know everything right away — be intentional about what information they learn and when. what the protagonist knows and what the reader knows can differ, too — this is the source of dramatic irony. or you can keep the reader ignorant and have them discover plot elements at the same time as your protag. the intrigue!

- take your time. pace yourself. writing is hard and you don’t have a deadline when it comes to fanfiction. if you’re in a rut, something that i do is that i force myself to write 200 words — if i do that and i’m still not feeling it, i stop there and try again in a few days, but a lot of the time i just keep writing once i get past that hurdle of just starting.

- beginnings are always hard. keep in mind that this is just your draft — whatever you write doesn’t have to be the final version. just start at a point that seems interesting to you.

- as a general rule of thumb, if you’re bored writing something, it’ll be boring to read, too. you may tell yourself that you HAVE to write this dry section about worldbuilding or write how the characters get from one place to another, but do you really? how much would it affect the story if you skipped that? can you approach it another way, or work it in in another scene?

stage 4: editing

- kill your darlings. if something you wrote is out of place or unnecessary for the story, but you like it anyway, get rid of it. save it in another document for outtakes, but don’t give into the idea that a section is valuable just because you spent time on it.

- having a second set of eyes on your draft is a game changer. if you can get a friend (ideally another writer) to beta read your draft and make comments, it can make a huge difference. i always like to thank my beta readers when i post a fic because i appreciate their input so much!

- now is a good time to decide whether you want to post chapters as you write them or write everything first and post it all at once (or on a posting schedule). there are benefits and drawbacks to both but you know yourself best!

- once you are happy with your draft, post it! :)

stage 5: stamina

- writing is hard, and writing a long fic is really hard. even if you’re super passionate about a project when you start it, you will probably lose steam at some point depending on how long it is. at times you will be discouraged and unmotivated. it helps to have a friend who has volunteered to be your designated hype man for this fic. i like to have at least one person who i KNOW is awaiting my next chapter.

- the fact that you don’t get paid for writing fic means you have to balance your writing time with your life and responsibilities. you might have to take a hiatus. coming back to the project after a while can be hard — this is where those pinterest boards and playlists you made back in stage 1 come in. they help get you back into the groove of the story when you’ve lost inspiration!

- when all else fails, try reading books or fanfiction. it counts as writing. words in > words out. bonus points if you journal/leave ao3 comments about things you noticed and enjoyed about it (or, if you didn’t like something, what about it left you dissatisfied. don’t write this in an ao3 comment though keep it to yourself), it genuinely helps you get better at writing. like it makes writing easier

- believe in yourself!!! believe in me who believes in you!!!!

#ask #ssavinggrace #robin text #writing advice #fic writing

[mrghostrat]

I remember you posting a blurred gif of the outline of atws, so if you don't mind me asking, how do you do that? Like, get the outline onto paper and not just scenes in your head. That's something I've always struggled with, because it's hard to write without an outline, but hard to do the outline when I don't have a first draft? I'm not sure how to explain it so I hope this makes any sense at all lmao

ahh so fair! some people just don't operate that way and you gotta do what's best for your brain. no point exhausting all your energy trying to squeeze into a "standard writing process" that'll make writing even more difficult for yourself.

under the cut, i'm going to explain my writing process every step of the way, using scenes of ATWS. i hope it helps in some way? i don't think it's anything special, but this is just how i write to appease my adhd.

first, this might help: i once used storyplanner.com when i didn't know how to even start a story and i loved it. it's a great tool that can hold your hand every step of the way, or just prompt you to think on your own. there's over 20 planners that ask different questions like "what's your character's major flaw?" "what's the inciting incident?" "what outside elements hinder the character?" etc that will present you with a complete story structure when you're done with it.

ok, now, how i write:

as for the post in reference, that's the 2nd stage of my writing process. i get carried away with tangents and hone in on details, so i plan in dot points to try and force myself to keep it simple and stay zoomed out.

i just write what happens in chronological order, and if i have an idea for a later scene (or something that i just want to happen, but don't know when/where/how), i note that in a separate document that i can refer to while i plan. this also allows me to gloss over vague sections to keep my writing flow going.

stage 1:

i've started using Notion's "toggle list" feature to minimise the less important parts of a scene and keep myself focused on the overarching plot during this stage. this is what the first point looks like:

i go beat by beat, essentially amounting to an elevator pitch for each stage of my story. "crowley and aziraphale are streamer roommates" + "people start to notice they each live with someone and the speculation starts" + "crowley and aziraphale interact on twitch" + "they attend the edinburgh meetup" etc.

i finish a story before i move on from this stage. i won't start writing something in earnest until i know how it ends.

stage 2:

this is what you saw in my gif, and why that page was so long. that's every scene i'm going to write in the story.

sometimes i jump straight from stage 1 to writing, but ATWS required a lot more figuring out before i started any kind of prose. here i'm basically noting down the details of what each scene is, the brunt of what's happening. this is when i have to figure out those "vague sections" i glossed over earlier.

it's still just intended to be a rough outline so i know where the characters are and what's moving their relationship along. most of these dot points are short because i've already thought about them a thousand times, and may have more details noted down in a different document.

meanwhile some of them i'm planning out the scene as i'm dotting it, making not of dialogue that i want to include.

stage 3: my bracket method

i only use this stage when i'm struggling to write and need to baby step into it. this is my "bracket method" in which i write the scene without, like... caring? some people may consider this "double handling" which may drive you mad, but it's the most helpful thing i've ever done for my process.

i switch tenses, i write how i chat (no capitals etc) and just word vomit the scene without focusing on prose. ATWS came quite easily at first, and i didn't need to use stage 3 until i got to chapter 4 and hadn't written in a few days.

stage 4:

this is writing the actual prose, but i wanted to include it so you can see the differences, to help better understand my notes/planning/outlining stages:

and this is what a scene looks like with stage three bridging the gap:

#i swear this had a point #i think the point is: i literally just write each scene one by one as i think of them #but use all these little methods to keep it clean and tighten my own leash so i dont get carried away or lost #rat writes #ratwips #writing tips #writing process #art process #fan fic #ask a rat

[cnnmairoll]

Hello. I was wondering if you could you write a platonic angst story where the reader is Blade's child. I was thinking usually the only thing that could calm Blade down when the mara flared up was Kafka's spirit whisper but what if being around the reader was also able to calm Blade down for some reason because Blade barely spends any time with the reader unless it's during one of his harsh training sessions and one night the reader decides enough was enough and started packing their stuff but they left behind their lucky weapon (that's your choice) and Blade found it the next morning.

A Cup of Cold Tea

Character : Blade Genre : Angst Disclaimer : The relationship between the reader and Blade will be platonic as stated by the request. a/n : This was my first Request, but it didn't take long for me to find out about the anon sending the same request to most of the HSR writers despite their request was closed. I kept it in my drafts since it would be a waste if i just scrap it all out, not to mention my friend helped me out on this one, so I decided, why not just write the final paragraph and post? Things has been quite rough and busy for me so I'm not done with my hiatus, but I hope you enjoy p.s im sorry if he's ooc here, I don't know his chara well

His blade descends on you, striking downwards in a beautiful arc to cleave your skull.

You dodge within an inch of your life, the after image of his sword burning into your retinas as you fall into a clumsy heap on the floor. Still, you spare no moment for yourself as you scramble up, his sword drawing contact to where you lay as soon as you move.

The minutes blends into hours, time being a concept of little value in the face of Blade's viciousness. It takes everything you have to simply focus on the present, dodging and deflecting when you can. You always stay on the defensive in fights like these; any window you have to strike opens itself for only a millisecond before Blade runs it through clean with his sword.

It makes you wonder how you'd fare if Blade gave it his all. You've seen Blade fight on missions enough times to know that he is much deadlier when he is putting in active effort. In contrast, his movements here are much more sloppy and rabid, fueled only by the unadulterated desire to destroy. It is the madness of his mara in its purest form, though it doesn't make his attacks any less fatal, as proven by the countless wounds that litter your body.

Dead within the first minute, probably, comes the stray thought. It proves to cost you when you earn a gash on your arm, blood spilling freely from your left. You grit your teeth; you need to pay attention. There's never a guarantee for your life when Blade gets like this.

Red spider lilies bloom around you like a garden welcoming death. It sings of carnage, reeking of blood that it greedily consumes, begging for more even if it will eventually wilt away. It feels symbolic, in a way. Out of the two of you, only you are the one who is able to experience true death.

Still, you cannot help but find the blooming sea of red beautiful, even if it is always likely to be your final resting place.

There is a lull in Blade's movements, the manic in his eyes glazing into a dull scarlet as he catches his breath. Immortal he may be, but even he has a limit he will reach. It is a mercy; not only does it signify that his mara has not yet reached a point of no return, it also allows you time to recuperate. Had Blade been given unlimited stamina on top of his self-healing, you would surely have died a long time ago.

Now that the man has tired himself, it is time to bring him back.

"Father," you begin. It comes out as a feeble whisper, your lungs still burning from exertion. Still, you must press on. "Are you okay?"

Blade is silent for a beat, then two. This is fine; you can wait for as long as he needs for your words to reach him. You've gone through this routine enough times to memorize his mannerisms, all of which are currently saying that you are in the clear. So long as his grip on his weapon doesn't tighten again, then you have nothing to be afraid of.

Silence reigns within the room, until you recognize the clarity return to Blade's eyes.

"..You," he grunts, voice hoarse. It's scratchy from his manic screaming and laughter, and you make a mental note to add honey to his tea for his throat.

You nod approvingly. "Yes, Father. Are you okay?" You repeat the question, and this time, Blade manages a sharp nod.

You grin, happy at his answer. You open your mouth to speak again, but Blade cuts you to it. "What happened to your arm?"

The man stares hard at something, and you follow his gaze to find the gash on your left arm. The bleeding has mostly stopped from what you can tell, but it's still an ugly thing to look at. You'll have to wash it soon.

You hum, considering. "It's only a minor cut, Father. I can patch it by myself later."

His eyebrows twitch, his eyes narrowing. "Come," he says simply, walking towards the door.

You let your sword disperse into particles of light before following Blade out of the room. You know there is no arguing with him when he gets like this. Any attempt to reassure him that you can handle yourself will only end with him staring at you with unreadable eyes until you inevitably give in. You're not sure if he does this because he is aware of this fact. Blade doesn't strike you as the type to be attentive to such details, but it's worked every single time, so.

You are both silent as he tends to your wound, cleaning it thoroughly before dutifully bandaging it. Blade even add bandages to the smaller cuts you would've left alone, meticulous in making sure all your wounds are taken care of. You know it is his way to apologize, as he is a silent man who prefers actions in lieu of words. That, and that he's always been awkward when it comes emotions like remorse.

"Get some rest," he says, returning the equipment to the first-aid kit. Blade looks at you, expectant, and it is only when you nod does he leave you alone.

He never calls you by name. It's something that bothered you when you were younger, but it's something you've grown to accept. You're not even certain Blade can recall your name if asked. You know it is his way to cope, to always be prepared for the day when you, too, will leave him. Remembering names are a burden on his soul, so the least you can do is spare him from remembering yours.

Your patience reached its limit. In the dead of night, you quietly packed your belongings and left a note behind. It was brief but carried the weight of your feelings: "I need to find my own path for a while. I hope you understand." You didn't sign it, hoping that the absence itself would convey the message more powerfully.

The moon hung high in the sky as you walked away from the place you called home, your steps determined despite the uncertainty that gnawed at you. You had no plan, no destination in mind. You just knew that you needed time away.

The next morning, Blade woke up to find the room unusually quiet. The absence of the usual sounds—your soft footsteps, the steaming sound of the kettle pot when you made his morning tea—was like a deafening silence. He pushed himself up, his senses alert even before his eyes fully opened. His gaze darted around the room, searching for any sign of your presence.

The sight of your neatly made bed and the note left on the table struck him like a blow. For a moment, he stood frozen, his heart heavy with a mixture of regret and realization. He had been so consumed by his own pursuits that he hadn't noticed the growing distance between you.

His eyes shifted to a corner of the room, where a familiar object caught his attention. There, placed with careful intention, was your lucky weapon. The fiery red blade of the sword gleamed in the soft morning light, its hilt wrapped in supple black leather. The pommel, resembling the closed bud of a red spider lily, held a sense of elegance and balance that echoed the bond between you and Blade.

A pang of guilt and longing gripped Blade's chest as he picked up the sword. The weight of it felt familiar in his hand, a stark reminder of the times he had shared with you. The sword seemed to dance in the air, reflecting both its deadly capabilities and the beauty of its craftsmanship—a reflection of the connection he had with you, one he had been neglecting.

Blade's footsteps were heavy as he left the room, carrying the sword with him. As he went to sit down and process your absence, he noticed a cup of tea placed neatly on the table. The tea, once steaming and fragrant, now languished in its cup, forgotten and neglected. It had been carefully prepared by you before you left, a gesture of concern and care. The faint aroma of the blend, a comforting blend of herbs and warmth, with a hint of honey, still clung to the air around it, a lingering reminder of their intention.

But time had been unkind to the tea, its temperature steadily dropping as it sat abandoned on the table. The steam that had once risen from its surface in delicate tendrils, carrying with it the promise of comfort, had now dissipated into the air. The liquid's once-rich hue had faded slightly, a sign that its vitality was waning, much like the embers of a dying fire.

Blade's eyes fell upon the cup, his gaze drawn to the cold tea that had been left for him. His fingers, calloused from years of wielding the blade, reached out to touch the cup, and he felt the chill radiating from its surface. It was a stark contrast to the warmth he had felt earlier, a reminder of how quickly time could transform something from inviting to forgotten.

As he wrapped his fingers around the cup, he couldn't help but recall the hoarse quality of his voice that had consumed him during their training session. You noticed, as you always did, attuned to the subtleties of his state. The touch of honey they had added was a balm for his throat, a gesture that had been both practical and considerate.

Blade's throat tightened with an emotion he couldn't quite name. The cold tea before him held within it layers of meaning—your concern, your attempt to provide comfort, and a reminder of his own shortcomings.

Regret gnawed at his insides, twisting and churning with every breath he took. Guilt clawed at his conscience, tearing through the facade of indifference he had so carefully crafted. Loneliness engulfed him like a suffocating cloak, reminding him of the void left in your absence. And yet, beneath it all, there flickered a tiny ember of hope—a glimmer of redemption, a chance to right the wrongs he had committed.

Blade couldn't shake the overwhelming sense of despair that threatened to consume him whole. For in that moment, he realized that the hardest battle he would ever face was not against his enemies, but against the demons of his own making—the ones that whispered of his failures and shortcomings, echoing relentlessly in the caverns of his heart.

#˗ˏˋ ꒰ ♡ ꒱ ˎˊ˗ mai writes #honkai star rail #hsr #hsr x reader #blade #hsr blade #honkai star rail x reader #honkai star rail blade #blade x reader #blade honkai #blade hsr #blade honkai star rail #honkai blade #hsr angst #honkai star rail angst

[writingquestionsanswered]

how should i go about writing if i keep deleting and restarting everything I have every few minutes ??

The first thing to do is figure out why you feel the need to delete. Here are some things to consider...

1 - Do you know what you're trying to write? It's easy to imagine a writer as sitting down at the keyboard with an empty mind, and then--like turning on a faucet--a story simply flows out of them. But that's not really how writing works. Even the most organic writer sits down with a premise in mind, not to mention a basic grasp of how stories work--or at least they type of story they want to tell. If you sit down without these things and try to write a story, you're pretty much just snatching random ideas out of the air and hoping they take root, and it can be really hard to write a story that way. The solution is to spend some time learning about how stories work, then spend some time thinking up a premise, characters, and a story goal.

2 - Do you need a more solid plan? Not all writers can sit down with only a premise, characters, and story goal and create a story from that. Some of us need to do more planning. Some of us need to do a lot more planning. If you're trying to write a novelette/novella/novel, you might take a look at some different story structure templates to get an idea of the kind of structure that would work well for the story you want to tell. Story structure templates can be a helpful guide in figuring out what beats you need to hit, and you can use elements from different ones. Whatever works for your story. You might also consider doing a plot summary, timeline, scene list, scene cards, or any number of other things to help plan and plot your story.

3 - Are you focusing too much on quality? To (badly) paraphrase Ira Glass, the thing that got you into writing in the first place is your taste... you have good taste in stories, and you know what makes a story good. But if you're just starting out, or if you don't have a large volume of work under your belt, what you're putting out is probably not as good as you want it to be. That can be really, really frustrating, because we know what kind of writing we want to put out there, but when we feel like it's not happening, we want to backspace over it all. The thing is, though, writing is a craft. Like any other craft, the only way to get better at it is to practice, and practice means cranking out the less good stuff and accepting that it's a necessary part of the journey. If dancers watched the choreography for a performance one time and instantly did it perfectly, there would be no such thing as dance practice. If people took one piano lesson and could play a perfect concerto, we wouldn't have piano lessons or practice. So, even when the writing doesn't feel as good as you want it to be--or maybe feels downright awful--you have to push past the urge to backspace over it and get caught up on quality. You have to keep writing forward. And hey... editing and revision exists because there's always room to take the "rough draft" and make it better.

4 - Are you letting yourself get distracted? Few things make writing more difficult than distractions. If you know how stories work, know your premise, have done the planning you need to do, and aren't stressing about quality, but you still find yourself backspacing and starting over every few minutes, it could be due to distractions. If your phone is buzzing every minute, your sister is playing loud music in her room across the hall, the neighbor's dog is barking up a storm, or you can't stop thinking about something that happened at work--those interruptions are going jam up your momentum, and when you're constantly jerking to a stop like that, frustration makes you cranky and you're liable to backspace over something even if it's not a problem. So, if you can, try to eliminate distractions as much as possible when you sit down to write.

5 - Other possibilities... Even if none of the above situations seem to fit, it's still worth taking some time to consider what else might be going on. Can you find a pattern in what you're deleting and why? If you dig deep, and you maybe figure out what the issue is? What are some potential solutions?

I hope something here will help you get to where you're moving forward with your writing again.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

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[lurinatftbn]

I’m curious about your process. How do you go about getting a chapter done every week? How many drafts do you write for each chapter, on average? Did you do all your research in advance or do you look some things up as you go along? Do you have an editor? Sorry if you’ve answered this all before, I’m relatively new to Flower.

There's no need to apologize!

Honestly, I find questions like this a little tricky to answer, since I feel like my process is more esoteric than a lot of people I've talked to... The simplified version is that I have a huge master document which I wrote out at the very start that lays out the facts and how the plot is supposed to go/how the mystery tricks are supposed to work in broad strokes, and use that to sketch out extremely rough chapter 'plans' about a month or two in advance that lay out the order I want things to happen and the beats that need to be hit. Then I use those in turn to write the proper drafts - adding flavor and more superficial character interactions in the process - in the week before they go up on the Patreon, then edit/correct typos according to reader feedback for the final version. I don't have enough money and am too much of a weird hermit to have a properly consistent editor, though there are some readers who do really consistent work in that area.

...but again, that's the simplified version. The reality is that webnovel writing is extremely messy, and I often end up tweaking and fussing over stuff at every stage of the process. Sometimes a final draft won't come out right and I'll have to throw entire sections out just so it's not miserable to read, and sometimes I'll push out stuff that feels unfinished just because it's been too long since an update and I'm nervous about losing momentum.

I'm on the extreme architect end of the gardener/architect writing spectrum, but often what makes sense for a story technically is not what's good for producing compelling content in the immediate term, and I often tie myself in knots or cause problems for the plotting when I realize my plans have led to a section that's boring or feels forced. In some regards it feels like writing a very complicated mystery in this format in the first place was probably a questionable idea, even if I do still have fun.

#asks

[99corentine]

How To Write Good by Corentine

THE DRAFTING PROCESS, PART 2/2

Writing guide continued! Here's PART ONE.

STEP THREE: THE START, THE END, THE BEATS

I’m of the opinion that every story should start with a bang. You could start mid-way through a notable event, as seen in GHD:

- O L H A - D - V - The words, incomprehensible, rattle around his head like the last rumbles of a great thunderstorm. Then, much like after a storm has passed, the air suddenly feels clearer, sharper. A sludgy fog he didn’t even realise he was in clears from his mind and he blinks, confused. The first thing he sees is his own hands.

If you want it to be especially punchy, you can start with a line of dialogue or a short sentence, like I did for T4T:

CHAPTER ONE: It is the end.

It’s reeeally easy to lose readers at the start, so you always want to write a strong opener. Something that grabs the reader by the collar and drags them in to read the rest of the chapter.

You don’t need to have all the details, but you should have at least a vague idea of how the story ends. If you’re writing fanfic that follows along the same plot as a game or existing story, most of the legwork is done for you – so writing GHD, I planned for it to end when Alduin was killed. As I got further into the story, I came up with a more narratively satisfying ending, because it’s okay if the ending changes. As long as you have an ending in mind, you have something to work towards.

So GHD’s original, very basic plot was:

START – the Last Dragonborn wakes up with total amnesia

???

He saves Miraak

???

They kill Alduin together – END 

Now you have to map out those ??? parts by deciding the major beats of the story, i.e. notable scenes. This gives you something to work towards other than the ending. I ended up with notes like these:

START – the Last Dragonborn wakes up with total amnesia

Who is he? Don’t spend too much time on this, not important, can be answered later

Goes to Solstheim, meets Miraak

Finds a way to communicate with Miraak – sneaks into Apocrypha? Shares dreams? College of Winterhold has psijiics, use telepathy?

Finds a way to save Miraak

Go to Apocrypha, confront Hermaeus Mora, save Miraak

They look for ways to kill Alduin together

Hermaeus Mora comes for them

Prolonged recovery, tells reader that even ‘redeemed’ Miraak is still scary

They kill Alduin together

What happens after Alduin?

(Redacted for spoiler purposes) – END 

The story beats should ebb and flow like the tide; high-octane scenes should be followed by periods of calm. You don’t want to do this too quickly or the story will feel like whiplash; rather this is a process that happens over many chapters. Let’s look at some examples in GHD:

⇈⇈ Miraak dominates telepathy and is really scary!! ⇊⇊ Chry wanders around Skyrim doing errands and Thinking About Life… ⇈⇈ Chry breaks Miraak out of Apocrypha!!  ⇊⇊ They recover from the ordeal and have a honeymoon period… ⇈⇈ They go to Blackreach and it’s visually awesome, and also Chry gets jealous!! ⇊⇊ They do misc stuff for a while… ⇈⇈ They talk to Septimus Signus, Mora shows up, nearly kills Chry!! ⇊⇊ Miraak whisks Chry away somewhere to recover in peace…

You see what I mean?

Right, you know roughly what’s going to happen. Time to turn that into words, baby!

STEP FOUR: GOTTA START WRITING

My actual writing style is its own separate topic so I’m not going to tell you how I structure a sentence or anything, just my literal writing process. 

In my chapter document, I start by making a bullet-point list of everything I want to happen in the chapter. What happens can, and probably will, change as you actually get the chapter down. That’s fine, you just need a starting point.

I very rarely write individual chapters in order, as in start to finish. Rather, I tend to write the scenes I can picture clearly in my head – then by the time I’ve written those I’m in a writing groove and the gaps in the rest of the chapter will come easier. When I’m done, I’ll stitch the individual scenes together, which sometimes requires altering the scene start or end to make the whole thing more cohesive.

There are times when the writer’s block takes me, and I have like two finished scenes and just cannot summon the words for the rest of the chapter. When this happens, to be honest, the only answer I’ve found is brute force: I sit myself in front of the computer, get rid of phone/alt tabs/other distractions, and force myself to type something. Or I hold myself hostage (i.e. ‘I am not allowed to play more Baldur’s Gate 3 until I have written GHD chapter 47’) that works too, for me anyway. 

Whatever it takes to get something on paper. What’s mostly important is to get something written, even if it’s not very good. You can always edit, rephrase or even rewrite sections later. Usually I’ve found once you start writing, you get into a groove and then it’s no longer a chore.

I also aim for a certain word count / chapter length while writing. I know a chapter is exactly as long as it needs to be and blah blah, but I set myself a minimum wordcount to reach. Or if I go way over the word count it’s probably because I’ve waffled too much, so I either aim to split the chapter into two, or to ruthlessly edit it back down again. 

For GHD I average 7,000 - 9,000 words, but I actually think that’s a bit too long and risks losing people’s attention span, so for T4T I aim lower, about 6,000-ish. Less is perfectly fine, but if I’m reading another fic I find a chapter length of 2,000 words or lower to be disappointingly short. That’s all personal preference of course, and certain fics will lend themselves better to shorter chapters.

Although I jump around scenes within each chapter, I make a point of writing my entire chapters in chronological order. If I’m on chapter 5, and I know something awesome happens in chapter 12, it’s imperative that I do not write chapter 12 ahead of time. If I do, I’ll reeeally struggle to write chapters 6-11, because I have already rewarded my brain by writing the cool thing. If I hold off, my enthusiasm to write chapter 12 may in fact motivate me to crank out chapters 6-11 in record time.

I do have one other thing – in my Scrivener projects I always have a document called ‘Unused’. Sometimes, usually at like 2AM when sleep has failed me, I’ll get a really good idea for some dialogue or description. I scribble it down somewhere (or it will be forgotten for sure) and later I type it into my Unused document, so it’s just filled with random bits of text like this (note, everything you see here is unused, so it's not going to feature in the last chapter of GHD):

At some point in time I’ll peruse it and think ‘yes, this line!!’ and drop it into a future chapter – again though I just write bits, not entire scenes or I’ll have written all the exciting parts already. Anything I edit out of a chapter (i.e. a paragraph I liked but didn’t quite fit) gets dropped here too, in case I can reuse it later.

STEP FIVE: FINAL EDITING

I will be honest, I’m pretty impatient. Once I’ve finished a chapter, especially if it’s one I’ve been struggling with for a long time, I want to publish it now. So I’m guilty of not editing as thoroughly as I should – but this is what I usually do and it catches at least most of my mistakes:

As a first step, I copy-paste the chapter from Scrivener into google docs. Remember I said Scriv’s word processor wasn’t the best? Yeah, it’s no good at picking up on dodgy grammar, but google docs is, so I run it through there and skim-check for wiggly blue lines, then make the changes in Scriv. You may not have this issue if you’re using Word or another more comprehensive software

Once I know the grammar is mostly fixed, I go back to Scriv and re-read the entire chapter start to finish – I’m looking for whatever google didn’t catch, wonky phrasing, repetition (i.e. I used the word ‘quickly’ twice in the space of two paragraphs, that sort of thing)

I go away for a bit (anywhere from a few hours to a few days) and do another careful re-read with a fresh set of eyes. Sometimes I use a text-to-speech software to read what I’d written back to me; you'd be surprised how much you pick up this way

In my great excitement, I publish the new chapter to AO3. As I re-read the chapter over there, I see a minimum of 5 glaring errors I somehow didn’t spot in the previous steps, and hastily correct them before anyone notices.

I like to get at least the first 2-3 chapters of a brand new story written before I post anything to AO3. This is to make sure my enthusiasm doesn’t immediately wane and I actually stand a chance of finishing it. After that I’m rarely more than a chapter ahead of what’s been posted, because go figure I’ll post the newly-written chapter once the editing is done, then start on the next one.

Some people won’t even post a story at all until they have the first draft fully written. This is admirable, but not always realistic – GHD is like 375,000 words, you think I would’ve sat down and written all that before posting chapter one and even knowing if anyone would read it? Hell no. 

But while you don’t need a story to be fully written, you do need it to be decently mapped-out. I used to start fics with absolutely no idea where they were going to go; I’d finish 1 or 2 chapters, get really excited at writing that much and hungry for feedback, then post something that I would inevitably lose all enthusiasm for and leave unfinished.

So, know how it starts, know how it ends, and know the story beats in between so you always have a goal to write towards. There will inevitably be fics that you never finish and that’s fine – it’s all writing practice – but readers don’t like to be left hanging, so try your best to finish! Even if it takes ahem four years or so.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐

And there you go, that’s my writing process! I’m not sure how useful that really is, but if it was I could write more guides in future? I have…

A guide to my writing style (this one might be hard to put into a guide but people like my turn of phrase so, maybe useful?)

How I write a sex scene

How I write a fight scene.

[mostlymaudlin]

Advice for slicing down word count

While I'm a big believer that a story should be as long as a story needs to be, sometimes there's external reasons that you have to cut something down, and sometimes it's just a fun challenge to hold yourself to a word count. I write a lot of flash fiction, and I am here to tell you that unless you're some kind of natural writing genius, writing with brevity is an editing skill that you have to learn & practice. I learned to write via newspapers, so this is a skill that was beat into me -- here's how I translate it to fiction writing! (Specifically fanfiction/character-driven stories, because that's what I mostly write.)

Just write the thing. You can try to go for brevity on the first draft, but if this is not something you're used to, then you're only going to give yourself a headache trying to pay attention to word count from the jump. The one thing you'll want to keep in mind is scope -- it is very hard to fit multiple scenes into, say, <500 words. The more scenes/transitions you include, the briefer they will need to be. (Which, like, very short scenes are also cool. But you're just upping your challenge.)

Find your purpose. Look over what you've written. What is your story about? I find it helpful to distill this down to one sentence. For example: It's a study that shows how Character A reacts to fear. Or, it shows how Character A and Character B resolve conflict. Or, even as broad as, It shows the consequences of miscommunication. If you can't do that, the rest of this process is going to be frustrating. Also, even if you decided on your purpose before you started writing, it's helpful to really take a look at this now because sometimes things shape out different in practice.

Carve out the distractions. Listen, you came here to write short. You knew what you were getting into. It's time to kill your darlings. Copy and paste your draft to the top of the document so you can go back for things if you change your mind, and get to cutting anything that meanders away from your purpose. I'm talking full paragraphs. Big chunks. Don't cut anything smaller than a sentence quite yet.

Tweak narrative elements. There can be whole structural elements you can change that'll simplify your narrative and cut word count. The things I mainly look at are characters (who is there vs who NEEDS to be there?), setting (characters that are walking down a busy street encounter a lot more obstacles than characters sitting in a parked car), and point of view (would this be simpler if you were looking at this story from a different perspective?). I recommend you repeat step #3 when you're done, but I don't recommend switching the order of these steps, because this is about training your brain to cut things when you don't want to, not speed/efficiency.

Reduce redundancies. Repetition is fun and clever and good for establishing tone, but it does not help your word count. Look for things that are being shown twice. If your character nods, then says, "Okay, I get it," then you can probably cut the dialogue. If the weather is described as raining, and then your character pulls their hood up to protect their hair, then maybe you can merge those sentences. I find that a lot of the body language I include in a rough draft is not really necessary -- I'm usually writing it to give the illusion of pauses or time passing, because I'm imagining the scene in a really specific way, but perhaps it doesn't really matter that the character stuck their hands in their pockets and shifted their weight from one foot to the other, especially if there's other cues in the story that would let your readers infer that the character is nervous.

The classic line edit. This is what you wanted to do from the start. If you are getting close to your desired word count, then you can do this now. Goodbye adverbs, filler words, unnecessary dialogue tags. Goodbye passive voice (unless it the passive voice is actually doing something important). Some of the most impactful line edits usually restructure a sentence. (ie: Restructuring sentences is most impactful.) But know that this alone will not save you. I doubt I've ever cut more than 50-100 words from a <1k piece with line edits alone.

If you line edit to hell and back and still can't get to your goal, it's time to return to some of your previous steps. Sometimes, it even means that your original scope was too broad, and you need to start from the top. Be brave. Cut things out. Save your severed darlings in a different document for later. Don't be afraid of stark, blunt sentences -- they don't read as cold as you think they do. And good luck!

#fic school with rory #lol #writing #writing advice

[anemoflower]

Meet me in the comic store

Ship: Sophie x Elias Word Count: ~ 1.5k Warnings: lots of nerdy references. Description of social anxiety (is that a warning? idk) Not fully proofread bc this has been in my drafts for days and I want it done ;w; A/N: Okay so, I was thinking about their first meeting (I like to write these kind of stuff) and I think it turned quite cute? Anyways, here we goo... Divider by @/cafekitsune

A sudden wave of shivers went through her body, although she wasn’t sure if it was because of the chilly autumn breeze or because of her anxiety to go into a shop all on her own.

Normally she would have visited the comic book store with her best friends but due to they were busy today, Sophie had decided to be brave and go alone. Now she looked up to the sign over the entrance door, doubts climbing up her spine. On her own.

Her heart was beating fast. It shouldn't be a big deal. Just go inside, buy that one new comic and leave again. No one will look at you, no one will judge you.

Before she could proceed thinking about it, the door to the store opened and two boys ran outside. One of them was holding the newest Spider-Man issue and excitedly told his friend how he looked forward to reading it.

Sophie squeezed past them and into the realm of nerd merchandise, Mangas and Comics. Hundreds of books in the shelves, buttons and pins presented next to the checkout, Statues of popular anime characters were secured behind glass in a cabinet. Figures of characters from One Piece, Jujutsu Kaisen and Spy x Family looked down on her, trying to charm her into buying them. But Sophie went straight up the stairs to the comic and graphic novel section.

She liked this way more, it wasn't so loud and crowded like the main floor and she found more joy in superhero comics than manga recently anyways.

Slowly she strolled past the shelves with the letter “E”, looking for the new published comic book she was looking for. It was the first issue of a new series from an author she admired. One of her books impressed her so much she eagerly waited for the release of this graphic novel, as soon as she heard of it. But it wasn't here. Did she miss the release date?

“Do you need any help?” a tall young man asked her and Sophie froze in her movement because she didn’t notice him before. He smiled at her and tilted his head. Dark brown hair, blue eyes like the sky, a few freckles on his cheeks, which reminded her of star constellations. Silver piercings beneath his bottom lip flared up in the light - Sophie remembered them as snake bites?

On the badge clipped to his gray shirt was his name written “E. Lindner / salesman”

She almost wanted to use the phrase she knew by heart: “No thanks. I'm just looking around.” but something stopped her. His presence calmed her fast beating heart.

“I uhm- I was looking for-” she nervously stepped to the side as soon as she noticed the shrink foiled adult comic books in front of her. “N-not for that! The- the comic book ‘Extraordinary’ by V. E. Schwab?”

“Ah, that's quite new, we didn't get to fill them in the shelves yet. Wait a sec.” As he turned around she got a glance at the tattoo on his left arm. A dragon made of black ink coiled around it.

He disappeared behind a brown door with a “staff only” sign. Sophie meanwhile peeked around the corner of Marvel comics until he came back.

“You're lucky, I saved that one from getting buried beneath tons of newly arrived One Piece Mangas.”

Sophie let out a polite quiet chuckle and thanked him for the book.

“Oh and if you're into that kind of superpower stories, I have plenty to recommend to you.” 

He pulled some books out of the Marvel shelves and showed her each cover - Moon Knight, Silk, Fantastic Four.

“Do you have other favorites?” He asked. Suddenly Sophie forgot about every comic book she had read before. She frantically walked past the bookshelf in her mind until she found the right series.

“I- I love the Ms. Marvel comics” Sophie tipped on the colorful cover of Ms. Marvel Volume 1 - No Normal in the shelf next to her. “I have almost all of the stories at home!”

“Cool, I think I know her-” he tipped on the comic next to that. He was suddenly so close to her, Sophie held her breath, “I read that one. It's a team-up between her and Spider-Man.”

They kept talking about various comics and stories and Sophie felt much calmer every second she shared an interest with him. That tingling spark of excitement grew bigger and bigger in her chest.

And as soon as he smiled, she felt as if her feet wouldn't touch the floor anymore. He was so friendly. Of course he's friendly to her. It's his job to be friendly.

Then it dawned on her and she fell hard to the ground. It's his job. He just talked to her so she would buy more from him. A strategy to gain a customer's trust.

Sophie raised the “Extraordinary” book he had just given to her. “Uhm- thanks for your recommendations but I think I only want to buy this one.”

He seemed to be surprised about her sudden change of mood, but nodded in an understanding way. “Alright, then let's head over to checkout? Or do you still want to look around?”

“I... still want to look around some more”, she lied. Then walked down the aisle, further away from him and almost tripped over a box with very old DC comics. A few more minutes she acted like she would be interested in the Batman & Robin collection, embarrassed by the thought he might be interested in her as a person. Idiot. Why should someone like him ever be interested in you?

Then she went to the checkout, where he was already waiting for her with his usual smile. There were those shivers in her bones again.

She paid for the comic and put it into her backpack, the receipt disappeared into the pocket of her jacket.

“Oh and don't forget to keep a close eye on the receipt?” He said. “Sometimes the computer writes down strange stuff on it. Really weird.”

She haven't really listened to him, only nodded, wished him a nice day and walked down the stairs to the main floor. Out of here. Just out of here. As soon as she left the store, she could get some air in her lungs again and shook off the anxiety which crawled over her shoulders.

She only remembered his last sentence he told her after she arrived at home.

On the receipt which she took out the pocket of her jacket was a small handwritten message on it. “Keep that glow in your eyes, it suits you :)”

That note warmed her heart everytime it crossed her mind. Sophie wanted to wait a few days before she went back to the store. On a friday afternoon - after she left her workplace - she gathered enough courage to visit the comic book store again. But when she waited at the checkout with a new Manga and some Pokémon merchandise she lost heart again.

The young woman before her bought a sci fi comic, which Sophie didn't know. She had raven black hair, a septum piercing and a crow tattoo on her wrist. She's much more his type, she definitely will get a note on her receipt from him, Sophie thought. But when the woman left and took the receipt with her, there was nothing. No handwritten message on it.

“Hi, found something new?” The young man with stars beneath his eyes asked. Dimples formed on his face when he smiled.

Sophie squeaked out a husky “yes” and gave him the Manga and a small box with “mysterious Pokémon figure” inside.

“Oh these are nice,” he said, tapping on the illustrations on the small box. “The Flygon and Charizard ones are really cool.”

“I- I would love to get the Jirachi figure. It's pretty.” There it was again. This feeling that she could tell him everything and he wouldn’t judge her for it. No doubts. No embarrassment.

Sophie gave him the money and as their fingers touched lightly, a small spark flew over her skin.

“Then good luck.” He handed her the receipt and she already noticed the fine black pen lines on it. A scribbled phone number, again with a message: “Text me if you want. I'd love to know which Pokémon you ‘chose’ - Elias”

She looked up at him again and he grinned.

“What's your name? Now that you know mine?” Elias rubbed his neck.

“Sophie.”

“I hope to see you again, Sophie.” It sounded sincere, like he would really look forward to seeing her again. “And I mean this in a not just-as-a-customer-way, you can always come to the store of course, it's more like…” he scratched the back of his head, thinking about the right words  “as a person? Like someone, I'd like to get to know better. I uh- I have noticed you here a few times already- god that sounds weird. I swear I don't mean it in a creepy way-”

Sophie slowly blinked at him in surprise. He wants to get to know me? Like a friend? She couldn't help but smile brightly at him.

“Me too," she interuppted his nervous stuttering, but tried to contain her excitement again. She coughed slightly and said with a shy smile: "I would also like to get to know you."

- -

Taglist:

@jils-things @soveriegns @huggsbury @satosara @lovinglin

#oc f/o #selfship community #selfship #oc x self insert #;my writing #;oc: elias #;s/i: sophie #;sophelias #fun fact: I struggled most to decide for a surname for him on the badge #So I chose the first that I liked #I'm bad at this xD

[msmargaretmurry]

friend, what do you do when you haven't written (fan)fiction in more years than you can say for sure, and you're bitten by a character arc for a story that keeps spiraling into more and more as you think about it? i am feeling VERY overwhelmed especially as it becomes more about that character arc than the original plot idea. i remember you saying that you thought HAW was going to be like 40k and obviously it ended up much longer - having gone through that process, what did you learn? is there any advice you'd give, especially to someone already nervous to start doing something for the first time?

hello pal! i'm sorry you're having an anxious time of it but i'm excited to hear that you're flexing your writing muscles, and i hope that i can offer some helpful reassurances here!

the short answer is: you just write it. you just do it!!! ultimately the two choices here are write it or don't write it, and not writing it is way less satifying. yes yes WAY easier said than done though, so onto the long answer. 💞

trying to write again when you haven't written in a while can definitely be nerve-wracking, so first of all, i want to say that it's totally fine to be nervous. very normal of you! obviously you want your story to live up to the idea in your head, so it can be really hard to shake the whole feeling of, oh no what if it doesn't? what if my grand foray back into writing is an EMBARRASSING FAILURE?? so i also want to say that it will not be, because there is no such thing as failing at creativity, and i forbid you from being embarassed of anything you create while learning. writing is a never-ending learning process. the best writers you have ever read are the ones who embrace learning something new every time they write. i would say this even if it hadn't been years since you last wrote, but especially since it's been years since you last wrote, but it is imperative to remember that you have to start somewhere. to quote the great sam reich, the only way to begin is by beginning.

my #1 tip for if you're working on a story and it feels like it wants to be long and you have a lot of thoughts and ideas and feelings about it is to WRITE EVERYTHING DOWN. don't make yourself try to remember it all. i use a note in my notes app for this, but you can use a physical notebook or a google doc or whatever works for you.

this isn't for writing the actual fic — you might end up with snippets of scenes in here but nothing more than a few lines. this is for literally anytime you think of something for your story, into the note it goes, as soon as possible, so you don't have to worry about remembering it. a fact you learn, a future story beat you want to hit, a line of dialogue you want to include in a future scene, a lyric that inspires you, a reminder to include a detail or reference. i also use mine to keep a list of subplots/running themes — things you don't want to fall off your own radar and wind up forgotten halfway through.

you don't need to check your note/document/whatever every time you write, but if you're an outliner you can use it to periodically update your outline, and besides that, occasionally referring back to it is great for a) sparking inspiration for where the story goes next, and b) reminding you to go back and be like, hm, how long has it been since i referenced [subplot]? maybe it's time for that to make another appearance!

i also ALSO use mine to keep a list of things i know i'm going to want to go back and edit for once i have a full draft. i don't know about you, but i am a CHRONIC edit-as-i-go-er and doing this has helped me so much with being able to take a deep breath, accept that something in the draft probably needs fixing, and know that i won't forget about it. i no longer have the HAW version of this note (because i delete things out of mine as i address them, so by the end of writing the story the note is empty 😂) but iirc it had things like — make sure it's clear that matthew is kind of a mama's boy, double-check the pacing/frequency of matthew's big intrusive thoughts, make sure we know where bowie is for scenes in leon's house.

regarding the story becoming more about the character arc than the original plot idea, try to let go of your expectations of what the story was supposed to be and instead try to approach it with a mindset of discovering what the story is going to be. this will give you a lot more freedom to let it grow and change without feeling like you're abandoning something. the reason HAW got so long is because, when i started, i had two big plot beats that i knew i wanted to get to (the first breathplay scene and the first kiss scene) and as i was writing, i kept thinking to myself, okay i need x y z and then i get to tackle that big plot beat. so i would write x y z only to discover that i still needed more development to make it feel earned. so i just wrote more development! this did mean letting go of the conception of the story's structure i had going in, when i thought it would be shorter, but it ultimately let the beats fall in the right places.

(obviously letting your story sprawl however it wants to isn't always the the best thing you can do for a piece of fiction. but in character-driven stories, in my opinion, it's vital to give the character the space they need. and if it sprawls too much, you can always edit it down later. you can learn stuff about your characters from scenes you wind up cutting or from versions of scenes that don't end up working just as much as from the scenes you nail.)

if you think it'll help with motivation, get yourself an alpha reader. enlist a friend that you trust to be what you need them to be in this role. for me, it's that i can trust when i send them the next 5–10k chunk of first draft that they will read it at their earliest convenience (not letting it sit for days), that they will be invested in following the story (i once had an alpha reader tell me that they had totally forgotten about a major story development in the week or so between one chunk and then next chunk, and it devastated me), and that they will understand that as i'm grinding out the first draft, i need enthusiasm and encouragement, and concrit ONLY if there's a major issue. concrit is the realm of my beta readers.

everyone's writing process is different, so if there's stuff here where you're like, ugh i hate that idea, feel free to ignore it! or modify it! just don't spend so much time tinkering with planning and research and playlists and outlines etc that you don't actually write. occasionally a good writing sesh CAN be 98% tinkering, but most of them should not be.

finally, let yourself enjoy the process. don't put pressure on yourself to finish it quickly so you can feed it to the internet for comments and kudos. comments and kudos are, of course, fantastic, and also it's fine to set yourself arbitrary goals/deadlines if that helps you (e.g. "writing"i'm going to write 3,000 words a week" or "i'm going to finish this section of story by the end of the month") but try not to get stressed if it's taking longer than expected to write, or it turns out you want to add more than expected to the story. it's worth it to have a story you're happy with.

sometimes writing can be really hard and frustrating, but that doesn't mean you're doing it badly. sometimes you need to talk an issue through with a friend. sometimes it takes a few tries to figure out how a scene should go. sometimes you need to let a plot problem rotate like a $2 hotdog on the gas station hotdog roller of your brain for a couple of days before the solution comes to you in a vision at the most inconvenient time possible. (jot it down in your notes app before you forget it.)

anyway. good luck and i believe in you ❤ you know where to find me if you need to complain about writing/talk through something/get a pep talk!

#ask #writing #sorry this is so earnest. i am unfortunately a deeply earnest person

[l-e-morgan-author]

Draft cover for the on-newsletter-signup free stories which I haven't finished editing yet. (So you can't have them yet; I'll finish editing them to my satisfaction before I open up my email newsletter.)

Further ramble below; it got kind of long. First about what these stories are about, then more rambling about my current works-in-progress and specifically aspects of Patience, Changing that I'm enjoying. Might recycle some of this for the next newsletter tbh.

A quick and not-edited summary of each story:

Ever Changing, Ever Near - Hadassah is different to everyone else, but despite that finds great joy in the changing seasons.

A Fragile Solace - Hadassah and Nem are friends. Despite what happens after, she treasures the friendship that they have.

Both stories were entered to (different) local competitions and were highly commended. I can't give an estimated story length because at least A Fragile Solace requires a bunch of editing that may lengthen it. Since I no longer have a word count requirement because I'm not planning on submitting them to any other competitions, I can go ham on them.

In case you don't know who Hadassah is, Hadassah is from the 2022(? maybe '23) Inklings challenge, which I wrote about 8k of. I was Team Lewis, portal fantasy. A very rough summary is that Hadassah is an autistic girl in a neurotypical world, one of the peasants of that world and chosen to be sent through a portal. Nobody knows what lies beyond. For Hadassah, what lies beyond is found family such as she hasn't experienced her entire life.

I found getting into her head unreasonably hard at the time, which is why I wanted to write stories about her, and why I haven't finished drafting her story. With more understanding of autistic people and also myself than I had then, I expect that when I get back to that properly I'll find it a lot easier to write.

I also intend to edit The Patience of Hope to be another newsletter freebie - the edited version, I mean. I intend to leave the first draft up on my website indefinitely, even if an edited version is published as part of something else (such as A Quiet Patience, though with the number of novellas I've got planned, that might be quite long...). But that's for a little way down the road, not yet.

As for a general update on writing generally, I've written a little bit more of Hands Made for Gentleness, but not much. That will require a lot of working with it once the first draft is done, but I've written up a rough outline of the rest of the main story beats, and I have a clearer idea where I'm going. I'm ideally going to finish drafting Patience, Changing before I really get back to that, which is about 20k away (yay!). I'm thoroughly into the third act, figuring out I need to know my characters better so the third act will require a good deal of rewriting, even though the bones are good. I'm pleased with the balance of characters, and at times even though I'm going "Hmm this needs work", I can switch that off and just work on it. I've been writing drabbles every day for this month, and currently I'm one (1) day behind. The drabbles have been helpful, providing scene ideas I can flesh out into full scenes, so they might be a bit janky in context, but I can edit that later.

I've really enjoyed two characters I didn't intend to include in this manuscript: Hannah (Patience's aunt) and Connie (who Patience meets in hospital). Hannah is a symbol of the seriousness of anorexia, and I am not looking forward to writing her death. At present the scene I'm writing is set on the 19th of November, 2018, and Hannah dies on the 16th of December, 2018. She's already written the letter to Patience, as well as the anonymous letter Patience doesn't realise is from her and which needs rewriting. But she has to die and it will tear my heart out to write her, though I've got to read at least a good chunk of A Grief Observed (C. S. Lewis) before I write about that. At present her death is set for the third last chapter, but I expect to rearrange things - events that I thought would work for two chapters turned out I'll need to significantly rewrite to get to even one chapter, so I'll probably use those events to close the second act rather than close the second act and open the third act as well, and therefore rearrange things to give enough space for Hannah's death. If I go over my planned word count in these chapters that's fine; whatever works. I just don't want to go under.

Having the 3k aim has been really good, because some of the time it's forced me to write 'filler' that I reread and am convinced I'll keep in, and sometimes it's kept me to only that long which is good practise too.

Oh, and also! The other character I've enjoyed. Connie. Connie's in hospital following a suicide attempt, but the psych ward's full up and she's not considered at high risk so she's in a general paeds ward, which is where she meets Patience. She isn't particularly forthcoming about why she's in, and Patience respects that. She suspects but is only told right at the end:

“You make me brave,” she said to Patience, just before she was transferred. “I came in here with a suicide attempt and you have made me discover I want to live. Live! When living has been a slow death all this time. You make me want to live. I wasn’t going to make it and I was okay with that. Now I’m going to fight, because of you.”

They keep in touch afterwards, and probably when I edit The Patience of Hope I'll include a scene with Connie in it. Because just as Hannah has to die, Connie has to live. I love the way both of these characters add to Patience's journey, but without trivialising her own very real issues. That's definitely something I'll have to do an edit pass to make sure I'm not doing, because yes, in the grand scheme of things Patience's hangups are very small but to her they're huge. Which is why I held off on writing this story for a good five years, and I'm terribly glad I did, because this story is far better than it would have been years ago.

Anyway. I'm rambling. All this to say that while I'm struggling a bit with writing it, Patience is still going swimmingly. I anticipate finishing the draft either by end of this month (stretch goal) or next month (realistic goal). Then I can dive back into Hands Made for Gentleness and maybe plotting The Time Travelling Midwife and/or Hadassah's story on the side.

I'm also having a fantastic time with Patience and Nathan's interactions at thirteen/fourteen:

“You’ll get through it,” he said. “In Christ, Patience. In Christ.” She smiled at him. He was very dear to her, standing there awkwardly and smiling his dear awkward smile back.

#tw suicide #hadassah winter #patience changing #patience shepherd #hands made for gentleness #I forget any other tags I want for this xD taglist coming in reblog

[genericpuff]

How long do you usually take to plan for a really long story/comic? Do you do a rough plan or a fully detailed one? Any apps you use for planning?

Thank you in advance!

It depends on the project. For my long-term series, it definitely takes me a good while to finalize everything from start to finish, but as a general rule, I try to keep my writing one step ahead of where I'm drawing, for two purposes: so I can have a goal in mind to propel the comic forward (I don't want to be writing or drawing on the fly more than I have to), and so I can have enough planned ahead for editing, because by the time I get to the thing I've planned, my writing has likely grown more and my perspective on it has shifted, so I'm not releasing "first takes", so to speak.

Usually I use LibreOffice and just sort of keep a few separate files for different purposes. I always have a "[story] shit" file of some kind where I just dump thoughts and notes that I don't wanna lose lmao but then I usually also have a file that's meant for outlining. I think Rekindled is the first comic where I haven't employed my spreadsheet method, which is when I'd use Excel/Spreadsheets to lay out panel descriptions and dialogue. So like this:

(Episode 14 of Time Gate: [AFTERBIRTH])

Rekindled is more just note-taking, what I want to happen in each episode, and if there's any dialogue I come up with that I definitely want to include, I write it down in there. I've done all of Rekindled's process through Scrivener, which I learned how to use shortly before starting it. IDK yet if I like Scrivener enough to use it for my bigger projects, but it's been helpful for organization and keeping my files all in one central "hub" area.

So right now I have up to about Episode 70 drafted out like that ^^^ but things do change during the actual production of the episodes. Sometimes I'll write something in my notes that doesn't flow well in actual comic form. Sometimes I'll write dialogue during the sketching stage that I don't like anymore by the time I get to the final rendering. It's all a stage-by-stage process from drafting to final release.

The question of "how long" really just comes down to the note-taking process. I tend to work in bursts, the last time I did any written episode layouts was a few weeks ago and that was because I got like, 40+ episodes done in a day LOL So I'm all set for the next little bit, but I'll have to get back to planning by Episode 50 if I haven't done any before then. I'd like to have the entirety of Rekindled plotted out by the end of the year so I can get a more exact answer of how long Rekindled will be :' )

When it comes to software/apps, keep it simple, use what you know. I've been using standard word editors and spreadsheets for years now because it works for me. Scrivener's been fun to learn but as I mentioned, IDK if I'm gonna be able to stick with it for bigger projects like Time Gate because it feels like I'm wearing different shoes that I'm not used to lol But that's just me, feeling "at home" with my software is just an important thing to me, for others it might not matter so much. Scrivener definitely has the most features for drafting/writing/editing, but it's also not very beginner-friendly and there's a huge learning curve to really understanding how the software is designed and what it fully offers.

There's also Plottr which I've been using for [AFTERBIRTH], it's really helpful for people who need visual aids because it allows you to lay out story timelines through imagery. But I really only use it for laying out story beats from end to end, I don't use it much beyond that, any extensive note taking or scripting happens in actual word documents.

(idk if this is how you're actually supposed to use Plottr but it's how I use it so w/e lolol)

Ultimately it's all up to you, what works for me might not work for others so don't be afraid to try things even if it ends up not working out for you. Obv that might be a bit more of a "nah" when it comes to paid software like Scrivener and Plottr, but there are loads of tutorials on Youtube that teach you how to use the software that you can hopefully use as a glimpse into how they work to see if they'd be up your alley before paying money for 'em.

Hope that helps! ˋ( ° ▽、° )

#lore rekindled #lore rekindled comic #projectreaper #projectreapercomics #writing process #writing tips #ama #ask me anything #anon ask me anything #anon ama

[kamenriderliveblog]

Guess what's ready for digital order! It's @ultra-zine!!!

Okay look I know that my very first post said that I wasn't a figure person. That has obviously changed and I have officially fallen into the SH Figuarts rabbit hole. I preordered Blazar plus I want to get Zero and all of Z's forms. Send help, lmao

Full disclosure: I did contribute something to this zine, which is one reason why I haven't done many liveblogs lately. (I'm still a little emotional about seeing something I've written in print.) I wrote Chill Out, It's Snow Problem, though that was before I saw the dub for Z. Watching that notably changed how I write Z's verbal tics.

I had a hard time with this story because my first draft was like 4500 words. I had to cut out a lot and that was a painful experience! Granted, for me editing is always a painful process, but I'm of the opinion that if it doesn't hurt in one way or another, I'm not editing enough. I'll probably toss up the longer version on AO3 eventually though. It actually really, really hurt to cut as much as I did and I want those parts to see the light of day in one way or another.

There were some scenes that I wanted to write but didn't even make it into the first draft. There was originally going to be a scene with Z taking control of Haruki's body with his permission and skating at an ice rink because my headcanon is that Z would be really good at it. Yes, that scene from episode 7 has been living rent-free in my head for way too long. I also thought Z skating in Haruki's body would be a fun scene for the artist (in this case the amazing @chacerider, though I didn't know that at the time) to use for the illustration if they wanted. Beliarok was going to appear too, but I couldn't think of a way to get him in there in a way that I was happy with.

Originally the story started in Haruki's apartment before going to STORAGE, which actually did make it into the first draft. I had to choose between scrapping that whole intro or paring down the emotional beats that came later. The choice was obvious. Oh yeah and I had Haruki nearly get hit by a truck in the first draft. Fun! Still had to cut it, though.

Haruki and Z being able to tell how the other is feeling or emotions bleeding from one to the other isn't exactly something that happens in canon, I know. It's pretty much me taking the idea of Haruki's emotional state having a big effect on Z in episode 12 and then dialing it up to 11. I like the idea of there being side effects (for lack of a better word) to merging, and I wanted to explore how the friendship between Z and Haruki might develop if there was a lot more unintentional emotional openness. I'll also fully admit that I stole some things from Geed. Leito and Zero's conversations when they're out and around regular people was the big one, and while Z does take control of Haruki's body in episode 7 for a second, I was really more thinking of Geed's early episodes and how Zero would take control of Leito's body basically whenever he felt he needed to.

If you made it to the end, thanks! The link to read my story on AO3 is below. If you didn't manage to grab a physical edition of the zine, you can get a digital version of it and the previous volumes here!

#not a liveblog #ultraman z #ultra zine

[kawowoa]

housewardens helping you take your braids out pt.2

synopsis : it’s been 3 months since you’ve gotten your braids done. it’s finally the day you’ve been dreading; the day you have to take them out. luckily, your dear boyfriend is (hopefully) there to help! hopefully he’ll make the process more quick and fun!

info : black reader, gn. reader, maybe ooc for vil

characters : vil , idia , malleus , azul

a/n : okay finally here’s part 2!! (read part 1 here if you haven’t yet) sorry this took so long, i accidentally deleted the draft n had to rewrite everything zzzz

> vil schoenheit

vil had everything you needed to take them out, stuff you hadn’t thought about using too! oil? he got it, different types of combs and brushes? check, even a damn spray bottle mixed with leave in conditioner and water

before y’all even start taking the braids out, he drags you to the pomefiore bathrooms to wash your scalp and roots. he’ll go on and on about how you need to wash your braids at least once a month to prevent the gel buildup and how it soothes an itchy scalp!

he’d be the type to section off your braids, maybe four parts. he’ll tell you it’s to make sure you don’t miss a single braid

don’t even think about unraveling a single braid without some oil on your fingers, at least not around vil. he’ll smack your hand away and dump the oil bottle in your hands

never again will you take your braids out alone. god, vil makes everything more enjoyable. he’ll massage your back and hands whenever they start to hurt, if you get hungry he has snacks (never the good kinds but it’ll do)

when it comes to knots, vil would be so gentle. he’ll spray the hair before using a detangling brush. if he tugs too hard by accident, he’ll mutter an apology before continuing

just like leona, when they’re a few braids left, he’ll start to braid down your natural hair. but my god his braids hurts, he might as well braid your thoughts while he’s at it. if you complain their food tight, he’ll just say beauty is pain

> idia shroud

when you asked for his help, he was unsure if he wanted too. a new event boss was coming out that night! he needed to prepare but boyfriend duties come first

being a total shut in, he was very uneducated on taking out braids. occasionally he’d seen the videos you posted on your magicam story involving this stuff, but 9 times out of 10 he didn’t pay that much attention to it

nonetheless, you still explained the process to him without him needed to ask. how hard could this be anyway, to him, it was like beating a level 1 boss at player level 80. or so he thought

he was so scared to touch your hair. you could tell him a million times it’s okay and he’ll still hesitate, so much for that confidence he had

eventually he was comfortable enough to help you, not without something to calm his nerves though. playing his favorite movie helped a lot!

idia’s hands are fast. once he gets into a rhythm, the normal time it takes you to finish gets cut town by an hour or three. maybe it’s from all that typing and gaming he does, who knows

being such a considerate boyfriend, he brushes your hair for you. he’ll put your hair in a low ponytail (a style he sees a lot on your magicam story too) with his blue ponytail holder. he’ll even put his in a low ponytail too so y’all can match

> malleus draconia

anything you need help with, malleus is there so of course he’ll help you take your braids out

although, he did suggest using magic to have the braids gone in an instant but you shut that idea down. no magic is ever getting near your hair

he may never did this before, but he’s old and smart so he understands what to do without you explaining anything. the one thing he didn’t understand what cutting the braid, isn’t that worst than magic? he was still a teeny bit confused when you told him it’s not real hair but whatever, he just doesn’t use the scissors

he’ll tell you he read about some of the cultural background of braids (hours after you asked him, the two of you set up a time for him to come and help) , telling you about the new information he learned. he’ll ask you if the information is correct, if it is, he’ll memorize it, if not, he’ll ask you to correct him

honestly, expect him to take longer to undo one braid. he’s being slow on purpose, the longer he takes; the longer he gets to spend time with you

if it takes up the whole night because of him, oh well, he doesn’t care and neither do you

when you eventually finish, he’ll massage your scalp, brush your hair, even play in it. maybe he laced the brush or his hands with a sleeping spell (if that’s even possible) cause goddamn you were one second away from falling asleep

> azul ashengrotto

did you really expect him to agree without him getting anything in return? just ‘cause your his lover doesn’t mean your exempt from his shady business dealer things

the two of you had to start once the lounge closed, which wasn’t too late but knowing how much hair you have plus the amount of braids (depending on what size you prefer) you knew it was going to take a while

knowing azul, he’d take this opportunity to propose a business deal; a new salon within nrc, with you as a co-founder. you thought it was a strange idea but you still agreed, just to humor him

the two of you would converse a lot, talking about anything and everything. hours would go by and you wouldn’t even realize you’re half way finished

any knots he comes across, he’ll have you tend to it. he doesn’t want to mess up or cause you any pain

azul would also be fast at unbraiding. if you’re talking too long on one braid, he’ll take over and ask you to just start on another one

he’ll definitely complain about the mess when the two of you are finished. he’ll be super dramatic about how there’s hair everywhere when there really isn’t, just a pile of hair sitting on the desk

once you both finish cleaning, he’ll remind you of payment. what is it? oh, you have to stay over for the night

#★ ! fics #twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland x reader #twst hcs #twst x reader #twst malleus #twst vil #twst idia #twst azul #malleus x reader #vil x reader #azul x reader #idia x reader #x black reader

[mysticstarlightduck]

41.  Any advice for new/beginning/young writers?

42.  How do you feel about love triangles?

43.  What do you do if/when characters don’t follow the outline?

Thank you so much for the tag, @clairelsonao3!

41.  Any advice for new/beginning/young writers?

Hmmm. I think my advice, if any, would be this:

Don't get too caught up on what others tell you to write, or what you "should be writing because its popular". Write what you want to write, write the story that ultimately makes you so excited about writing it that you can't imagine getting bored, writing something you love. Because, even if it doesn't seem mindboggling original at first, or if it feels just too weird, or if you feel like no one will read it, loving what you write is the first step to writing any good book, no matter the genre, and when it comes down to it, having fun is one of the most important things a writer should strive for, for you own happiness. And if you do have fun while writing your book, your readers will feel it, and if they are your target audience, they will love it too.

No writing is bad writing in the first draft. Those first few iterations of your story aren't meant to be perfect, they aren't even meant to be extremely cohesive - they're meant to make your story finally exist outside of your mind. It's meant for you and you alone, as the writer of the book - your first draft is yours, and you can make as many mistakes as you need to in order to improve it! If you get too caught up on being perfect on something you still need to practice, you won't be able to write anything. Needing practice isn't a bad thing - it just means you have still a long road of interesting things to learn, and that every single word you write down on that formerly blank page will be another step on the ladder to achieving the writing your dream of making. Don't beat yourself up if it doesn't come out perfectly in your first, second, third, or even tenth time - those "imperfect drafts" are each improving your own writing skill in one way or another, and one day, you'll look at your writing and see how far you've come after finally pushing through all that self-doubt.

TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF!!! I mean it. A healthy mind is a MILLION times more creative than a tired and stressed-out mind. Find the sleep schedule that works for you. Eat healthy things according to your personal dietary needs. Go for a walk. Be responsible and proactive when it comes to your scheduled activities, don't procrastinate. Follow a schedule of your own. Get things done. Watch a movie with popcorn and relax. Laugh, smile, have fun. Do the things that make you happy. Talk to your friends. Enjoy some sunlight. Talk to a therapist, if you need to! All those things that make you feel refreshed, happy, and ready to take on more challenges. As someone who battled quite a few physical and mental health problems this past couple of years, I find that self-care is the root of any productive writing session and that I write much better now that I am happy, rested, and healthy than when I was really exhausted, sick and depressed and had to force myself to write. I really, really mean it. Take care of yourself, and practice self-compassion. It may not be easy at first, but you'll see how much it makes sitting down to write much more easy and joyful in the long run <3

42.  How do you feel about love triangles?

I already got that one, here! (:

43.  What do you do if/when characters don’t follow the outline?

Good question! Especially since I'm constantly dealing with this, as my outlines turn into drafts. My latest experience with characters rebelling against the outline has been Ambrose Prosper - I had a specific, detailed idea of what I wanted his past to be, but then I wrote him, and he started to develop and change until the character was basically like "nope, I do what I want" and I had to revise his whole backstory to fit this new version of his character - but honestly, it was for the best. I like this new version of Ambrose's character and backstory way more than the original one!

What I do in this situation is to let it flow - I realize that, if a character isn't following the strict outline, it's because of specific personality details, intricacies and growth that have happened thus far, and that is good. I tend to then bend the outline for the character. I think "Well, if this character wouldn't do this specific thing, then what would they do in this situation?" and 9 times out of 10, the answer to this question is more original and truthful to the character than the initial outline, and so I go with this new version! I find that being flexible with your characters makes for way more organic and meaningful stories than breaking characters to fit a specific scene just because "it needs to happen" - if a character doesn't work with a scene, I'm always positive that it's the scene that needs rework and change, not the character! (:

#writing #asked and answered! #ask games! (: #writeblr #writers #writerblr #my wips #character writing #writers on tumblr #my characters #my writing #asked and answered