#also using the outline feature in docs has changed my life

[transtrucy]

fostering, adopting, and red tape and the pieces of youth

for the past year and a half (yikes) i've been slowly working on red tape and the pieces of youth, a marriage of convenience au where phoenix and miles get married to adopt trucy

the first "arc" of the fic is about phoenix (and later miles) fostering trucy and then adopting her. however, just as the game handwaves a lot about her adoption, i also changed, ignored, and left some things out for the sake of storytelling

in part, this is because i didn't do as much research as i should have before starting this fic. if i were to do an edit of it, i would probably change the order of events and conversations significantly. but for fanfic, everything i post except zine pieces are first drafts, because i know i'll lose motivation and never finish if i go back and start doing significant edits

therefore, i'm leaving the fic as is, but this post is meant to explain some choices i made or things that i just straight up ignored to make this a viable au. i want to respect the actual realities of fostering and adoption that this story does not always reflect

anything i say in this post is based on california rules and fostering and adoption advice for that state. i am not involving japan in it legally, however my approach to most ace attorney things is 'if it's wrong it's because we're in japanifornia, where i can make everything up'

as this post is very long, you can read it here on google docs. you can use the outline feature to navigate to different sections of the document! the entire post is also available under the read more below

disclaimer: i am not a social worker and i have never personally been involved in the foster care system or an adoption, though i have friends who were adopted and some experience with families who were trying to adopt out of the foster system. everything in this post is based on research that i've done. i have done very little research on adoption in japan, and this document (and the fic) will reflect that

this post may be edited as i think of more things, if anyone asks me anything that feels important to add, or if anything new comes up in the fic!

the most important thing to remember for this au is that the adoption and fostering timelines are significantly sped up. this will be explained further below!

an additional disclaimer is that if i were to redo this entire fic, i would likely get at least one if not two sensitivity readers familiar with adoption for the first arc, ideally someone who has been adopted (specifically the foster -> adoption that occurs in the story) and someone who works in adoption and social work. however, if i do write anything that is too wildly incorrect or offensive, please let me know and i'll be more than happy to fix it as best i can. thank you for understanding the limitations of my own research as well as the limits of this story!

background: trucy's canon adoption

this is mentioned in the notes of at least one chapter, but in the games, trucy's adoption is incredibly quick and easy. not knowing much about japanese adoption other than it can be difficult, this could be an intentional choice of the writers. regardless, when looking at it as a real life situation, we immediately run into lots of issues

which is why i typically don't. it doesn't actually make sense for phoenix to be fostering trucy at the beginning of red tape, but as she appears to be staying with phoenix in canon before adoption, i kept that in the story, because i couldn't come up with a way to have her around and participating in the scheme if something more realistic happened

in real life, trucy would never have been placed with phoenix, even temporarily. she would've been placed with an emergency foster parent until social services sorted some things out with her case

as i mentioned in an author's note, in canon and my canonverse fics, i just pretend that zak left signed adoption papers in phoenix's possession before disappearing, which phoenix found after the trial. while this would still likely involve an investigation considering phoenix was his lawyer before disappearing, it gives me a little bit to work with

because canon is so vague and loose on trucy's adoption, where it's treated like all that matters is trucy agreeing to it, it leaves a lot of space for exploration. so here we are!

emergency foster parent note: emergency foster parents are a temporary housing solution when a child needs to be placed immediately. the placement is usually done very quickly (sometimes within hours) opposed to standard foster placements. in california, these placements can last from one to fifteen days while a more permanent solution is sorted out

phoenix as a temporary foster parent

as of right now, this hasn't been officially stated in the fic, but the reason that phoenix was able to act as a temporary foster parent for trucy was because he was already a registered foster parent for pearl.

as has been mentioned, maya is pearl's legal guardian in the story, but i imagined phoenix also got approved not only as a possible backup, but because maya does not officially live in the city, and there are specific rules when foster kids stay with other people. maya does have full custody of pearl at this point in time, so that is no longer a concern for them, but this was something they did early on to be safe

(see the end of this post for a little more about pearl!)

phoenix's apartment

i did want to briefly touch on phoenix's living situation, as i do kind of breeze past it. phoenix is approved as a foster parent with a one bedroom apartment.

in real life, i don't think this would ever happen, for trucy or possibly pearl. in california, foster children can only share a bedroom with up to one other child and the child cannot share a bedroom with their foster parent if they're above the age of two

since they move into miles' home very quickly, and any information we have on phoenix's apartment / his and trucy's living situation in canon is pretty limited, i decided not to linger on this aspect too much

why also miles?

if phoenix could adopt trucy in canon, why can't he in this au?

first off, for clarity: in california and therefore this story you can adopt or foster as a single parent. i've seen at least two people mention this somewhere in relation to this story, phoenix would have been able to adopt trucy as a single person, but there are other elements involved

the main issue would likely be his finances, as he is out of a job and does not currently have a stable income. while there is not an income requirement in california for fostering, you do need a stable and verified income, as well as the ability to meet all financial needs. at the beginning of this story, phoenix is very unemployed. this is where miles comes in, as someone with both a stable income and family money from the von karmas, something that hasn't been too touched upon in the story yet. while phoenix begins as a currently a temporary foster parent for trucy, for him to continue fostering her long term (and then adopting her), he would need more stable income than he currently has, and job hunting is an issue for him moving forward, and even in the canon of aa4 we can see he has a lot of smaller piano jobs

in addition, adoption itself can be expensive. how much it really costs depends on a lot of factors, such as age of the child, if you're adopting from foster care, and fees from any agencies. adoption from fostering seems to be cheaper, but with what we know about phoenix's financial situation, it may be something he would be unable to do on his own, while it's likely much easier for miles

bringing miles into the picture provides a lot of stability that phoenix himself doesn't have in his life. at this point in canon, his reputation is also significantly better than phoenix's current one. while presenting forged evidence, which could have been considered a felony, and getting disbarred probably wouldn't disqualify phoenix from being eligible as a foster parent, they also don't look great. miles having a house is a bonus that phoenix didn't consider

fostering speedrun

as i said earlier, many of the changes made for this au were speeding up the timeline, which is absolutely the case in regards to trucy being placed with phoenix, miles getting approved as a foster parent at all, and trucy also being placed with miles

from some research i've done and anecdotes online, becoming a foster parent can take a couple months, averaging about five to six months in california. obviously, that wasn't going to work here, so i fast tracked it severely

foster parent approval timeline and other line skips

in california, it can usually take around two to four weeks to be approved as a foster parent. this doesn't take into account everything else required before receiving a placement. one of the ways i rushed this is addressed in the story: miles is very well known, has a lot of legal contacts, and has a lot of money. and he does acknowledge, especially in terms of himself and von karma, that this is something that could be taken advantage of

in real life, i don't think you can necessarily skip through things like that. there are rules and timelines in place for reasons, and while i'm sure people have manipulated the system before, in this instance it's meant to reflect how von karma basically just walked off with a dead man's child without anyone stopping him. one thing miles has to deal with in the first arc of this fic is his own trauma, as much as he might not realize it, surrounding his own situation in childhood and how it reappears when phoenix does things like suddenly announce he's adopting a child he just met

sidebar for miles' relationship to the von karmas: since canon is pretty murky about what, legally, miles' relationship to manfred von karma is, i also stayed vague in this au. if you're interested, you can check this section of miles' wikipedia page, where it discusses how his relationship to the von karmas is contradicted in different parts of canon. additionally, there's the bonus complexity of many people having the headcanon of miles leaving the country with the von karmas, which is something that may be mentioned in this au. in california (and many states) you need to request authorization before traveling abroad with a foster child, however these are short term trips, not a move. moving countries, and even states usually, will result in the foster child being placed with a new family this is why i haven't put a name to miles' relationship to manfred. while i probably see it more as a fostering situation until miles aged out of the system as i can't really imagine manfred offering to adopt him, that's just not compatible with them living in germany. therefore, in the fic itself it will simply stay vague

education for fostering

i almost completely glossed over this in the fic, so it was extra important to me that i mention here, that many states including california have a level of training or education required before you can be officially approved as a foster parent or before you can have children placed with you. in california there is an orientation, an application, pre-approval training, and then cpr and first aid training. in addition, as mentioned there is a background check, a psychosocial assessment, and a home safety inspection

when i mentioned that sasha, trucy's social worker, gave miles a lot of packets, i'm condensing a lot of that into print outs, which is vastly diminishing what parents actually learn. about 20 hours of training are needed between pre-approval and pre-placement, which does not include the first aid, assessments, or inspections. in part, because of who miles is, some of this was skipped or minimized, other aspects, like his background check, were faster because he works for the prosecutor's office and information was more easily available.

school as a foster child

to be honest, i could not find the clearest guidelines for how soon after being placed with a foster parent a child needs to be enrolled in school. i didn’t really address this for most of the fic, because the reality is trucy probably would need to be in school after the few weeks between the start of the fic and miles and phoenix getting married. there are (possibly) a few wrenches in how fast this could happen, which is why i let it take longer than it may realistically: 

in this au, trucy is homeschooled by the troupe and therefore hasn’t been enrolled in a school before, meaning she has no records and has done no testing to place her. she would be placed with her age group, but this could still potentially cause delays combined with

in this au, trucy isn’t actually a citizen of japanifornia. where is she a citizen of? couldn’t tell you. but since in this au, the troupe is constantly on the move, i decided to slow things down a little in the school enrollment department, it would make sense that legally, her permanent address is in another state

now would this slow down enrollment for multiple weeks? i can’t really tell you that. but that’s the internal logic for this delay 

rules for fostering

since this isn't a huge part of the fic, i'm just going to touch on this briefly, but whether or not trucy would be able to stay with miles overnight without phoenix before he's approved as a foster parent for her kind of seem to depend

i've read some anecdotes and stories where their foster parents needed approval for sleepovers with friends, while i've also read online that background checks on the friends' parents aren't necessary. i think, unless someone tells me otherwise, it is a little dependent on the situation

regardless, in terms of phoenix going back and forth about this, this is in part on me realizing it may not be the best idea for trucy to stay with miles after i had already written and posted it

ultimately, i think this is a situation where he probably would need to check with sasha. but given that phoenix is pretty frazzled and overwhelmed in this part of the story (and definitely overtired), i think a little slip up and then a panic is justified

adoption timeframe

like the fostering section, the timeline for adoption is deeply unrealistic, for a couple of reasons

the first is that you can't instantly adopt from fostering in most states, including california. in california, it could take between six months to a year to adopt from fostering. in this time, there is an adoption assessment that needs to be both completed and approved, and time frame may depend on how busy various agencies are

while it's not going to be instant in the story, it is a little handwaved about the time it does take, since it's not interesting for us to hang around in this in between period for several chapters, but it's also another situation where miles' job and money are doing a little more work

another important timeline issue that other people may have already picked up on, is that you can't adopt right after getting married. and maybe that's to avoid something like this nonsense

generally, you have to wait about two years after marriage before adoption, though you can begin the process before that because it does take so long.

for this regard, which i think i did know before and just forgot about until i was doing further research, i just completely dropped it. japanifornia is corrupt six ways to sunday, and both trucy's adoption and miles' situation with von karma are incredibly quick. with this two year rule in place, this entire au is basically invalid, and i was more interested in telling this story than sticking to this specific rule, and therefore it doesn't exist in japanifornia

abandonment and adoption

[to be added. for now, you can read this source!]

pit stop for car seats

though this doesn't have to do with adoption or fostering, since a few people were curious about why trucy and pearl would need car seats, i thought i'd explain here. specifically, they'd both be using a booster seat, possibly a high-back one.

while car seats are partially about age and bone density, they're also about height and weight, because the seat belt works best if worn correctly—which is dependent on height.

in the trilogy, pearl is 4'1". we don’t have baby trucy’s height, but in aa4, trucy is only 4'11". general best practice is to use a booster seat until the child is 4'9"

if you have adjustable seat belts (or buy ones you add to the car) this is less of an issue so long as they sit on the correct place on the body, but for this age car/booster seats are relatively standard still

even if use was just by age, 8-9 years old appears to be the low end of the spectrum for stopping their use (8-12 was what i saw in research)

trucy and pearl using a booster seat would be the safest for them, especially when miles' concern is about his inability to be a good parent and properly care for trucy

mini pearl section

pearl's experience with fostering and current guardian has been mentioned throughout the fic, but i wanted to also discuss it here since it's not a primary focus.

after morgan is arrested, pearl would have been placed into emergency foster care. like previously mentioned, phoenix gets approved as an emergency foster parent for pearl, but maya becomes pearl's guardian. often, kin placements are preferred and prioritized in fostering situations, which maya mentions in a conversation with miles

she also says that if it hadn't been her, someone in the village would've helped. this is mostly inspired by the idea that kurain village seems pretty insular with its residents and while they're never mentioned, i wouldn't be surprised if other members are related to the feys

one complex issue within fostering is cultural identity of foster children. while it's not my place to discuss this, i can say some foster care programs and agencies do prioritize placing children with families of similar cultural and racial or ethnic backgrounds. if you're interested in learning more, there has been research done about important of children's culture within foster care, and this is one reason kin placements can sometimes be preferred. this is also why maya says pearl would be placed with someone in the village—this isn't something she necessarily knows for sure but a hope she had if she wasn't approved

i would also be remiss if i didn't mention the indian child welfare act (icwa) here. while i did not consciously mean to reference this law, i think it is something i almost undoubtedly was pulling from subconsciously when thinking about maya and pearl. to be clear: i do not intend to seriously compare kurain village or spirit channeling to the indigenous people of the united states or why the iwca was created and the hard work done to enact it. however, when speaking about characters being placed in families outside of their cultures and kin, especially with kurain being a village with a culture and traditions that we don't see practiced by characters outside of spirit channelers, i think it would be wrong of me if i didn't acknowledge this law and why it and nicwa are so important. even if i did not intend to reference it, it almost certainly impacted my writing of this conversation with miles

while maya doesn't have to worry as much about pearl being taken away at this point, there are options for this and i'm not sure yet (since this is not a priority in the fic) which would be best for them: she could foster, adopt or be pearl's guardian. we've already discussed fostering extensively, so i won't cover that here

one thing of note is that maya doesn't appear to have a stable income, in part because her job is with kurain village. when she turned 18, she would be able to adopt pearl via kinship adoption, a process that can be much simpler than adoption outside the family. additionally, as mentioned previously adoption can be expensive, though costs can be reduced if the adopter is low-income. unlike miles, maya doesn't have the same strings to pull. (timeline may be clarified in future chapters!)

here, i should note that while kinship adoption requires consent from biological parents, since morgan has a felony conviction, she would be unfit as a parent, and maya would be able to have pearl freed from morgan's custody (for more details, this is called ffpcc in california)

if maya was just pearl's legal guardian, this is a non-permanent guardianship that would end when pearl turns 18 or if the court terminates the guardianship. this does seem like a faster option than the other two

this is the area i have done the least amount of research, so i don't have the clearest path (but if i got anything wildly wrong defintiely elt me know!) there are (if i have my timelines right) about two years between morgan first being arrested and this fic, which is, if you're not phoenix and miles, a normal amount of time to be sorting custody situations out. so i think we can give maya the slack she needs to learn all of this from scratch

conclusion

adoption and fostering are both complex and time consuming processes, and i am not doing them justice within this fic. thank you so much for suspending your disbelief, but as always, i want to show a lot of respect for the people who actually have lived experience with fostering, adoption, or any of the other mentioned topics here

while fanfic is fun, i do wish i had done a little more research before diving into this fic, even if i had to entirely disregard that two year waiting period after marriage before adopting

why wasn’t japan’s adoption system considered?

i wanted to take a second to explain in a little more detail why i didn’t do more research into adoption in japan and use that as inspiration in this fic—because it was more specific than just being more familiar with usamerican adoption and fostering laws (if not by much) 

i honestly had a really difficult time finding resources about adopting in japan as japanese citizens, as opposed to either foreigners who had moved to japan and were looking to adopt (who admittedly, may have become citizens) or foreigners who were looking to adopt a child from japan

likely, these resources just aren’t available in english. which makes sense, but does make research for this pretty difficult. from what i can glean, the concept of this au is even less plausible if we’re considering japanese adoption laws and guidelines

if you’re interested, i did look at these two articles in my brief research into adoption in japan, “how to foster and adopt a child in japan” and international social service japan’s page for prosepctive adoptive parents (the issj page has a lot of similar information to what was in this document) 

ultimately, i just didn’t have enough information on adopting within japan to feel comfortable using anything i read to inspire how trucy’s adoption was written for this fic, and some things i did find (like couples needing to be married for three years) were things i was already disregarding in terms of california. so i hope this explanation makes sense!

that's all for now! if you have any questions about this post, have any corrections, or have something you think is important for me to change, please let me know!

if you haven't, you can read red tape and the pieces of youth here on ao3. thank you for reading!

[callsignspark]

Ik this isnt part of the ask game, but would you consider showing us how you outline in Trello?? It looks so freaking effective!

I have been waiting for someone to ask me this question. thank you so so so so much you’re going to regret asking lmao

so as I said before I use Trello - a free cloud based project management tool - to outline and write my fics (and also for my to do list and my Christmas present shopping and vacation planning and literally everything) because, to be 100% honest with you, I have no chill. I have never been relaxed about anything. ever. not a single day in my life. and therefore I marinate on fic ideas in my mind for months (sometimes years!) before I start doing anything with them. this is my process I use for everything I write and we’re using Mar[r]y Me as my example!

the first thing is the idea. I get an idea and I word vomit vibes into the closest thing (notes app, google doc, scribbling into my work notebook, texting a friend) and then I marinate on the idea. I first had the idea for Mar[r]y Me on January 25, 2023. it went through several iterations as I shaped what it was going to be and below is what I sent to Jordan in June 2023 and it’s the basis for the story we’ve all been following. (or mostly, it’s changed quite a bit since then.)

once I’m ready to start writing I create a board in Trello. think of a board like a white board, you then add “cards” which I think of as sticky notes except with a lot more features. also my process is the same no matter if it’s a one shot or a multi chapter fic, it just depends if it gets its own board or it goes into my one shot board. (which is filled with ideas waiting to be written lol) anyway. this is the Mar[r]y Me board!

for a multi chapter fic like this each chapter gets a card in the IN PROGRESS list (they move to the right as things get written/posted). each card follows a template: title, due date (loosely assigned to get an idea of what a posting schedule may look like), a label (always being with need to plan), and a checklist. also the chapter outline - obviously.

before I get into the outline, I use the labels as a nice visual representation of what the status of everything is. as the screenshot below shows, the each writing stage has its own color (and I use the color blind color schemes so I get the fun patterns too!) and it gets changed as we go along. it helps me know at a quick glance where everything is at the moment.

I also love the checklist feature, see below. which basically has all the steps I need to follow once I have a chapter written and ready for final editing. it may seem like overkill but I work long hours and you’d be amazed at how easily my brain forgets things lmao. so this ensures nothing is missed when I’m getting ready to post.

now onto the outline. my outline goes from something super basic, to a few bullet points, to an in depth summary of what’s going to be written. using chapter one as an example of this progression.

1. this is the og outline for the whole story. just a dream and a vibe and one sentence. literally.

2. the expanded outline for chapter one

3. just a small section of the final outline I used to write the chapter. a lot of my final outline ends up being actual sentences that I use in the final draft, I basically write the chapter in bullet points and unfinished sentences.

4. I use the very expanded outline to write the actual chapter. following along bullet point by bullet point. an example from chapter 9 since that’s what I’m writing rn.

5. once everything is written, all the bullet points have been used up or ignored, I transfer it into google docs and read it to myself, editing as I go. once I’m happy with my final rough draft I use grammarly to idiot check things because I’m an engineer not an English major. then I start using the checklist (teaser posting, creating tumblr post, etc.) and then the worst part. I walk around my home office and I read the entire chapter out loud to myself and make final edits as I go. is it excruciating to have to listen to myself speak the flirting I’ve just written out loud? yes. have I made myself cry multiple times? yes. do I find a lot of rough spots and smooth them out? yes. that’s usually done on Thursday nights.

6. from there it’s all final editing and formatting and scheduling the final post. I also have to create the accompanying recipe post for Mar[r]y Me so I do that too. and we post on Fridays! sometimes I share the google doc link with friends so they get an advanced copy of the chapter and sometimes they get to be surprised with everyone else (I’m running behind schedule and don’t have time to share it lmao)

it’s a lot of work for something I’m producing for free but I genuinely love it so much and it helps me keep everything straight. there would be so many lost ideas and abandoned thoughts if I didn’t do it this way. it’s crazy that this the first fic I’ve ever written and that I’ll probably be close to 90k words by the time it’s finished.

if you’ve made it this far thank you for indulging my very intense brain and it’s processes. I love the community we’ve created here on this blog and I’m so excited to keep writing and sharing. and I especially want to give a big thank you to my very good friends Ames, Alexa, and Jordan. Mar[r]y Me would not be the story it is without them and I can’t thank you enough for your love and encouragement during this story.

[michaelraqimmira]

Fifty Pages Deep

Two weeks ago, I opened a new document and decided, with the delusion and bravado of someone rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, to write a novel. Not just sketch it out. Not just vibe with a few ideas until the self-loathing crept in. 

But to actually write the damn thing. I’m now 50 pages in. No hallucinations, no Word doc padding. Just fifty slow, deliberate, real pages; words and sentences and whole paragraphs that actually make sense stacked next to each other. That's roughly 20,000 words, give or take a spiral into existential doubt here or there.

That’s a personal record, by the way. All previous attempts at writing a novel have flatlined somewhere between page 18 and page "oh-god-why-did-I-think-this-mattered." 

Usually I get distracted. Or bored. Or tangled in the Kafkaesque purgatory of trying to name a character’s grandfather. Or I decide the story sucks. Or I suck. Or everything sucks and I should just switch careers and become a lighthouse keeper or spend my life looking for smoke atop a fire lookout tower in the Pacific Northwest. Still not ruling any of those out.

But this one feels different. Not in the mystical, “the muse has spoken to me through a smudged windowpane” kind of way, but in the practical, trench-foot level of storytelling. 

I outlined this novel from beginning to end. Not a rigid screenplay-style treatment, but a road map with enough pit stops, detours, and possible UFO sightings to keep it weird and enjoyable. I know where this story ends. Which, oddly enough, makes it far easier to write the beginning and the middle. Like reverse engineering a conspiracy theory. Once you’ve decided who killed Kennedy, you can go back and invent the secret meetings, the misdirection, the shady figures eating soup alone.

The most freeing part of all this? The flexibility. Sure, I have a rough guide, but I can take any route I want to get there. A minor character introduced in Chapter 2 might re-appear in unexpectedly in Chapter 12. A tossed-off anecdote might become a pivotal metaphor. 

Writing this book has also changed how I look at structure. Before, I thought outlines were cages. But it turns out they’re more like scaffolding: temporary, sturdy enough, and meant to be outgrown. (Or, at worst, leapt from, screaming.) 

It gives me space to let the prose get weird, or quiet, or sharply focused on small things that matter later. Like Chekhov’s gun, if the gun was actually a rusting machete in a forgotten shed behind a barangay hall, and the person holding it didn't know how to use it.

Still, I’m hitting pause for now. Not because I’ve lost interest, far from it, but because I’m heading back to the Philippines later this year, and that will add new exciting dynamics to the whole equation. 

The novel is about family history. I want to be back in our ancestral home in the province, smell the rain-drenched wood, re-interview my uncle and other family members. Frankly, I think that’s where the good stuff is. The stuff you can’t Google or simulate or crowdsource. 

In the meantime, I’ve also got a dozen nonfiction ideas ricocheting inside my skull like caffeine-hopped pinballs. Feature articles and creative nonfiction essays. The kind of writing that gets you rejected by The Atlantic but enthusiastically accepted by a quarterly zine run by an aging hippy living in a shack near Joshua Tree. 

I’m going to chase those stories this summer and autumn. Maybe get a few things published. Remind myself that the world is still strange enough to be written about, even outside fiction.

So yes, 50 pages is a milestone. It’s not the summit, but it’s the highest I’ve ever climbed, and I’ll take it.

---

Original Post: https://michaelrmira.wordpress.com/2025/06/15/fifty-pages-deep/

[browneyedmissy]

Keiki In Real Life

Story Summary: Her brother was essentially a stranger to her and the prospect of meeting the people most important to him intimidated the hell out of her.

Chapter Summary: Keiki meets her brother’s girlfriend Casey and wonders whether she made a mistake coming to Boston.

Author’s Note: Oh god this has been in my drafts... since June. Which might have been around the time that Keiki was introduced? I think I mostly like this. I’ve been in such a dry spell when it comes to writing and stories that I just needed to finish something so if you see me using the same words a few times whooooooooooops. I swear there was a post that inspired this somewhere and if I find it I’ll link it!

I’m sneaking a recommendation in here, go read Estelle’s social media AU because it is literally the best serotonin right now.

The first time she met her brother's girlfriend, she learned a few... things about Bryce’s sex life she'd rather not know.

The girlfriend was cute, Keiki observed as she gave her a once over. Soft, wavy brown hair pulled up in a ponytail, warm brown eyes and little dimples that framed her smile.

She also at least had the decency to look a little embarrassed but before either of them could say anything they heard Bryce's voice as he came through the elevator with an armful of groceries.

"Keiki," Bryce said in an exasperated tone, "What did I tell you about-"

He froze when he recognized the girl talking to his sister and he dropped his groceries.

"Case, aww shi- I mean shoot."

Keiki rolled her eyes. "You know, I'm sixteen. I know a lot of curse words by now. In fact-"

"Keiki." He shot her a warning glance before his eyes settled back on the other girl. He shifted back and forth on his feet, a trait he used to do when they were young, Keiki observed. "This is my girlfriend, Casey. Casey, this is my sister, who is going to go inside for a moment.”

Keik glanced at Casey who couldn’t mask the surprise on her face. Bryce hadn’t told Casey about her, Keiki noted. A small part of her wanted to open her mouth and talk back but Casey seemed nice enough.

"Fineeeee." She sighed, drawing out the last syllable. She closed the door behind her, the sounds of her brother and his girlfriend's voices, muffled through the door. She caught her name a few times and she shut her eyes for a moment, wondering whether coming to see her brother was the right thing to do. 

She had just settled herself into a show on the television when Bryce and Casey came back inside.

"Keiki, Casey's going to stay for dinner." He announced, sending his girlfriend a grateful look.

"Good, that means less chance of the apartment burning down." Keiki retorted. She watched as Bryce’s eyes narrowed for a second and prepared herself for an argument. They hadn’t spoken much since she had gotten there and she didn’t know why she felt the need to be so mean to him.

Before he could say anything, Casey interrupted.

“Come on Bryce, you can help me in the kitchen.” She glanced at the groceries that Bryce had bought. “Keiki, is pasta okay?”

“That’s fine.” Keiki replied, holding her brother’s eyes for a moment before turning back to the TV.

"What can I do, chief?"

"Chop and sauté the vegetables." She directed as she found his pots and pans.

There was a silence from the kitchen and Keiki heard Casey try to hide a cough at Bryce's lack of response.

"Where'd I lose you, babe?"

"Sauté." Her brother said sheepishly.

Keiki snorted from her spot on the couch and stretched out. "How'd you get through college?"

"Dining hall and take out. The Thai place down the street loves me." Her brother shrugged.

Casey glanced over Keiki’s way, giving her a thoughtful expression. “Keiki, will you take over for your brother? Bryce, can you boil the water for the pasta?"

"Oh, that I can do." Bryce grinned as he pressed a kiss to Casey's cheek. Keiki glanced at the TV, suddenly not interested anymore and made her way to the kitchen.

As Keiki stood at the cutting board and watched her brother, she noticed how much more relaxed he was. His smile when he had been in high school had always been over polite as if everything he did was on display. His brow had been furrowed most of the time when she saw him at home, in between his shifts at the hospital as if he didn’t know what to do with her.

But Casey- he looked at her with bright eyes and a perpetual grin on his face. Keiki couldn't remember the girls he had dated but it was as if every bit of him was drawn to her.

She felt her heart suddenly twist as panic began to fill her. Bryce didn’t need her here. He certainly didn’t want her here, not when he had pretty Casey who moved through his kitchen as if she knew it like the back of her hand. She wasn’t sure what she wanted or what answers she was looking for when she had bought her ticket, just that she needed to get out of the house.

“Keiki?” She blinked as Casey came into focus. Bryce had started setting up the table and Keiki had been blankly stirring the pasta sauce. “I think the sauce is ready, if you want to eat.”

“Uhh, yeah.” Keiki frowned, trying to collect her thoughts. “I, uh…”

“Hey.” She felt a warmth on her shoulder and she looked up into Casey’s kind eyes. “There’s more time to talk later, okay? For now, let’s have dinner.”

-

After dinner, she had claimed fatigue after dinner, still feeling unsettled. She wasn’t ready to talk, wasn’t ready to put words to how she felt, standing in the kitchen and Casey and Bryce hadn’t stopped her.

But Keiki hadn’t adjusted to the time change yet and some nights, especially when Bryce was at work, she would just lay in bed, listening to the sounds of the city. She glanced at her phone, 3AM blaring back at her in white light.

Keiki groaned and crept quietly to the door.

She had stepped into the kitchen and was reaching into the cabinet to get herself a glass for water when she heard a sound. She jumped around to see that Casey had stayed and she and her brother were fast asleep on the couch. They both didn't quite fit but despite that Bryce had an arm wrapped around her middle and their breathing was soft and peaceful. Keiki watched as her brother shifted and nestled himself closer into Casey before his breathing evened out again. He had a smile on his face, even while he was asleep and he just seemed to be... content.

Keiki blinked, suddenly feeling dampness at her eyes.

The selfish part of her was angry. She was angry that her brother was able to move on so easily to this life without her where he had a pretty girlfriend and didn't have to spare a thought for their parents- or for her. She could have screamed all of the feelings of abandonment and neglect that she felt but couldn’t explain while he played house in Boston.

And the other part of her wanted to be happy for him. He was lighter and more carefree than he ever was in even her rose-colored memories. These moments were saved for Casey and that peace he felt was something she yearned for.

She didn’t belong in Hawaii with her classmates that hated her and her parents that controlled every part of her life. She certainly didn’t belong here in this apartment with her successful surgeon brother and his new life.

Abandoning her water, she quietly crept back into the bed, staring at the shadows on the ceiling until sleep finally claimed her.

[transmasc-wizard]

an opinion on scrivener (by a normally very picky individual)

I've seen a lot of people talk about scrivener, mostly in a mix of positive and negative; it's too expensive! It's great for organizing! It's too complicated! It's XYZ!

It's only natural for I, someone who has had scrivener for about a year now, to want to add my opinion, so... here I am! This is somewhere between a review and a basic how-to? Idk. When have I ever made sense.

Note: this is not in any way sponsored. Literature & Latte/Scrivener does not even know I exist.

Another note: I believe the iOS/Mac version of scrivener is, in fact, more complicated than this, but the same stuff probably applies. I wouldn't know, because I'll burn in hell before I have an Apple product.

Onwards!

So, once you open a scrivener document (specifically the "novel with parts" template, but they're all very very similar), this is what you see. The corkboard-looking thing is, in fact, called the corkboard. The teal band off to the side (which iirc I changed the colour of, I think it defaults to grey) is the binder. If you look above the corkboard, you'll notice there are three little icons; the middle one is selected (and yellow), and sets it to the corkboard. On the right is the editor (actual page with words) and on the left is the outliner (more on that in a second).

You can write in the little notecards; this creates a synopsis that can be viewed in the inspector (more on that in a second, again), in the outliner, and in the corkboard, like this. There's also labels and statuses and stuff, but that's more than just The Basic Basics, so... moving on.

Now I've both gone over to the outliner, which lets me see the synopsis, label, status, word count, target, progress, and target type of each document, and have also opened the inspector (that column on the right) by clicking the blue i in the top right corner.

All these features are fine and dandy, but this is the love of my life:

The binder, my beloved. It lets you have individual documents for ANYTHING you want, plus folders to keep them separated & grouped. I have not had to worry about keeping track of 48763847 word docs for one story since getting scrivener; it's all!! right there!! In little folders!! I like organizing things, ok? This is my happy place.

So, above we have the actual scrivener editor! It's pretty similar to word's page, all things considered, with the exception that there's no page breaks. If you go up to "project" in the top of the screen and click "project statistics" you can see page count, but scrivener focuses on word count. WC is more accurate toward story length, anyway, as page count can vary vastly depending on font, font size, and spacing. (Also, I have the page colour changed to a light pink, but it defaults to white.)

Those are all the main screens you'd use if you had scrivener; there's also focus mode/full screen, but that doesn't usually get as much use.

The actual review-ish part of this post:

Scrivener, if you couldn't tell, is my favourite program I've ever used. (I've used word and google docs, btw). It has the most functions, is AMAZING for organization (which is great as a fantasy writer with a lot of Stuff), is great for progress tracking and project goals (something I didn't really touch upon hear; short version, each individual document can have a goal, plus each chapter/part/etc, plus the manuscript as a whole), and is much easier to use than it's reputation says it is.

I didn't even go into detail on keywords, labels, custom icons, the auto-save and auto-backup (every two seconds without writing), document notes, snapshots, custom meta-data you can track, the name generator, the trash function (you cannot accidentally delete a doc), or the thesaurus!

Overall, if you're interested in scrivener, I strongly suggest trying out the trial. It's 30 free days of use. To be clear, that means if you don't open it that day, it doesn't count as a day in your trial. You only write 2 days a week? You'll have that scrivener trial for 15 weeks.

Scrivener doesn't work for everybody! I most strongly suggest it for my fellow organization lovers, but really, if you're interested, I encourage you to give it a try.

[anomaly00-archive]

700 Follower Celebration: A Writing Journey (1/?)

Hey guys! So, to celebrate this milestone I’ll be doing a series of posts talking about how my wip has changed, their inspirations, my growth as a writer. though it’s only been maybe 2? years since I started writeblr, I’m pretty sure I, and my works, have undergone *many* a transformations. And speaking of transformations, this post is dedicated to the journey of my most fickle and ever-changing wip: When Comes the Dawn

The first WIP I ever introduced to tumblr – and my first multi-chapter project ever is When Comes the Dawn, a fantasy/court-intrigue tale featuring court politics, magic, death-defying princesses, and cloak-and-dagger schemes. It is the story I hold near and dear to my heart, even if I do have an on-again-off-again relationship with it. But the story you know now is vastly different to what it used to be. Really, the only thing remotely similar to WCTD and its predecessors are Charles and Fenice (and that’s just their names!)

WCTD started out as a very ambitious high fantasy AU fanfiction with a highly convoluted story line that existed, predominantly, in a 1,500 word prologue and hours upon hours of daydreaming. It did not help that, paranoid little gremlin that I was against people who might look over at my word doc by chance, I coded all of the names of these fanfic characters, keeping only the first letter the same. This eventually led to a detachment between the OG source material and my own work and I just ended up scrapping the entire thing and keeping my cast of (now original) characters. Thus began the era of Chronus. Or, proto-WCTD as I sometimes refer to it.

Chronus had very little connection to present day WCTD except for the name Charles, Fenice, and the three gods that created and watched over the universe. In WCTD, the Trinity were more akin to the gods we have today; igures of worship, omnipresent, with not a lot of proof for their existence except faith-- and I’m saying this as a Catholic. In Chronus, they were actual characters. The gods of Creation/Life, Destiny, and Time/Death (the latter being named Chronus so y’all know where I got the name) watch over the world and intervene when they need to. The lore of the story: through some convoluted circumstance, Chronus ends up dying which is a pretty big bummer since, y’know, his death left the entire universe in stagnation and nothing could die. Uh, the logic gets iffy around here but just understand that Creation and Destiny managed to save the universe but are forced to enlist select humans into being temporary gods of death in exchange for granting their desire. Fenice was one of these humans, Charles was a part of her “wish,” and...more convoluted plot stuff that I honestly can’t remember.

I hated how I spent more time trying to logic the entire plot and ended up scrapping the entire thing. After taking a few months break from this story, I started again by recycling characters and concepts I like. And once again we are left with Fenice, Charles, and the Trinity.

I recycled the backstory I used for Fenice and Charles which had them as royals; a prince and princess caught in the midst of a succession game a la War of Roses. Here, Fenice Alexandra and Charles Alexander were twins tied at the hip, on the run from their power-hungry uncles and planning a way to reclaim their birthright.  I made it through a few chapters, a bit of outlining, and weeks of thinking before I found myself dissatisfied with this story and scrapping it once again. Around this time, I realized I wanted to add magic but not have magic and magical fights be a huge part of the story, so I feel like adding an adventure element would be counterproductive. I also got the idea of a world where everyone had magic, but one of the main characters did not.

I played around with Fenice and Charles’ relationship for a while. One had Fenice being the significantly younger sibling with magic and Charles the older and without (the opposite of where we are today). In every iteration of the story I always had Fenice as the main POV character, so with this set-up, to create conflict, I had the idea of Fenice not wanting the throne (despite being the chosen heir and more than qualified for the position) scheming to get Charles the crown instead (what Charles wants be damned).  Others had this same setting but with Charles still being chosen as heir despite not having magic (which was apparently the number one unspoken rule of succession) which created resentment in Fenice...and made proto-Dantalion (called William at the time) look like a fool. But both these scenarios were just...not something I was particularly interested in. Fenice was insanely OP, everyone looked stupid to me, and honestly? It just seemed boring.

I knew I was close to a break through, so I decided to switch it. Fenice, the elder sibling without magic, who, by a tragic twist of fate, had everything that should be hers instead given to her younger brother. Then, I separated them; the elder lived away from court, the younger lived close to it to wipe away as much chances of them getting along. Then, I worked on their parents. Here, Dantalion, Illysandre, and Titania came into existence. Then, more characters, more plot lines; I connected relations, brewed up even more backstory and lore to make sense of this plot line, steeled myself from making a spin-off prequel, etc. etc. Finally, WCTD reached where it is today. I have no doubt that it’ll still go through massive changes in the future, but for what it is now? It’s the closest I’ve ever been to the story I want to tell.

[eintsein]

After a few years of trial and error, I think I've finally found the perfect organization method.

In the early years of high school, I had a bullet journal. I was an artsy kid who found a way to combine art with organization in a way that benefited other parts of my life.

However, as I approached the end of high school, my schedule got busier, and I was involved in a lot more things, so owning a bullet journal was less practical. Because of that, I switched to an app called Edo Agenda.

I continued with digital planning in college since I knew I wasn't going to have as much time. But all the apps I tried out—Taskade, Actions by Moleskine, Any.do, Todoist, Wunderlist—weren't suited to my planning and organizational needs. They didn't have the specific functions I required and didn't incorporate an organization system I liked to use. The predefined apps were too restraining, but the more customizable apps weren't customizable enough.

So then I switched to a bare bones, uber minimalist bullet journal method. That worked pretty well my second semester. It was simple, portable, and most importantly, flexible—all the things one could wish for in a planning system. However, it wasn't always the most convenient to use since I couldn't effectively integrate all the different aspects of my life, which, to no surprise, is mostly recorded digitally.

There was just one huge problem with my digital organization system that made me hesitant to switch back in the first place: everything was fragmented. Notes were in Google Docs. Financial records were in Google Sheets. To-Do Lists were in my bullet journal. Team projects were in Trello. My poetry was on Bear. Things I wanted to try are carelessly pinned to random pinterest boards or added to my YouTube "watch later" playlist. It was a mess.

Over the summer, I found out about Notion from a friend, and I thought, this has so much potential, it could even be exactly what I need. It's essentially like an empty notebook on your computer with functions that make it 10x more powerful. Notion allows you to integrate all aspects of your life and work into one app. Some of the advantages that have made me partial to Notion are:

Even greater customization level. Notion is a blank canvas with tons of predefined blocks and different file types. You can make databases, spreadsheets, Kanban boards, to do lists, etc. Also, you can remain connected to other digital services. You can link websites, collaborate with other users, use different structures (e.g. documents, databases, tasks), embed images and videos, etc. There are also tons of formatting options, e.g. text color, highlight, heading v. body text.

Better organization. Notion allows you to have pages within pages within pages within pages—an infinite hierarchy that you can organize with tables of contents. These pages are made of blocks, e.g. tables, checklists, boards, databases.  Both pages and blocks can be rearranged by simply dragging and dropping them to where you want them to be. In other words, I guess it's kind of like building a website to organize your life. Plus, their database feature is especially powerful as it allows you to connect all your data and get into as much detail as you wish (each entry in a database is its own page).

Templates. There are tons of templates created by both Notion and the community that you can use. These are especially helpful in the beginning since Notion does have a rather steep learning curve. There are template for almost every category: personal, planning, finance, job applications, design roadmap, etc. Check out their template gallery, this medium article called "10 Notion templates to inspire your use", or read on for my own examples!

Shortcuts. This makes typing and documenting so much faster. Notion uses Markdown, which is a text-to-HTML conversion tool, e.g. # = Heading 1, *, - = bullet point, etc.

Notion has some pretty awesome features, but how does one actually use it? Personally, I have four top-level pages: my planner, my personal journal, songwriting, and blogging.

Planner

I've been using my planner to, well, plan and track my day to day activities as well as my week and month. The way I've structured it is a calendar or monthly overview with links to pages of weekly overviews, and if needed, daily overviews within the weekly overview. This links things up so nicely, i.e. I don't have to be constantly flipping pages in my physical bullet journal or planner to find what I need.

I also have entertainment lists, which is mainly a table with all the shows I want to watch, the books I want to read, etc. I keep track of whether or not I've watched them, as well as my personal ratings. What I love most about this is that each entry is its own page, so I can type my notes for each book, show, or film and easily find them in the future. (Also the reason why I have plural “lists” instead of just one entertainment list is because you can filter entries by type of entertainment, e.g. movies, tv shows, books, articles.)

Personal

For personal notes, goals, journal entries, etc. This is kind of like an extension of my daily journal and just where I dump all my thoughts and keep track of the different aspects of my life: mental, emotional, spiritual, social, physical, and travel.

Another page I have is called "Stray Thoughts" and, well, it's pretty self explanatory. It's a lot easier to dump all my thoughts as they come and reorganize them later. Of course, this requires sacrificing the rawness of journaling, i.e. when the thoughts come and how you process them, which is why I still keep a regular journal that I write in daily.

Songwriting

I've been writing a lot of music over the summer and it's often hard to keep track of all of my songs and how far I've gotten in the songwriting process. So I created a table of songs - each entry of a song is a page with its lyrics. These are then tagged with the status of the lyrics (i.e. completed, in progress) and the status of the music itself (i.e. melody only, instrumental, mixing, mastering, revised). Eventually, I'll include demos in the database by embedding audio files in the document.

I have a separate section for inspiration and ideas, which is a kind of brain dump, e.g. words I think would make a good song, a certain theme for a song, a melody that's been stuck in my head, a vibe I'd like to try out, etc.

I've also been watching a lot of tutorials for music production and there's a section where I write my notes for that.

Eintsein

The last section of my Notion app is for this blog. Which has pages for

New posts. These are ideas for future posts, asks that I think would need longer answers, as well as posts that are currently in the draft stage (like this one was before I posted it)

Design assets. This is where I put all the visual branding material for Eintsein.com to be used in posts and any visual material on the blog.

FAQ. Having an FAQ document just makes it so much easier to make changes to your existing FAQ. Plus, if you ever change your FAQ theme, you just have to copy and paste what you already have.

Post directory. I keep track of all my previous masterposts, infographics, and generally longer and more comprehensive posts. It's the exact same as what you see on my Navigation page. And yes, the document contains direct links to the post.

New theme. A project I've been working on the past couple days is trying to create my own theme for my blog. This is where I put all my outlines, brainstorming notes, design inspiration, code snippets, etc.There are some pretty awesome features I’ve made use of in this page:

As you can probably tell, I'm absolutely obsessed with Notion since it has such awesome features and endless possibilities for customization. So far I've been using Notion for personal projects, which, since they are quite big in scale and have no set deadline, are important to organize well. My summer courses were only 6 weeks and weren't difficult to organize.

The formats above are just how I personally use notion. You could make some of your own, or if you don't think you want to build your pages from scratch, there are tons of templates to choose from. Here are some I think I'll be using in the near future and may be helpful for others as well, especially students like myself:

One drawback, however, is that Notion has a rather steep learning curve, but there are tons of tutorials online (especially YouTube) and I guarantee you it's all worth it.

Notion is not just a productivity app. It's a way to concretize your entire life.

Notion is free to use, but there are higher tiers that allow for more blocks, greater file size, etc. I use a personal account, which is $4 per month with unlimited block storage and no file upload limit (although I got it for $33/year). Personally I think the free plan would suit most people's needs, especially if you're not uploading large files.

[dizzydancingdreamer]

Hiii 🥺 if i could ask, how do you outline your works in general? books, short stories, one shots? What are the differences? 🥺🥺

Hey I love this-- here's a little walk through of what I do. Bear in mind I do really heavy outlines-- lets go through it all, okay? It's not as daunting as it may seem

Click keep reading to see an extensive guide to outlining stories!

Books!

So I'm going to use the Maze Runner re-write I'm working on (no one steal my shit I will be sad)

First off, I get all my templates from Evernote they have some really great templates and they range from when you want to plan a little bit and when you want to plan a lot, here is the link !!!! I recomend highly!

I start with the basics. Title, genre, series (yes or no), premise, setting. I add a box to keep my dates (if you see, I'm not good at filling them in, thank god docs keeps a history so I can later. This isn't necessary I just think its fun-- like a scrapbook of my progress!)

I then add a story premise template-- this one's important!!! It's like the shortest summary for when you need to go back while writing and remember things quickly. I add details like slang (ex: the maze runner uses terms that are made up so I need to remember to use them when writing), the main events (inciting and conflict will do), and my main goal!

After this you can choose to add which template will work best for planning the story. Some people choose to do the characters first but I, in this case, chose story because I am drawing off a series that already exists and plan to stick relatively close to that. In any other case I might have planned characters first but it's up to you!

The templates for planning your story range from very in depth to not at all-- I'll lay them out for you and you can choose the best for you!

The least in depth (derived from screenwriting, this method offers just a brief outline of what you want to write, leaves a lot of room for movement as you write) : Story Beats

More in depth but not crazy (goes through all the main parts of your book, lets you focus closer to the details singularly as opposed to part of a whole, a happy middle) : 3-Act Structure

The most in depth, full crazy (plan every chapter, the exact way you want things to plan, note: you may do this and then get thrown a curve ball while writing but that is OK!) : Chapter Outline

Here is an example of my chapter outlines (again, people, don't steal my shit please I beg do not)

As you can see-- I do all the outlines LOL but this is the only one worth showing and it's the only one I focus on when I write. These are about as detailed as I get-- it's important to leave room for your characters to breathe. This is as much their story as it is yours-- if they're trying to do something you should let them do it. Natural flow is always best.

Next I dive into characters (again, you can do this first-- this is like cooking, there's a recipe but season things how you prefer to make it your own!)

First I start with a simple breakdown : The Character Master List

This includes main characters, antagonists, additional characters

An example below :)

After this I get wild-- I only do this with my protagonist(s) (in this case Ellie and Gally) and I go as in depth as I can. Every little thing I can think of about my characters gets written down. To write a book is to know your characters better than you know yourself. Their likes, dislikes, motivations, nervous habits, sleep schedules, every freckle and mole-- all of it. If you know your characters, you know your story. If you love your characters, you love your story.

Here is the template I use, again I strongly recommend : Character Profile / things I added

(On the templates (it's a dousy): full name, age, occupation, situation, motivation, height, build, skin tone, hair, eyes, facial description, prominent features / distinguishing marks, style of dress, mannerisms / gestures, how they perceive themself, one word used to describe themself, one paragraph, self perceived best personality trait / worst trait, self perceived best physical trait / worst trait, how they think others see them, something they would change about themself, one of voice, language / accent, fave phrases, personality, habits, ambition, greatest fear, biggest secret, how does this character get along with other characters, where they were born / grew up, important past events, family, current home, finances, occupation, education, health, religion, interests / hobbies, opinion of people in general, does the character hide their emotions from others?, person they hate most, best friends, love interests, person they go to for advice, person they feel responsible for, person character feels awkward around, person character openly admires, person character secretly admires, most important to character at the beginning / end)

See example, do not steal example (I know, redundant, but necessary)

Finally after characters I move on to world building. This is important! You need to understand the location and time so that you can write an accurate (or not) story!

Again, here is the template : Worldbuilding Basics

(On the templates: story location, time period, climate, geography, borders / what's beyond, architecture style, how do people get around, distinctive sights / sounds / smells, how many people live there, where do they live, how do they make a living, is the economy healthy, what is family life like, history of the place, the political situation, who are the leaders, the languages spoken, how do the people dress, what role does religion / superstition play, what holidays are important, what's the food like, what are the forms of entertainment, how do the younger generations differ from the old)

From here the rest is up to you, these are the things I recommend. As you can see from my screenshots, I do a lot for my planning.

Some other things you can think to incorporate are:

- General ideas (a place to keep things you need to remember while writing: themes, reoccurring motifs and metaphors, notes, scene ideas)

- Things to remember while writing (like general ideas but also not, a place to add notes about your characters, I like to write their habits here and keep it open while writing so that my characters remain somewhat consistent)

- Movie Script (For fanfiction books; I usually write my own dialogue but sometimes the movie does a good job of summing the basics, Ex: Alby goes over the basics of the glade and it made more sense to give him those lines again, can save you heartache)

Annnnnd that's all I do for books-- the outline I shared is about forty pages LOL so it's a lot but in my experience it's worth it!! Again, do what suits you always but this is what I find works.

Short Stories!

Usually my short stories are a very summed up version of the books. I do the chapter outlines and a very basic outline of the characters. In this case what I usually do is put it all in one doc-- outline and work as one.

This is the best example I can use without outing important story details. On the left you can see the headings of each chapter-- I recommend using these so you aren't stuck scrolling helplessly through long fics (trust me, after 25k words it gets insane).

Each of these, as noted above, I flesh out the basic scene set up of the chapter. It helps me keep the goal of what I want to convey so I don't trail off (I have a habit of doing that).

The final thing I recommend is SideNote-- it's a life saver.

Once enabled it allows you to write notes that you can see while writing in order to keep your story consistent. It has and will continue to come in handy!

One Shots!

I don't plan these at all LMFAO

Okay, kidding a little bit? It isn't worth showing because all it is is the basic outline of what I want to write and then I just attack it head on. One shots I usually just write and write and write and let it flow. They serve a purpose at the moment and thus are best written in the moment. My best advice here is to just let go-- you'll thank yourself for it!

I hope this helps, nonnie, and I hope whatever you write is as wonderful as you are! Thanks for trusting me enough to come for advice!!

[panharmonium]

Author Interview

Tagged by @jedirangerpenguin, who is one of my oldest friends from way back in our Star Wars days <3 I don't think the two of us have been active in the same fandom together for years, and yet I am still always so psyched to see her on my dash, posting fic and being awesome and creative - JRP, if I ever go back and finish playing the Mass Effect games, you will be the first person I talk to! :D

Name: Pan!

Fandoms: In terms of fandoms for which I produce writing - Star Wars, Teen Wolf, and Merlin.

Where You Post: My fic tag for simple, unpolished stuff.  AO3 for finalized works.

Most Popular One-Shot: Technically I have a work skin enabled on AO3 that hides stats from me (and i LOVE it; cannot recommend this function highly enough; do not know how I ever used to live without it), so I don't actually know the answer to this in terms of hits or kudos, because I can't see those elements.  By comments/bookmarks, I think it's Though Lovers Be Lost, which is a Obi-Wan-centric fic that I wrote for my dear friend dyingsighs.

Most Popular Multi-Chapter Story: By comments/bookmarks, I think it's Take My Waking Slow.  Also a Star Wars fic, about Obi-Wan and young Anakin, set in the immediate post-TPM era.  (I...hesitate to really call it multi-chapter???  Because it's more like 3 vignettes.  But technically it is three chapters on AO3, so.)

Favorite Story You Wrote:  Wheel of the Year (my ~100k BBC Merlin fic set pre-Camelot, in Ealdor, focusing on Merlin and Will).  I spent over a year working on this monster every single day, and now that it's finally posted, I feel weird not having it on my daily schedule.  I miss hanging out in that world every day - thinking about it makes me emotional.  It was just such a big part of my life for so long, and writing it was like - okay, this is going to sound dramatic, but the process legitimately changed my life.  

Story You Were Nervous to Post: Also Wheel of the Year.  It's a very niche topic, so I knew that it probably wasn't going to see much engagement despite the massive amount of work I put into it (which is not a complaint by any means; I knew this would be the case from the moment I started working on it, so I was fully aware of what I was getting into).  I just had to make sure I was emotionally ready for that, once it was time to post. X)  And more importantly, I had worked on it for so long and poured so much of myself into it that putting it up to be VIEWED, by STRANGERS, in PUBLIC, when I had kept it safe with me in my room for over a year, felt like stripping naked.  

How You Choose Your Titles: No particular method.  Titles are the last thing I think about when I'm writing.  Usually they just emerge during the process.  For Wheel of the Year, I had the title pretty early on, because the eight sections of the actual ‘wheel of the year’/cycle of seasons concept provided the frame for the fic’s eight chapters.

Complete: On my AO3 page, four SW fics and two Merlin fics.  I've been on there since 2014...I am not a fast writer. X)

Incomplete: Works in Progress is a series of SW vignettes that will probably never be finished, unless I take a tumble back into active SW fandom (the title, weirdly, has nothing to do with the fact that the fic is incomplete; it was supposed to be a reference to Anakin's in-progress training and Obi-Wan's development as a master).  I have ~50k of Teen Wolf stuff on my drive that I do eventually want to get back to, when I'm not on such a serious Merlin kick.  And then Merlin-wise, the 'Will Comes to Camelot' AU is a perpetually in-progress project that I work on for fun, whenever I have time or need a break from my other stuff.

Do You Outline? Not in the traditional A, B, C sense.  I always thought that I *should* be that kind of writer - I am definitely a hyper-detailed, ‘needs to be in control of everything, plans for absolutely every contingency' person - and I have tried to be that kind of writer all my life.  But working on my last project showed me once and for all that against all odds, I am not an outliner; I am a discovery writer who just does a truckload of back-end editing.  I don't know why; I can’t explain it.  But it is what it is.  

I do prep for longer pieces, though.  Mostly what that looks like for me is a huge Google doc for each fic where I record ideas, imagery, dialogue, mini-scenes, etc as they come to me (so like this can be over days or weeks or however long the idea is marinating) and that will often organically generate a loose flow.  For Wheel of the Year, the prep looked like me doing months of research, taking notes in eight different books, reading an uncountable number of articles, and making a hand-drawn poster of the medieval farming year in a sketchbook too big for my desk.

Coming Soon/Not Yet Started: My current project is a multi-chapter Merlin BBC fic set immediately post-Season 3.  I also have the next segment of the 'Will Comes to Camelot' AU mostly done, though again, I only work on that one in the intervals between other things, so it might be a while before that goes up.  And I'll soon be (re)posting the 'Reincarnation AU but this time Will gets to come back' fic that I recently wrote for merlinobsessionist, because I've actually done real edits and re-writes on it now, and soon I'll be uploading it to AO3 in a polished form.

Do You Accept Prompts?  No.  But I will sometimes spontaneously write fic based on something a friend sent or said to me.  The “Will Comes to Camelot" AU was spawned completely from a message that an absolute HERO of an anon sent me, so - sometimes things happen. :D

Upcoming Story You Are Most Excited to Write: I'm always most excited for whatever I'm working on right this second, haha.  But in a general sense, I am excited for the day when I can click on my AO3 page and see an extensive list of stuff sporting Will's character tag, because my personal mission in fandom is to saturate the Archive with high-quality fic featuring my favorite minor character. =P

Tagging: @merlinobsessionist, @vampiratesinaboat, @bobafett, @outpastthemoat, @madasthesea (only if folks are interested, as always!)  

[iriscasefiles]

quick roundup of resources and tips if you’re in high school (or college, really) and you want to make a fiction podcast

MAKING AUDIO

free audio production stuff

Audacity is an open-source audio editing program. I think it’s what Griffin McElroy of My Brother My Brother and Me uses? Here’s a guide if you get stumped.

Here’s a few collections of sound effects.

As long as you credit, you can use any of this music for free.

audio production tips

How to make a pop filter (it will stop your audio from popping on B and P sounds) from common household objects

They say that munching a Granny Smith apple between takes will reduce unwanted mouth sounds

Getting better sound without a recording studio

Getting better sound, pt 2 

Make sure that dialogue can be heard over music, sound effects, etc. When in doubt, listen to your current mix with your eyes closed and see what stands out.

a relatively cheap mic, if you’re okay investing a little bit

This is the microphone the leads use for Starship Iris. It’s got a USB cable that plugs straight into your computer, and it’s under $40.

WRITING SCRIPTS

I’d recommend working in Google docs. It lets you share files quickly with others for easy editing, it saves automatically, and you won’t have a trillion different versions of your episodes floating around your computer.

Outline your whole season before you start writing. Write your whole season before you start production. I know, it will feel a little labor intensive. Trust me, though--I started production before finishing the season scripts and it kneecapped the show for months and months.

Consider keeping things simple for your first effort. We all have gigantic, sprawling narratives in our heads featuring casts of hundreds (we do, right?) but you’re gonna be learning so much in this process, it’s way less overwhelming if you can scale down. Maybe find a way to tell one aspect of the story, featuring a handful of characters, but to tell it in a compelling way.

Think realistically about the voices that will be at your disposal. If you want to just use your friends and all your friends are female, keep that in mind when creating characters. (See “if you don’t want to act” below for advice finding actors.) 

Read everything out loud. If anything feels clunky, change it until you can say it naturally.

When you think you’re done, invite over a bunch of friends for pizza (or other foods! I don’t know your life, dude) and have an informal table read. Don’t take a role. Sit back and listen carefully. You may find stuff you want to fix. Ask your friends for feedback. They may give you valuable perspective.

A good way to stay motivated is to find a friend who also wants to write a script, and then keep pushing each other and reading each other’s stuff.

IF YOU NEED WRITERS

Approach your writer friend(s). Tell them that if they write you a script, you will produce it into a radio play. It’s worth a shot.

Approach your creative writing teacher, if your school has one. Tell them that you want to produce a script, and ask them to tell their students to submit scripts to you. (Set up a gmail account for this purpose.) It’s worth a shot.

If all else fails, honestly, I’d say go through your lit textbook (or short story anthologies) and find a poem or short story you like (or say, an act of a Shakespeare play), then record/produce that. Then show it to your lit teacher. They will be confused. But maybe also happy? If it’s something they covered in class, they’ll probably feel like they Got Through To You and Made A Difference, and adults love that shit.

IF YOU NEED ACTORS

The obvious go-to is to ask your friends. If you do table reads (see writing section above) you will get a sense of who is suited to what role.

Approach your school’s drama teacher, or the teacher who directs the school play, or the forensics coach. Let them read a copy of your script so they know you’re not, like, using it to promote meth or anything. Ask them to tell their students about the opportunity, and/or ask them if you can hang fliers (first, make fliers).

As a former drama kid, I can promise you that we are always hungry for available roles.

OTHER PEOPLE TO CONSIDER REACHING OUT TO

The school paper might be looking for things to write about.

Local bands might let you feature their original music in your intro/outro, in exchange for plugging their website, etc, in your credits.

If you’re having sound engineering problems, consider asking the computer lab teacher, or the video production teacher.

If you have multiple friends who want to make podcasts, consider forming a network! There’s strength in numbers.

Just generally, if you think of someone in your life with relevant skills, don’t be afraid to ask for help.

IF YOU ARE UNCOMFORTABLE ASKING FOR FAVORS

Ugh, it’s so scary, right?

My honest advice is to get really good at baking something relatively simple, like brownies. Now you’re not asking for favors, you’re conducting a transaction!

Also, even if they’re not available to help, like, 9 times out of 10, people will be flattered you thought of them.

PEOPLE NOT TO APPROACH FOR PRODUCTION HELP

Me

Not because I don’t care (I am seriously rooting for you) but because I probably won’t be able to give much advice. All my advice is right here. Hell, I even asked for help putting this together.

FURTHER READING

Not all of this may be relevant to you, but definitely worth checking out

“So You Wanna Start A Podcast?” by Wolf 359’s Zach Valenti

Multitude Productions has some great resources on podcasting.

Audio Drama Thoughts by Brian Martinez Oldham

[free-notion-alternative]

Taskade is The Only App You Need for Work-Life Productivity

Forget email drafts, notes programs and to Do list supervisors: Taskade does everything and much more

Everything I have to keep my entire life is stored on line. Somewhere. I just can not think it is.

I'm discussing all of the account numbers, meeting notes, todo lists, contact info and column info I want to observe daily. And also the recipes I desire to cook, perfumes I want to decide to take to, also YouTube videos I should see. A number of the stuff resides within my email in box, and also even some in Google Docs. Then you can find really my Pinterest planks, miscellaneous bookmarks and also the Evernote accounts I cannot organize coherently.

In theory, the web can make it easier than ever before to maintain all I want a couple taps off. In fact, the world wide web has a method of fragmenting our own lives. It's like I wrote what in a laptop and got drunk, torn out every page and concealed them in various places around my property.

Taskade produces a excellent tool for simple todo lists, also also you're able to utilize photos, emojis and stock artwork to liven up them.

Photo: David Pierce/The Wall Street Journal

Over the last couple of weeks, an program named Taskade has let me turn chaos into order. Taskade combines a number of their most useful features of both all Google Docs, Excel and Dropbox, together with a great deal of task-management and organizational applications. Taskade Labs Chief Executive Ivan Zhao explains the product as"the next generation of Microsoft Office," that really can be really a small hyperbolic and much rough. Nonetheless, it's the very ideal life-organization tool I've tried.

Taskade combines the characteristics of a notetaking program, a task-management program and also a spreadsheet tool that the manner that Steve Jobs joined an I pod, a phone and an internet browser in to the iPhone: All the tools interact to make some thing more than its own parts.

I have to state that Taskade is quite costly: It features a small free routine, also costs $8 per month to get significant usage. Still, it may pay for itself from the programs that it stinks, and I've found it easily worth the price.

I finally have a full page together with of my airline and hotel devotion amounts at a bulleted list, above an image of my dental card and also an embedded map with instructions to my physician's office. I left data bases together with most of the current pictures, novels, TV shows, along with YouTube videos I want for at --each phone opens into a rich record along with my notes and thoughts. 

Taskade includes each of the interviews, research outlines and material for my own columns. I am getting married soon and'm bogged down my nuptial todo list daily.

One of Taskade's brand new features is that a database application, that you are able to view like a desk, a calendar and much more.

Photo: David Pierce/The Wall Street Journal

I was able to want five distinct programs to maintain all of this stuff directly. Now it has all in Taskade, a couple clicks or even a easy hunt off.

Block by Block

It may be a lot much simpler to believe about Taskade as being a super-simple site builder compared to a productivity program.

When you start a brand fresh page at the program, you are really creating a sterile grid on which you'll be able to set and arrange virtually anything. The program's basic element could be that your cube, which might possibly become considered described as a paragraph of text, a bulleted list, a desk, a graphic, a code snippet, a YouTube video, even a PDF plus much more. You add cubes using a faucet or computer short cut, then reorder and arrange them to a heart's content. You are able to very quickly alter the essence of a cube, too. As an example, you are able to choose a lot of text and then change it to a to do list. Taskade's basic part could be the cube, that carries many forms: links, text, graphics, bookmarks and much more. Click here Free Notion Competitor

Photo: David Pierce/The Wall Street Journal

Taskade is similar to baseball: easy to learn, difficult to perfect. The program itself looks fairly comfortable, with a tap to the left and also your receptive page about the correct side. It's a couple of decorative niceties, just such as the solution to bring a cover photo to the peak of every page.

When you first start the program, though, it will not have enough to help you know what it could perform. Even with weeks of using Taskade each day, I'm just figuring out the best methods to accomplish things while attempting to stay clear of making layout decisions that are horrible. Can I actually require a fullpage photo inside my to do list? My information: Make substantial utilization of Taskade's templates, just since they assist you to set pages out and reveal what the program's effective at.

There are Indigenous Taskade programs for Windows, Mac and also iOS. Mr. Zhao states that a Android program ought to be available within fourteen days. The internet program works superbly on mobile and desktop, too, also it has the specific same experience whichever platform you are using.

Taskade is very determined by connectivity. It works off line just with pages you've opened recently while attached which means whatever you could do is cross your hands each single time you start Taskade onto a plane. On the up side, you are able to upload tweets and YouTube videos, also entire pages, in just a Taskade record.

Photo: David Pierce/The Wall Street Journal

Though I utilize Taskade to remain in addition to my work and life (and you must too),'' Taskade is created for business organizations. It gives collaborative editing, in line opinions and useful tools for managing permissions and delegating tasks. In the event you utilize Slack, then you could possibly get alarms whenever somebody comments changes or on that a Taskade document. It's not a replacement for Slack or even Salesforce, nonetheless nevertheless, it can replace lots of the various equipment therefore many businesses utilize to store and share advice.

One-stop Shop

Matt Galligan, creator of those Picks and Shovels Co., also a Crypto Currency providers startup, provided a useful adviser for Taskade. He says with the program is like buying Amazon. Earlier,"stores specialized," he stated,"and they did a good job." Subsequently Amazon came and aggregated every thing. It maybe was not the ideal store for almost just about any single thing, however the onestop advantage managed to get unbeatable.

That's simply itTaskade isn't as successful a translation instrument as Excel, also it generally does not always possess a number of those task-management features I need --if an activity is expected, I would prefer a alert, for example. (Taskade states that is forthcoming.) The program has let me whittle the regions I maintain down stuff to two. I can not prevent email from arriving ; I could put every thing in Taskade.

Photo: David Pierce/The Wall Street Journal

There's many left to your own Taskade team todo, needless to say. Along with task alarms, additionally it is taking care of calendar sync, and PowerPoint-style demonstration features, a internet clipper, better off line service plus Android program. Additionally it is about to guide services like Zapier and If This Then That (IFTTT), that assists move data between programs. However, it does a lot more than some one of its competitors.

For years, I've slid around various notetaking programs and productivity programs, never quite pleased. Evernote makes it simple to catch information, however I liked the port. Google Docs and Keep do not provide enough capabilities. Trello, Asana along with other projectmanagement applications do not benefit notetaking.

Taskade combines the very greatest of every and every --along with many others --to some infrequent renaissance program, skillful in countless procedures of creation as well as company. I can not set a cost on the reassurance that originates in the unfragmented daily lifestyle. Waityes I will: It's eight bucks monthly.

[curtisandlewis]

Recently, I read 2K to 10K by Rachel Aaron and 5,000 Words Per Hour by Chris Fox. To paraphrase, these books claim that by using their techniques to get into a flow state you could conceivably have word counts of up to 10,000 in a single day. Guess what? I believe them. The flow state they both described is what I used to feel every single time I sat down to write. I could get 5,000 words in a single session and have the time of my life while doing it.

After 2015, anxiety and OCD got in the way of me getting into that flow state and I figure it’s worth the try to get back to it. I had already planned for March to be the month I write most of the fanfiction I post here throughout the year. So, what better time than to follow the techniques while I do each phase of writing and document the process all right here in this post. 

Zero Draft: A draft that isn’t structured enough to be a full first draft. I write it very fast and it’s the best way to get the story out. I write this using only Google Docs on my Ipad.

I know it’s only been two days but this turned out to be a real success. The process I followed was to meditate in the morning and spend the first ten minutes thinking about the fic and letting the scene play out like it would in a movie. This is how I applied their technique of visualization. I then give myself 5 or 10 minutes to prepare for my writing session. 

I play music by Troye Sivan because that matches the mood of the scene the best for me. 

The next thing I do is my own creation. I open a separate document (usually create a new note in Google Keep) and manifest what I want my writing session to be. I believe in the power of your thoughts to dictate your behavior and ultimate success if that’s not your thing feel free to skip that step. 

The last thing I do before actually opening my writing document is open Google Sheets on my Ipad and fill out my Word Sprint Tracker. Tracking your progress is essential in both these books. It’s been pretty fun watching my word count speed go up with each session. 

I have three apps open on my Ipad: Google Docs, Google Keep, and Google Sheets. Docs and Keep are in a split screen so I can write while seeing my outline or I can look at my manifesting note when my motivation starts to get down (I also put random ideas on there if I don’t want them cluttering my document)

The next step has helped me the most HANDS DOWN. I take five or so minutes and describe the scene. What is it about, what are the emotions I want to convey, what does it mean to the characters, and ultimately what is the freaking point!

That five minutes has increased my word count from 125 in a half-hour session to a solid 500 in every session and no more staring at the screen hating life because the words will just not come.

Start Date: 3/1 End Date: 3/2  Word Count: 2,076

First Draft: The typical first draft. All the gaps have been filled in and I’ve decided where I want the story to go. I will be writing on my laptop for this draft using only the writing program Scrivener. 

First, my process

Review outline 

Have a split-screen view of Google docs (Zero Draft) and Scrivener.

Copy zero draft to Scrivener by typing word for word

I love typing up the document over again. The zero draft serves as a map for when I get stuck and I’m free to expand or cut as I go. As for the laptop, I have pros and cons. 

PROS

I have my desktop free to play music, videos, or serve as a mood board for inspiration as I write. 

The screen is bigger than my Ipad and the keyboard is a lot easier to type on

CONS

It may be portable but it’s still heavy-ish. I can’t exactly wake up and start typing away.

The battery life doesn’t last very long so I have to keep it plugged in most of the time.

I’m leaning towards using the desktop for projects that are 20K+ words but shorter than that I think the laptop would be fine. I really enjoyed working at night with the lights turned off and my diffuser running. It created a nice mood, especially when writing the romantic/ sexy parts. I don’t think I would have the same experience writing on my desktop. Also, I’m totally hyped it only took me two days to write the first draft!

Start Date: 3/4 End Date: 3/7 (A total of 2 working days) Word Count: 2,501

Second Draft-Developmental Edit: For this draft and all the way up to posting I will be working only on my desktop. Since I use my desktop for everything not related to writing I thought it would be good to limit it to revision. It’s the idea if you use your bed for activities other than sleep than you’ll have a hard time sleeping. During revision, I can take my time and not have to worry about word count. Also if I inevitably get distracted by the internet it’s not as disastrous as if I was drafting. This is the first edit and I’ll be trying out a new process for this referencing 2k to 10k. 

Update the small outline I made before writing

Read the fic in Scrivener and make a comment for each thing I want to change (it’s similar to comment feature in google docs) this will be my to-do list (mentioned in 2K to 10K)  

Open my second writing program Liquid Story Binder and start with the biggest problem on my to-do list

I’ll take the section of text that I want to change from scrivener and copy it to Liquid Story Binder where I will make the change and paste it back into Scrivener. Focusing on a small section of text at a time helps with my anxiety.  

It only took about an hour or so to do this so I can’t say how I feel yet about using the desktop. I do think it was helpful having Liquid Story Binder to focus on a specific text, especially when working on pacing.

Start Date: 3/8 End Date: 3/8 Word Count: 2,553  

Grammar Edit: This phase is pretty much how it sounds. Same as before I copy and paste small sections of text into the Hemingway editor and make the changes there. 

This may be my least favorite phase of the writing process. It’s very tedious and I don’t like being reminded how much I abuse the word “just.” As for working only on the desktop, I feel the extra screen real estate helps a lot.

Here’s the resulting document

Start Date:3/8 End Date:3/8 Word Count: 2,628  

 Last full Developmental Edit: Working only in Scrivener I’ll read the whole story from beginning to end, make my to-do list and make all the changes directly in Scrivener.

This serves mostly as another read. Usually, if something is giving me anxiety I’ll take this time to see if I can change it while still being true to the characters and the story I want to tell. This time I just took twenty minutes and read through it, marking up a couple of more typos.

Start Date: 3/9 End Date: 3/9 Word Count: 2,647

Prepare for posting: This is the most tedious part of the process. 

Write the summary

Hopefully, I can name the damn fic at that point

Add all the general information about the fic (Pairings, Warnings, notes, etc...)

 Read the fic and list Somethings to Look Foward To

All the tags...      

Start Date: 3/13 End Date: 3/13  

Last line edit: I read through again going line by line fixing any typos or grammatical errors and really paying attention to how the words flow. 

Working on the desktop probably works the best for this phase. I’m depressed and had to force myself to finish this fic. I’m not writing anymore in March or April. Luckily this experiment was only for one fic and I do have a better understanding of what process works for me. However, I won’t be able to test it out until May.

Start Date: 3/13 End Date: 3/13 Word Count: 2,392

Post!

[angst-in-space]

hi! do you mind briefly describing your writing process? i've been trying to get into it lately, but i've never written before and i'm curious about how you do it :D

hello anon! first of all, congrats on starting your writing journey - that's very exciting and i wish you the best!

obviously everyone's writing process is different, so what works for me may not work for every writer in the world. but below is an explanation of what my own process is (sorry it’s so long lol):

when i first get an idea, i start a document that has two sections: a brainstorming section and an outlining section.

the brainstorming section is the more "messy" section where i spill out ideas as they come to me with no particular order/structure (the general concept, the characters' roles in the story, random scenes i want to include, etc.)

then i start outlining. outlines vary widely from writer to writer; i know some writers who have very detailed scene-by-scene outlines, some who have very loose outlines, and some who don’t outline at all. personally, i tend to do a bulleted list of events in the story from start to finish. this can of course be flexible and subject to change when i actually begin writing––but before i start, i like to have a fairly detailed plan of everything that happens in the story.

while i’m not saying you have to do this, i’ll say that in my own experience it helps tremendously in the long-run. i find that if i have a full outline before i start writing, i have a much better sense of direction and purpose which prevents me from hitting a wall. it’s like having a little GPS with me, taking me from point to point - but as i actually make my way through, i might find some better/alternate routes along the way. ;)

once i have a full outline, i start writing. i always write things chronologically (from start to finish); i know a lot of authors prefer to write scenes out of order, so do whatever works for you! personally i’ve always written things in order just because i feel like it helps me kind of “live out” the story alongside the characters, gauge how the pacing feels along the way, etc.

i think writing that rough draft is probably the most challenging part and it’s a little tricky to advise how to go about doing it since everyone’s brains works differently. i think it’s important to remember through this process that your rough draft is not final, and that you can always go back and change things if it’s not working.

i also think it helps to set goals for yourself. these could be word goals (like “i’m gonna write 100 words a day”) or time goals (“i’m gonna write for 30 mins every day”). i have a lot of issues with concentration/motivation, so having little goals like that can be useful for me. note that, of course, if you can’t always meet your goals it’s okay––life happens, some days you’ll feel more motivated than others, and any progress at all is still progress! and progress can also include brainstorming, editing, etc.

if you’re like me and have trouble focusing, there’s a few helpful tools out there you might check out. i’m a big fan of write or die, a site where you can choose a time/word goal and try to reach the word goal before time runs out. despite its intense name, it has “reward”, “consequence”, and “stimulus” modes; i’m a bigger fan of the reward and stimulus modes which reward you with positive sounds/images as you write (whereas consequence mode makes annoying noises at you if you stop writing for too long lol). i also use cold turkey writer pretty religiously; it’s an app where you set a word or time goal and it blocks out everything else on your computer until you reach that goal.

once i have a complete rough draft, i generally will give myself at least a couple days to step back from it before i start editing. i find it’s helpful to have that brief mental break and to come back to the piece with fresh eyes.

i start with minor edits first (i.e. looking for typos and other small mistakes, taking out unnecessary words, etc.). As I do this, I flag any parts that feel awkward or not fleshed out enough; I don’t delve too deep into fixing those yet, just make a note to myself like “the end of this scene feels abrupt,” or “this dialogue doesn’t seem quite right and i don’t know why” and so forth (i use google docs so i just use the comments feature for this; i know microsoft word has something similar).

once i’ve done most of the minor edits, i go back and work on the bigger problems i.e. flow issues, reworking sentences/dialogue, etc. if i’m not sure how to fix something after trying it a couple ways, i just leave it and make a note to my betas that i need some advice on that part.

i hand off the fic/chapter to my betas once i’ve done at least one round of edits. i know some writers don’t use betas so it depends on what works for you, but typically i don’t post something without having at least 1-2 people look it over first. i usually leave a few notes for my betas letting them know if there are specific scenes i want some advice on, things i’m not sure about or worried about, etc.

once the piece has been beta’d, i do another round of edits where i make any final changes––mostly minor things, but there’s usually a couple of bigger things i want to fix (i.e. if there are scenes/sections my betas flagged because they thought it could be fleshed out some more).

then…..*drumroll*......i post the fic! (and then lather, rinse, repeat because i have like 5 wips at all times oops).

anyway this got incredibly long and i hope it’s not too overwhelming, but tl;dr my process is: brainstorm, outline, write the first draft, edits round #1, send to betas, edits round #2, post. i hope this helps and if you have any other questions i’m happy to help!

[phandomficfests]

Writer’s Corner: starboydjh

Introductions

First things first, tell us a little about yourself. My name is Hadley and I’m a 22 year old college student from Florida majoring in Graphic Design and Social Media Marketing, with minors in Biblical Literature and Marketing. I’m an officer for the Phi Theta Kappa honor society, a student of my school’s honors college, a former internationally ranked Irish dancer, and a proud vegan! I’m also a big fan of true crime, horror movies, video games, photography, and broadway musicals. Yknow, the usual twenty-something stuff.

Where can people find your writing? On AO3, under starboydjh.

How long have you been writing for? Officially writing and posting online, I want to say just about ten years now!

Tell us about your current project. I’m currently working on a couple of different projects. I’m working on a secret project for the Spring Fic Exchange, and I’m also working on a sequel to my fic Code Black. I’m doing the prewriting for a couple of different TV crossovers as well, which include a Criminal Minds AU, a Game of Thrones AU, and a Dexter AU.

What is your current word count? Altogether for my W.I.P’s, I want to say around 35k!

Questions On Writing

How do you stay motivated between chapters/stories? I’m a “when the mood strikes” sort of writer, and once I find a concept I like I dive headfirst straight into it! I finished Like A Computer in a day and the initial write of Code Black in a week, although Code Black ended up taking an entire year front to back to write. In between stories or for motivation during stories, I keep up with content that I enjoy and basically live my daily live and try and insert my favorite characters into those scenarios and see what I think would be interesting to read with Dan and Phil as the center of it.

What was the first fanfic that you wrote? Do you still have access to it? The first fanfic that I wrote was a hand written Green Day self-insert fanfic when I was in the 6th grade, and trust me, its existence has been burned for a long long time!

How do you deal with writer’s block? I’ll usually change the playlist I’m listening to, go for a walk on the beach, or if neither of those work, disengage entirely from writing for the day and come back to it the next day. For Dan and Phil fics specifically, I’ll go back and watch their Undertale series as a way to help jumpstart my creativity as it pertains to their voices, words, and actions. I feel like a big part of writing for real people is that I want the story to fit things they would actually do and say. I want my writing to fit their personalities and how I think they would react to specific situations, and having a window into this like the Undertale series is a great way to help me picture their voices saying certain lines and their bodies doing certain actions.

What is your ideal writing environment? My favorite local coffee shop, Subculture Coffee Roasters. Shoutout to Squid and Moses!

Are there any tropes you initially hated but grew to like? I initially hated pastelxpunk... like, with a passion hated it. But after reading some fics with plot lines I enjoyed and that broke the mold of the traditional trope of the trope, so to speak, I grew to love it.

What program do you use to write in? Does what you write in make a difference to your productivity? I write in Google Docs, and I definitely think that the word processor plays a role in my productivity. For both of my minor courses, we have to write a lot of papers, and so using Word makes me think that I’m writing a paper for a class and I feel puts a lot of pressure on me to make it good the first time around. Google Docs has been my go to for as long as it’s been readily available to me, so I’m most used to using that.

How much planning and outlining did you do before you started putting words on paper? Has it been pretty smooth sailing or rough waters? When things get rocky, how do you handle needing to rewrite sections or scrap scenes entirely? I’m the kind of person who likes to have an entire story finished before posting, so I don’t let the story get away from itself. Because of this, I have to plan the entire story, or at least the major plot points, before I begin any writing. 99% of the time, my outlines or notes for plot points are handwritten, as I feel sitting down and typing them out again puts too much pressure on me to make the ideas good the first time around, when the outlining portion is a process. It’s been pretty smooth sailing thus far, and I like the way that I do things. When I need to rewrite scenes or scrap them, I usually just five second rule it (if you haven’t read The Five Second Rule do it, it’ll change your life), hit the backspace key, and start over. You can’t dwell on the bad stuff because you won’t get to the good stuff if you’re stuck on it.

Are there things you’re afraid to write? Smut, just because I don’t have a lot of experience writing it and I wouldn’t even know where to begin!

Don’t forget that you can check out Hadley on tumblr at @starboydjh or on AO3 here. If you’d like to be on the list for a Writer’s Corner feature, sign up here!

[nickgerlich]

Better Late Than Never

I see it all the time in grocery stores. With up to 30,000 new items introduced each year, all vying for a slot in stores that can carry 45,000 different items, it is competitive sport. Of those 30,000 items, only a handful are true innovations. That leaves the vast majority of new products to fall into one of two categories: line extensions and me-toos.

Line extensions are often easy, inexpensive implementations, if only because they involve new flavor variants and the like. Me-toos, though, happen when a company has ceded first-mover advantage to another, but then must scurry to catch up. So Company B burns some midnight oil developing their own version or interpretation of what Company A just did. To be caught without might be catastrophic.

Which is precisely what Google felt when ChatGPT was introduced last November, and Microsoft quickly hitched its wagon to it. That has all changed now. Say hello to Google’s Bard, officially introduced this week, but in limited numbers. Hurry on over to the online sign-up sheet so you can get on the wait list.

While it is ideal for the me-too to go one better than the OG, sometimes it truly is just a matter of duplicating to try to save face and remain in the race. Google, though, swears it is including features not included in the first ChatGPT iteration. Of course, that is up for debate, since GPT4 was announced a week ago with many new features.

This still leaves Facebook without a horse in this race, although parent company Meta swears they are working on one too. The Big Three are all convinced that AI is so critical to the future of their businesses that there is a land rush going on to attract as well as retain market share.

Google promises that Bard will do a better job at creating essay outlines as well as documenting sources used, but can also be used for event planning and even meal creation. Imagine uploading a picture of the inside of your fridge, and getting suggestions for dinner based on what you have. That’s pretty cool, and starts to sound like the item recognition I suggested yesterday to help alleviate theft at self-check stands.

The bigger picture that we as students and academics must take in is that there is a revolution happening before our very eyes. I seriously doubt that AI is a fad that will be forgotten in a few years. This is nearly as big as the introduction of the original search engines themselves. It’s paradigm-shifting and life-changing all at the same time. And we will be telling our kids and grandkids for years to come of how we had to search the old-fashioned way, the digital equivalent of walking uphill to school both ways. In snow.

Google plans for Bard to be a complementary feature, effectively a stand-alone product. But it also plans to incorporate AI into its productivity suite, which includes Google Docs, Sheets, and Gmail. Of course, Google had to include this, because Microsoft has already announced plans to include ChatGPT in its Office Suite.

Say it with me: Me. Too. Because you just have to sometimes.

As a loyal Google user, I am glad they are adding AI to its other products. I drifted away from Microsoft products years ago, choosing to export a file from Google file format to Microsoft as a matter of courtesy for others reading my work, or to meet requirements, like for a journal article submission. I do all my writing in Google Docs.

The current launch is not without some snickering, though, because a month ago when Bard was in hasty product development, there was a significant blunder that went public. The faux pas was so big that Google shares dropped 7.7% that day, leaving Google with egg on its face.

And therein lies the problem with me-toos. Sometimes it is easy to fire off a near duplicate product, especially if the innovation is not big. But in the case of Google, it appears that they (and Facebook, let’s be fair) have been broadsided by something they simply did not see coming, or at least not last November. They quite literally had to work 24/7 to try to rush their version to market, and along the way, made some missteps.

Given everyone’s fascination with ChatGPT, they had no choice but to double down. In less than half a year, AI has become a household word, and because services have been free—so far, at least—we could all take it out for a test drive.

Bard’s trickle-out release is likely a wise move for Google, because early adopters will essentially be product testers. Any new flaws can be addressed without the masses having access, which is good for Google. They don’t need any more egg on their face.

I’ve already joined the wait list, and have formulated my first query: What was life like before AI search? Bard’s reply will be a story I get to tell in the years ahead. I just wonder if Bard will acknowledge the fact that it wasn’t the first horse out of the gate. Because Company Bs would like to make their Me-Too status go away. Because that’s also like having egg on your face.


Dr “Search Me“ Gerlich

Audio Blog

[cheetahleopard]

If you’re still taking the ask thing 15-25 please. have a great day/night E>

 THANK YOU FOR THE ASK GOD ANON!!!!!! I’M HAPPY TO SEE YOU AGAIN =D <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 HAVE A GREAT YEARRRRRR

15- Why did you start writing?

For fandom? I started posting my works because I was encouraged by how good the community was and I had plenty of ideas

16- are there any characters who haunt you?

 I NEED TO WRITE SATORI ISSEI AND YUUJI MORE AND THE FACT THAT I HAVEN’T POSTED MUCH WITH THEM HAUNTS ME EVERY DAY

17- if you could give your fledgling author self any advice what would it be?

 Write down every idea, don’t take shit, and make sure to always tag your fandoms.

18- Were there any works you read that affected you so much that it influenced your writing style?

 I always liked to write stuff poetically, and in a kind of magic/surreal style, but I was especially impacted by Rivers Run Through Me, Four Idiots In A House, Threadbare, the chiaroscuro series, and a few others that I can’t remember the names of rn =|

19- when it comes to more complicated narratives, how do you keep track of outlines, characters, development, timeline, etc?

 When I come up with long AUs I usually will be vcing with friends so I’ll voice record myself talking about them! I usually then transfer the ideas to and organize them on Wavemaker Novel Writing Software!!

20- do you write in long sit-down sessions or in little spurts?

 Mostly depends on how much time I have and how long the thing is going to be tbh. I have like 12 docs open rn and I usually write the beginning few sentences, then go and write a lot in a long session, then write the ending separately. Otherwise I might do a write spree week or so where I try to write roughly 2.5k a day (see my Writing Sprees AO3 Series) My goal is to do a nanowrimo spree this year if I can figure out a long enough plot!

21- What do you think when you read over your older works? 

 It depends which work it is but my 2016 stuff makes me cringe although I am glad to see my improvement

22- are there any subjects that make you uncomfortable to write?

 Ones that are heavy/life-changing that I haven’t experienced. For example, I can’t write about the struggles of a wheelchair user or a blind person because I don’t want to portray something disrespectfully. I also don’t write relationships with dynamics that make me uncomfortable 

23- Any obscure life experiences that you feel have helped your writing?

 I wouldn’t be writing if not for the encouragement of my 4th grade teacher forever ago, and also the way my mind works and how that’s changed some life experiences.

24- have you ever become an expert on something you previously knew nothing about, in order to better a scene or story?

 *is starting to learn Japanese* I learned a lot about volleyball! Also vampires, for like, a flash second

25- Copy/past a few sentences or a short paragraph that you’re particularly proud of

 Hmmm there’s a lot to chose from. I guess most recent and ones that aren’t already on tumblr or AO3 would be between these 3

1)

“ Cold comes first, dancing through unseen but not unfelt. The air thickens in response, moisture becoming evident and hanging heavy in clumps of particles.

 A silhouette overlooking the calm shifts slightly, observing as each lessened inch of visibility is overtaken by opaque blankness. “It will never work,” a voice warns, and the figure turns, fog shifting aside in the movement.  “Does that matter?” The owner of the voice steps out of the blankness, features blurred but frown evident in their stance.  “You disapprove,” the figure notes, toneless to the point of sarcasm. The impression of the frown grows deeper. “Ah well,” The figure turns back to the bowl of fog below, their body becoming intangible and wisps of fog threading through the space they had occupied, “this will be what becomes of my worthless pride.” The last thing to disappear is their dangerous smirk. “

2) this is just a sentence but I love it

“ If you pray to someone’s soul, Satori wonders, can you make them your god? “

3) Another longer one

“  Flashes of yellow dance and swirl through the air, sunlight glinting off of each particle as the wind moves them, following any whim that crosses the spirit's mind. It's been a slow day. The sun has come and gone twice already, and no human has wandered in the gate. That is what humans call a day, right? Without human interference time was so simple. Never ending but uncategorized. A cycle of renewal. Now there are labels, ideas and connotations behind everything and applying to nothing. Without humans, many things were simple. Magic, especially. Everything had a form of magic that could be used, everything had a spirit representation. And then came along humans. Without usable magic, non believing, and yet... knowledgeable? Able to warp reality based upon only what they believe wholeheartedly. Dangerous. Blind. Blind but with eyes wide open, worshiping. Or destroying. A sigh disrupts the path of the particles, before the winds release them to drop to the grown unceremoniously. Despite there being not a cloud overhead, the air is remiss of the calm before a storm. The point of total stillness and simplicity, frozen forever in a sacred ground. It brings about the impression of complete certainty, of an inevitable. And for some, it inspires helplessness. “