#Well a good motivation to keep writing

[memorys-skyscraper]

characters who have genuinely good intentions and motivations and care about their friends/companions while also lying to those same people with nearly every breath are like playdough to me- you can squish and stretch and shape them infinitely bc the question of "where does the lying end" can be applied to so many things and go so many ways and has basically infinite answers, so every time im presented with such a character i feel like a dog that's been handed a bone bigger than its head

[johnslittlespoon]

Hello, I need to know how long do you plan TaS to be? Or maybe how many chapters will it be? Because I need to get mentally prepared for the end from now on otherwise I think I'll have a panic attack when one day you say we're at the end of the fic. 😬 Of course if you don't know or the plan is changing it's alright, just want to ask. 😇

PLS this made me gigggleeee but we're gonna have to buckle up bc as of now it's looking like it's gonna be btwn 20–30 chapters LOL. i have no good guesses for word count since the chapter lengths seem to fluctuate between 8–25k atp but we're in for the long haul according to my outline doc (which is at 36k words in itself lmfaooo)

the plan def changes every so often but mostly just little things because i have the whole fic planned out from start to finish! so i can't give an exact chapter count since often i end up having to split chapter plans into two, but that's my best guesstimate atm, and i'll ofc post about it when we start getting closer to the end.

if it helps, i'm planning for the length of this fic to span from july 2005 to sometime in the summer of 2006 (excluding the epilogue), so when the dates at the start of chapters start creeping into june... you'll know we're nearing the end </33 i'm so Afraid LOL

[asthedeathoflight]

chapter 4 is really just the wish fulfillment chapter for me which you'd think would mean that its cool and fun and good things happen in it. but you'd be wrong.

[vriendenboekjes]

another application sent out another rejection 😍

[runebears]

sorry im just thinking about bcs but like. why not add a few smaller scenes of gus interacting with his own men? why does it seem like, in comparison, mike is almost immediately elevated to a higher status than those two in bcs purely because we actually get to see him having normal conversations with gus? like i understand they might not keep the plot moving as well because of the fact obviously if victor is currently doing something it’s because gus told him to etc. but for the most part all of the smaller interactions gus does have with those two ends up being in a somewhat high stress situation where it feels very tense between everyone. and it’s just like damn! is it always like that?? why do those two even care that much about their jobs if their boss is a bit of a dick? etc. i think even an additional scene or two with those guys (either alone or the both of them) talking with gus in a more normal situation could’ve both added a bit more depth into how gus treats his employees (we got a lot with how he treats lyle and co., but not a whole lot with the illegal side of things), how comfortable vic and tyrus feel around him in a calmer setting, and exactly why they both feel the need to be as loyal as they are to the guy.

and also on the other side of this i don't think it'd hurt to maybe elaborate on their pay just a bit..? i'm not saying to randomly put a number out into the atmosphere but i just mean some smaller things like. do they buy nicer things for themselves? what's their housing situation? what's their car situation? are the escalade / yukon their own vehicles or does gus just use those two for business situations? do they use them when they're doing their own stuff off the clock or do they have their own cars? etc. that can also help with understanding their motivations a bit. don't get me wrong i don't think they should be visibly rich or something because that's not what gus would want but just smaller things! cause it's easy to write their loyalty off as Well they probably get paid super well, which i'm sure is true, but if they don't show a single hint of that then what's the point. even something as simple as giving tyrus a nice watch, or maybe victor having a nicer looking gun, etc. something small like that. because as it stands right now the average 41 year old viewer who watched the show once only knows and will only ever know victor and tyrus as those two guys in the background who do random stuff for gus with no clear motivation. just the personification of "On it boss (salute emoji)". and to be honest this is true for a whole lot of fans who do watch the show multiple times and enjoy thinking about it more in depth, because on screen we barely have anything about the two.

and to be clear i'm not trying to say we should have an episode just for them or something like no i understand they're side characters. i understand we don't need all that. and i understand this is also primarily Jimmy's show. but it's not like these two are on the same level as like, arlo or paige and kevin etc. these guys have been around since brba. victor was literally introduced in the same episode gus was. and they are a huge part of gus's story, especially in brba. s4 wouldn't have been what it was without victor and tyrus. and in bcs, ignacio's situation wouldn't have been the same if it weren't for victor and tyrus as well. and i just personally believe that if their goal with gus in bcs was to go back and elaborate on how everything came to be and show what he was like a few years younger, they could've dragged victor and tyrus into that. and i think his character would've benefited from taking that extra step with those two.

[neonforgetmenot]

today someone saved Snakes and Lattes to a reading list entitled “F*ckers who will never update :)” 

and that was it. 

that was the spite fuel i needed to open up the neglected word doc. 

[the-cookie-of-doom]

Im writing this smut scene and it's from Kim's PoV, but he's so horny on main that it feels like he's taking advantage of Chay even though he ISNT but im kjahdfksdf what did I do???

[orchideae]

My apologies for the short absence, I (still) tend to disappear a bit during the beginning of each month due to every payment in the book coming out of me at that time. So as that happens and I ensure all is tended to, I become a bit of a social hermit on Discord and am mostly hiding in Genshin.But please know that I've seen DMs and will be getting to them as I slowly re-emerge, but please know I'm not ignoring anyone! Also, also, Fontaine's AQ is hands-down my favorite out of all of them.

Focalors (and Furina) is immensely well-written and I'm so, very insanely impressed with Hoyo's writing for her. Holy shit. Also, the fact this happened in the region that's inspired by France and Britain to some extent? Of course, why wouldn't it? But also, the light foreshadowing from previous nations, the continuous and built-on talk of sacrifice for humanity, for the sovereigns? But even on top of that, we're in the nation of hydro. Cryo is obviously the element that pulls on the heartstrings because of obvious characters like Wriothesley and Kaeya, but has no one ever looked at the hydro characters? Dedication and devotion, responsibility, selflessness, and even-sacrifice, they all stand at the very core of each character. Meshing that in with the inspiration used for the nation, the foreshadowing from especially Sumeru— self-sacrifice was kind of in the cards all along.

But honestly, in terms of execution? Chef's kiss, chef's kiss.

[plantsandpies]

Personal opinion: if a fandom has to argue over ships and the main ship is one of lowers options, you didn’t write their relationship well. If they are the main couple but one of them is paired with someone or multiple someones, you didn’t write the main pair well enough.

For a good example: tbhk does have other ships, of course, but the main ships are the intended ones. Yeah some people ship yashiro and Kou, but that’s a rarer ship than yashiro and hanako and Kou and mitsuba, which are the main ones you’ll find.

For a bad example: mha has a like a million ships. But the top one isn’t deku and uraraka. It’s deku with a bunch of different guys. That isn’t the fandom taking over with their gayness. It’s deku and uraraka’s relationship not being developed well. It’s uraraka not being a well done character that the fandom will love. It’s bakugo and deku’s relationship as friends getting more attention than uraraka and deku’s romantic relationship.

When it comes to ships, for me, I’m fine with any ship as long as they are both well done characters with a real, well developed relationship. The reason a fandom becomes so ship filled is because the writers didn’t make the romance right. (And maybe because (at least for anime) male writers aren’t focused on their female characters or literally made them to be girlfriends (that last thing is a particular writer btw) if it’s Disney it’s because they’re soulless and don’t care).

If it doesn’t have any romance, then it’s just the fans. But ships all depend on character chemistry. You need the romance to be obvious. Definitely don’t add a rival if you’re worried though cause that could do the opposite of what you want. Do you remember Edward vs Jacob? Jacob was never going to be an option, but the war happened because they weren’t written well.

[paparoach]

i think once again it will be early to bed for me </3

[inevitablestars]

just saw a tiktok that was the published book version of "i dont read wips" where someone complained about and said they wont read an unfinished series.... babe how do you think a series would finish being published if people arent reading it

[jonathanrook]

i'm genuinely mad that i have no motivation to write this fucking fic ;-;

[wishmemel]

the way my page has regressed to me just trying to keep up with my moots — i am sooo tired rn n just trying to make sure everyone else is doing well <33

[jichanxo]

still on the topic of titles: though i can see why you wouldn't, but isn't it hard for you to let go of placeholder names? and an unrelated new question: if i remember correctly, in senseific, you've completed writing the kuwagami part, but not the school stories part? do you have a problem with stringing it together, so that the relationships/events would fit with e/o naturally? (i hope i phrased that coherent enough)

this is long as usual, so

on titles:

the working titles are too literal and functional for me to get that attached to them, I think. It’s just shorthand for the larger idea itself. I suppose if there’s a placeholder title I like enough, then I’d keep it/adapt it into something similar. Funnily enough I’m probably likelier to think of titles/captions for my drawn artworks, though the file names themselves are still super literal lmao. those ones are usually the ones I’ve planned out in advance, because I want to convey a specific idea and it can be hard to do that visually without having a plan. 

obligatory examples: this arasawa piece -- the text itself was a key part of the storytelling, so this one was decided early, about the same time as my initial sketches. it's two parts, duty and desire, conveyed in imagery and words, both important. this schrödinger's cat themed umineko artwork -- i didn't really have anything concrete for this for a long while, but this was always about flux and uncertainty, so the words were always floating around in my head when i was making this.

on senseific:

STRINGING THE TWO PLOTLINES TOGETHER, OH BOY. this is very much something I have to just… wait and see on. If my process for the kuwagami plotline is any indication, then I probably will have to rewrite/shift things around when I find something doesn’t work. That’s part of why I made an excel sheet for this fic, so I (hopefully) can see which parts aren’t meshing and how I might be able to resolve them. Move things around, put them earlier or later, etc. and of course, there needs to be breathing room so it feels like they have lives that exist outside of each other. I’m feeling kind of nervous thinking about it right now. I suppose I just have to try?

I have tried to consider where these two plotlines would interact, but I just need more details to make sure I get it right, hence my need for note taking. I've also left a bunch of gaps so that there's room to let it grow in between kuwagami stuff.

The school related (as in, including school stories but also other stuff that takes place there) stuff I have right now is something like: 

Thing I invented for the intro

Follow up to this, resolution, lead into kuwagami story beat 

the conclusion to the dance club story (as far as my vague memory could get me), but With Kitakata. since the dance club is so early, it was an easy choice as a kind of starting point

Itokura related thing I invented and desperately need to flesh out 

Follow up to that 

(Imagine a big gap of time here) 

6. big moment that’s simultaneously a kuwagami beat and a school story beat -- yagami's continued refusal to trust kitakata or let him in on the investigation, resulting in the two of them getting into a physical fight. amasawa ends up going to sawa sensei to get them to break it up, and yagami realises that kitakata has a right to be worried for his students and shutting him out was a dick move actually (spoilers? but I’ve already talked about this scene before, so…) 

and from this last point it's pretty obvious that kitakata has to be involved with the conclusion of the case. i haven't written anything yet because i need to do the rest first, but this is almost certainly happening despite not being written down yet

but yeah, because my process is Like This, I kind of have no choice but to present the story in chronological order to make sure that everything progresses logically. ...honestly the structure of the ever-changing is obscenely impressive to me, I suppose it’s the power of planning — that you can go back and forth in time while keeping it meaningful and coherent. I love it so much… I will never stop singing the praises of the ever-changing, genuinely...

anyway, while i say the kuwagami plot is done, it's still pretty open, it's just that i've locked in what i think the major conflicts and resolutions are for that relationship. there's still room for the other plot to grow into (i hope) and in worst case I can tinker a bit with rewriting some stuff to make it work.

[pinkseas]

when the line changes from meaning "im the ruler of my own world" to "i finally have worth because i am finally the ruler" because this character has never been allowed to break the rules and never been in control of their own life. and now that they HAVE broken their every most significant rule in the worst, most traumatizing ways possible, they've both changed drastically as a person and warped the entire situation in their head: they blame themselves, they KNOW that the situation is their own fault, but they cannot handle the weight of that guilt and have forced themselves to blame absolutely Anyone else instead because of it. in losing everything that defined them as a person and Taking control for the first time in their life out of an inability to face themselves and their own actions, they think that they've finally found worth in themselves, that they were meant to be the ruler. that THIS was god's plan and what they were meant to be all along. and even then, supposedly having finally broken the rules and their meaning and their worth, they're still not actually in control. they're in denial of the truth of what happened in spite of knowing it deep down, they've lost everything that defined them as a person and have NO idea how to find it again or to discover themselves without it, and though their revenge plot has given them power over perhaps the entire world they still aren't actually the one in control. taking revenge and pleasing the only gods they know for certain exist is one last desperate, terrified attempt to save themselves from the consequence of what they've done and from ever having to face themselves.

[neverendingford]

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