#snippet of the fic i'm trying to write. i'm 4k words in but struggling

[prosennas]

“Max, can you hear me? How many fingers am I holding up?”

“Uh… four, right?”

“No, it was three”.

“George, stop it!”

The two Brits kept snickering at each other quietly while Max tried to compose himself. “It was four, Max.” George clarified, “Are you alright?”

The streets of Monte Carlo were spinning as Max tried to ease his head off the back wall at Jimmyz. “Was I knocked out?”

“You ended up being pushed into the middle of some fight going on and we think your head got done in. Here, take a couple sips of this”. His two clubbing partners were looming over him as Alex brought the glass of water to Max’s lips. “You wouldn’t want to go back in there after all that, we assume”.

“Uh, no, I’m afraid not, aha-” The temples of Max’s eyes immediately stung as he tried to laugh off the pain, ironically.

“Don’t say anything, we got you,” George insisted on taking care of Max after all the commotion. He put his hand behind Max’s skull as a form of cushioning. “We care about you, alright?”

It was a bit awkward with the position Max was in, because he couldn’t nod or anything to show his gratitude. All he could say was, “Yeah. I know… I know.” When he repeats himself, he sighs a little. He knows George isn’t evil. George knows Max isn’t evil. They’ve never really gotten to know each other like that, though. Alex was the buffer that connected them. It showed in the way George gripped onto Alex’s shoulder trying to steady himself — he too was likely tipsy. God, they really are close friends…

Sometimes Max wonders what it would be like sharing their closeness.

He doesn’t know if he can.

[xechu]

I’ve been working on a heian era!sukuna x fem!reader mini series for a while now, and I think I’m finally ok to commit to the direction it’s headed. Hence why I'm also ok with saying that there's officially something in the works for it. I'm looking to release the prologue and chapter 1 within the first two weeks of January. I went back and forth so much on this one. Literally, one day this was a oneshot, the next day it's a full-blown series. And I changed the direction of this story at least five times.

I've always strayed away from writing series fics for a plethora of reasons, but mainly it's because I have commitment issues, and releasing work that is still "ongoing" greatly stresses me out, because I feel like l have to see it through to the end. I need to pick a struggle. But anyway, it's always healthy to try something outside of your comfort zone.

I thought I'd try my hand at a mini series first. To be honest, I don't know what constitutes as a 'mini series', is it based by number of chapters, or word count? Hmmm. I'm looking at about 6 chapters, each of them is a relatively short read around 2-4k words. Could this have been a oneshot? Most definitely. But let me cook.

Here is a little snippet:

[jfleamont]

20 QUESTIONS GAME

Thanks @practicecourts for the tag!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

13

2. What's your total AO3 words count?

15,980

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Mainly HP.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Rain (179 kudos), Hand Cramps (87 kudos), Rules Don't Apply (86 kudos), Do You Want To Know A Secret (72 kudos) and I Saw Her Standing There (56 kudos). Hand Cramps and Rules Don't Apply are for another fandom, though (Julie And The Phantoms).

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Always. Always. Who doesn't? They literally make me so happy, they're all so nice and kind!

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Definitely All My Friends Are Gonna Be Strangers, since it's set right after Halloween 1981 and it's from Remus' POV.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Either I've Just Seen A Face or I Saw Her Standing There. They're both get-together fics so I'm sure James and Lily were rather happy about that.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

No, thankfully!

9. Do you write smut. If so what kind?

I don't, but I'd love to. I just don't feel confident enough at the moment so I suppose I'll wait until I have more fics under my belt.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

No, I even struggle writing outside of canon so crossovers are out of the questions (for me, at least).

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of and I'd be surprised if that happened. I'd be a bit flattered, though, not gonna lie (I absolutely don't condone it, of course).

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, but I've considered translating some of mine in Italian (my mother tongue). However, I physically cringe if I really think about it because I don't think I can write fiction in my mother tongue. It feels foreign to me (lol). It doesn't come naturally.

13. Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

Nope. I'd love to, though!

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

Honestly I have no idea, because I've been in so many fandoms in my 27 years of life but I guess Jily. It's weird to think about it because I've been a HP fan since I was a kid, and I had always been fascinated by the Marauders but for some reason I never thought about reading fics about them, and I've created stories in my mind set in the HP world but with different ships or OCs, and their dynamics were exactly like James and Lily's (enemies to lovers, soldiers in the war and so on). It's like my subconscious was trying to tell me something. I got into Jily fairly recently, in late 2021 and usually I hyperfixate on a fandom or ship for 5-6 months max, but i'ts been over two years and I'm still as obsessed with them if not more. Jily has been the ship I've been looking for my whole life.

15. What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

It's either my 7th year get-together canon fic I'm Looking Through You (I've posted the first of three snippets in August 2022 and I haven't worked on it since March) because it has angst and canon-typical violence and they're exhausting to write, and I have written maybe 3k but I expect it to be at least 12k and I've never written anything over 4k and I don't think I'm capable; that, or my Muggle AU All Things Must Pass, which is sad as fuck because James dies in it and I have only written two scenes and I wept like a baby (also, this is supposed to be a long one too, 10k at least, and I don't think my heart can take it right now).

16. What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue, I think. I love writing it so much, I'm usually very proud of it and I've gotten a few compliments about it.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Literally everything else. I don't know how to write descriptions, they feel forced most of the time and the few times that I write something I like rest assured that it took me hours to make it work.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

That's technically my whole thing since I'm a native Italian speaker lol; I also speak French and Spanish and when they randomly appear in a fic, I can tell when they're written by someone who isn't fluent. I don't mind it though. I'd probably feel comfortable writing dialogue only in Italian, but I suppose I could try with the other two languages.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Either The Chronicles of Narnia in 2008 or something, or One Direction in 2011 (I hate myself for it now, because I don't like fics about real people).

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

Ah, this is hard! Should I say Rain? I'm really proud of it because it was a real challenge, but I have a soft spot for my Blackevans friendship one-shot Do You Want To Know A Secret? and I've wanted to write a sequel to that for the longest time.

I'm tagging @kay-elle-cee, @nodirectionhome-ao3 @jamesunderwater @startanewdream @annasghosts and whoever wants to do it! I don't know if you've already been tagged and it's okay if you don't feel like doing :)

[ltleflrt]

Because I regard you essentially as royalty in terms of Destiel fic, can you maybe give us a basic rundown on how to write a fic? Or a detailed one, if you want. Like, what is your process? How do you plan it out? How/when do you pick a title? Because I've tried before to write multi-chapter fics and I just end up giving up on it because I either took too long between updates because ya know life and forgot things or because I didn't plan enough and no longer know what I'm doing.

Hold on hold on hold on...

*walks away for a minute and muppet flails*

Okay, I’m back, and thank you for the sweet compliment! :D

So, my process; I have one!  I didn’t used to think so, because it felt chaotic and without form, but as I’ve started helping other people with their writing I’ve started to see a pattern in how I come up with stories and make them happen.

Obviously the first step is the The Idea.  I get them from all over the place.  I’m a daydreamer, so sometimes they just pop up out of the blue, and in a lot of cases they’re inspired by some other media.  A book, a fic, a movie, a song... I think that’s pretty common.  I also have a tendency of looking at my favorite tropes (and I mean REALLY LOOKING, by consuming any and all of it I can find lol) and thinking to myself, “how can I flip that upside down?”.  

Kiss the Baker was the result of reading all the Gay Panic Dean fics I could find and reading them until I started wondering if there would ever be a universe where Dean didn’t have a gay panic.  

The idea for Satin and Sawdust came from the fact that I’ve written two fics tagged “Dean Thinks He’s Heterosexual” and it made me wonder why I never see any Gay Panic Castiel fics.  

Anyway, ideas come from all over.  And they’re fleeting, so I write them all down.  I have a huge list.  Whenever one of those AU lists comes around on my dash I copy my favorites into my list.  It’s very long lol.  Which is good, because sometimes I’ll come up with an idea like “I want to see Cas be the one who thinks he’s het this time” and get stuck.  Like wtf do I do next?

Answer: I refer back to The List.  Because sometimes I can pick out several of those ideas and smush them together.  I took Carpenter!Dean, and Dean Loves Wearing Panties from the list, and scrolled down until I found Veterinarian AU, and I start trying to connect the dots.

Remember in writing classes in Jr High and High School we were taught to make those bubble charts?  You write something in a bubble, and then branch off bubbles around it?  I do that in my head.  I start making things connect.  I cross out things that won’t fit.  I have a special file for whatever story idea I’m working on and it looks vaguely like an outline because it’s that list of ideas with notes for ideas, or snippets of conversation.  If I chat about it with my friends (almost always @jupiterjames) I’ll copy/paste those conversations into that file.  I’ll list songs... anything that gives me a feel for what’s starting to form.  If I have any title ideas they’ll go in there too.

Speaking of titles, THEY’RE HARD.  I hate them.  Occasionally something will pop in my head before I even start working on the fic, and I swear that angels sing when that happens.  But for the most part I have to brainstorm and brainstorm, and get advise from friends, and I google quotes about themes I think my story will encompass.  It’s a struggle.  My least favorite part of the writing process next to connecting large plot points lol.  But I’ve gotta have a title before I post it, so I’ll have something by the time I’m done with the first chapter.  

Just for funsies, here’s my notes file for Satin and Sawdust.

Anywho, that’s all the developing stuff.  I don’t actually go into the notes file all that much afterwards.  When I have big gaps between chapters I will, plus I’ll re-read everything I’ve written already.  But I hold quite a bit of that junk in my head. If you’re having problems remembering, make the file!  Visit it often!

Believe it or not, at this point, the story is still pretty nebulous.  I’ll usually have several directions the story can take at different junctions, and I don’t think too hard about them until I get there.  I think about my stories in more detail a chapter at a time.  I focus on a single scene, or the small group of scenes that are related enough to put in a single chapter.  I zero in on those details and forget about what’s going to come afterwards.  

Breaking down the larger idea into smaller chunks is the only way I can work myself through a 100k+ beast without going mad.  And honestly, I still drive myself a little crazy.  I have to stop looking at the big picture, or I’ll give up just because the idea is too overwhelming.

Once I’ve got a chapter done, then I take a few days and I start considering the cloudy visions in my head and pluck out the scene I think needs to come next.  It usually takes me 2-4 days of contemplation before I’m ready to sit down and make words happen again.  Writing a 4k-8k chapter takes me 2-3 days.  So between the contemplation break and the actual writing, I take about a week.  

Life definitely gets in the way sometimes.  When I was in the middle of Addicted To You, I had reconstructive surgery on my face.  I was doped up on super strong pain meds and couldn’t wear my glasses for almost a month.  So obviously I took some time off, and I was SO MISERABLE (seriously, don’t break your face, it’s the worst) that I couldn’t even think about the story, much less writing.  When I felt well enough to get back to it I re-read what I had already twice, plus went over my notes file, plus I listened to all the dirty sex songs I could find to get my mind back into the groove for it.  It felt like doing homework, but it was the only way I could remember wtf I was doing.  I’m sure I lost some of my initial plans, but that’s normal with any story I work on.  And it turned out okay lol

And last of all, find someone who’ll let you ramble at them about your stories.  Someone who will genuinely pay attention, not just nod and smile.  I did a lot of writing on my own, but a lot of my Dragon Age and Mass Effect fics wouldn’t exist without @hot-elf being my sounding board and cheerleader.  And same goes for my Supernatural fics and @jupiterjames.  I would probably have written just a tiny fraction of my stories if it weren’t for them.  Chatting about my stories helps me develop my ideas, and keeps me motivated.  When I’m stressed I’ll send a chapter to JJ with just a request to Validate Me! and she always knows how to talk me out of my angst.  I will talk out my ideas with other people as well, but they’ve been the biggest influences on my writing, so THANKS LADIES I LOVE YOU! 

Writing Buddies Are The Best.  

Anyway, that’s about all I have to say about my process.  I hope it answered all your questions and gave you some ideas on how to work on your own stuff.  And if you ever have an idea you want to talk about, feel free to send me chat messages :D