#author woes

[haley-lana]

[fiestylilmetalbendingqueen]

Even tho Siuan does not make an appearance in the first chapter of this fic, I need to know what type of nickname she would give the twins. And yes it has to be fish related but I don't know anything as cute as Pufferfish 😭😭😭.

[monokub-twice-removed]

When I can’t find fanfiction of a character I really like:

[kiraxcute]

Commenters who harass writer's for updates are the worse kind of people

[mrflay]

Let me rant a bit about the thing I'm trying to write.

It started a few years ago, when I suddenly thought "you know what? Remus Lupin is allowed to have more than ONE partner in his 38 years of life, I don't really have to choose between my favourite ship, the fandom's favourite ship and the canon ship, I can just put them all in the same story."

It kinda works with the timeline, you know. I can easily start with the fan favourite Sirius during the Marauders era, make them briefly break up after the "prank", add a tiny bit of Snupin - but it has to stop before Snape's Worst Memory. I can go back with Sirius and Remus after that, why not, I just have to be a bit thoughtful about why they were both so keen on thinking the other was a Voldemort's spy before Lily and James death.

After that I can go back to Snupin, and I get to complicate it even more after POA when Sirius is back, which is always a fun thing to write. I'll probably need to stick to the canon plot with Sirius' death, which is a thing I despise, but it gives me the canon scenario with Tonks, and...

Ok, I'm spoiling the story a bit too much, but I actually wanted to make a point - no, two points:

Holy fuck that's a long-ass fanfiction, I don't even know where to start! As a matter of fact, I started it from four different points in the last 5 years or so. Sometime I decide I can skip the Marauders era altogether, or just sprinkle some flashbacks about it. Sometime I decide the Marauders era is the most important one and I should skip some other things down the line. Sometime I decide that linear narrative isn't for me and I should start near the end, or the middle, and just go backwards - then I remember that the reader should at least be able to understand wtf is going on without taking notes about the timeline of a long-ass fic.

The second issue is... this would probably not be very palatable for wolfstar fans. And snupin fans. AND remadora (is that right?) fans. It doesn't really have a "all right, that's the endgame ship and they will live happily ever after" set-up. It's more of a "they're all very messy but the important thing were the friends we made along the way while being assholes". Now, this is only a false issue. I can very easily just write and publish it for my own reading pleasure, but... it is a LONG fic. The longest I've ever attempted. It's not the easiest thing, getting to work on something this massive, and wondering if someone else would actually like it.

That's all, I guess. Rant's over!

[commehter]

Have I Mentioned my Wariness of OCs?

The next two chapters (29 & 30) of SToFLO are looking like they're going to be completely from OC perspectives. They're the right POV for intriguing storytelling, I think, but I'm a bit irritated with myself for breaking from Zu-Ozai's (or even canon!character) POV for that long.

It's my own hangup regarding fanfic, but I've read so many author's darling OCs that I've developed an aversion to focussing too much on my own OCs. My OCs are generally created to fill out the cast and bring the world to life, not hog attention. I know OCs aren't what the audience is reading a fanfic story for -- We're here for the characters we've already come to love and their adventures beyond canon in a world that fascinates us. -- and yet, the next few scenes play better from a FN guard's and WT prisoner's outsider POV and I don't have any canon characters to fill those roles.

I suppose I could sacrifice some of the worldbuilding to switch the POV, but I have some tentative plans for the future that would be best setup as early as possible. (There was more worldbuilding that already got cut for flow reasons, btw.)

The real kicker (for good or ill, the jury is out) is that while writing chapter 29, I suddenly realized that between Yasu (FN guard) being largely based on season 1 Zuko and Kallik (WT prisoner) taking on an increasing resemblance to Hakoda, I've effectively created some kind of reverse, bootleg version of Salvage by MuffinLance. So, great news! The character dynamics are definitely fun to play with! Less great news, I've inadvertently created a (nearly) direct comparison point for my own storytelling and original characters to an author that is legendary for both in my fandom. ...Help! (Yes, I understand it's not a 1v1 death match competition, but still, intimidating!)

Oh well. Despite my reluctance to focus in on OCs in fanfic and the trepidation/amusement at accidentally creating Twilight Zone!Salvage, I do think the chapters are solid writing. So I'm moving on to proofing and post-prepping chapter 29.

See y'all on the 28th! Happy reading!

[wolf-and-raven-dreaming]

Love it when trying to send the newest page to myself, it just doesn't want to load. 😑

[pb-dot]

The morning is a risky time for us author types. Most of the time you wake up like I assume most folks wake up, perception of time slightly syrupy from not being quite awake yet. Other times, you awake with creative energy, or a fresh solution to a writing problem you've been struggling with. Other times you wake up with a thought as clear as it is terrible, "I'm going to have to restructure/make new choreography for that fight scene don't I?" Three guesses as to what happened to me today.

[ja-gul-writes]

Not really doing Nanowrimo

Partially because my health decides my writing speed, and partially because as soon as there's outside influence telling me to do a certain thing, I very strongly want to NOT do the thing. It's like when you're about to go and do the dishes and then someone says 'hey can you do the dishes' and now suddenly you don't want to do them despite fully planning on it.

I can report that book 3 is over half done. And it's been like that for a while because I hit a roadblock (I also write fanfic and sometimes I get stuck in that loop for a bit), but I'm re-reading what I have written so far for book 3 and getting excited to finish it. I'm at just about 40k words, and generally I get it up to roughly 60k words before I go to the edit phase.

I've gone this whole time without knowing what to title it though. And then I have to work on the cover.

I realize I'm basically talking into the void since I don't have any interactions on here, but I prefer this over tiktok most of the time.

Book 3 was originally going to be the final book, but now it's turned into 4 books. I am both pleased and annoyed at this because I was hoping to finish book 3 and publish it, and then work on a series of short stories and publish them in December.

Book 4 is probably also going to involve a giant mermaid. Because reasons (and because a giant centaur would technically break amazon's rules because of the horse body, while mermaids don't technically break the rules because they aren't based on a real animal).

[sleepy-timaeus]

does anyone else get an ungodly amount of joy reading old fics they made when they were preteen & a young teen?

like, i was arching some old fics from FFN onto ao3, and one of them made me so amused and wanting to rewatch the media it was based on. and then i went to my old wattpad account and saw some old original stories and fanfics i wrote in middle school and! oh my god, i was just sitting there giggling at the stuff i wrote. some of it was genuinely entertaining to me, and other bits were delightful simply bc i know how happy it made a younger me? bitch thought they were cookin. i love it. i wanna unlock whatever joy tiny me had when writing, that allowed them to just write and not worry about perfection.

i feel like now i get writers block so bad bc im always wondering if my idea is lowkey stupid, or if anyone will like it. back then, i didnt worry about either of those things! at least, not to this extent. (also im p sure young me didnt think any of my ideas were stupid. lil bab just wanted to get her ideas out into the world).

man, i need to allow myself to write more nonsense again.

[haley-lana]

CALM DOWN, SATAN

[sinisterexaggerator]

Life kicking my butt knowing all I wanna do is write fanfic. Stuck at 8k. :/ Not for lack of ideas or motivation, but lack of energy and time.

Love writing. Would love to do it again someday. >(

[volterran-wine]

𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐦𝐞 𝐅𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐱, 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐈 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐝...

I am quite certain, that I will be crucified for what I am about to put dear Felix through. If I suddenly disappear, know that the mob has got to my house.

(In other news; the tale of Felix’s turning is likely the next story I post)

[thebahwrites]

Joining the summer exchange and I just know I’m gonna regret this immensely

[riftwalker-limbro]

kelth can't out-stubborn vince but they sure can out-logic him.

also, goddamnit kelth, stop rolling natural 20s on perception. and goddammit vince, don't make me add a part 6 to scarred. just get on with it.

[asyouleft]

Honestly, how soon is too soon to post a new fic? I ended my last one 4 days ago and now I'm sitting on 2 unrelated completed fics.

I don't know why this matters, lol. Anxiety is telling me not to flood people with my fics but I don't know how long to actually wait!