#i also do not like the idea of working more than 5hrs/daily

[strifetime]

me, after working for one week: holy heck i'm over this

[starlightkun]

sorry if you've gotten this ask before aljrksjd

you don't have to answer this, but I just wanted to know how you write longform fics or just long pieces in general. it's one of the things I've struggled with as a writer, and I'm having a hard time trying to figure out how I could go about it or do it.

I'd be so grateful if you could provide some advice or suggestions 🥹🥹

i want u to know that i saw this ask when u sent it, but i had a 5hr drive today and wanted to make sure i had time to answer this!! it's under the cut bc i yapped a bit <33

so one thing that i feel the need to say up top is that i never go into pieces with a "goal" length/word count (often times my fics end up being longer than i expected/intended). because i never really write with the goal of a specific length in mind, these are things that i think have helped me write more cohesive and narratively fulfilling pieces in general, which tends to make my fics longer

my first thing is planning/outlining!! i used to just write my fics start to finish in one go with little to no planning, and since i've started slowing down and taking my time outlining/planning beforehand (and even during the drafting process i continue adding to my outline), i've seen the average lengths of my fics go up a lot. you don't have to have every single scene, moment, and piece of dialogue planned out before start writing (lord knows i never do), but you should have a pretty good idea of the major story beats, character dynamics, and any important conflicts, and make sure it's written down in a way that's easy for you to refer back to while you write. never think you're gonna keep it all in your head

build out your characters' lives!! i love introducing a good b-plot involving the main character's friends (see: strawberry sunday) that doesn't take too much attention away from the main plot that it seems out of place, but instead complements the main plot and allows there to be space in between those major plot beats for the readers and the characters to breathe. it also helps make your characters feel more well-rounded and real to the readers if you throw in a scene of their daily life at school or work or with their friends/family both to add texture to them but also to your world. it can also be good to use an establishing scene towards the beginning of their daily life, then a similar one towards to the end that shows any character development, or some other impactful change that happened during your story. instead of just telling us that everything in your character's life changed, show us how it did (or didn't! or maybe it only changed a little, but the little change was important, too)

in a similar vein, build out your world!! im not saying to spend ten pages describing an intricate magic system to us that has little bearing on the plot itself, but feel free to weave in extra details about where/when we are and how the characters interact (or dont!) with the world around them (even if its our normal old world in the modern day)

and i mean i guess my last thing that's really helped me is just sort of getting out my head when it comes to writing? like, not forcing myself to write everyday, not having any sort of word count goals, no posting schedule, etc. just letting myself sit with my ideas for a while and really play around and have fun with them. it's made writing fic something that i look forward to doing when i come from work, or when the weekend is approaching, and i genuinely am making probably my favorite things that i've ever made right now. and they happen to be pretty long!!

i've talked some more about my writing process in some other asks (x, x, x, x, x, x) and i have a writing tag where i post about more general writing stuff if you want to hear me yap some more

[fuck-customers]

Finally quit my awful fast food job a while ago. I was finally able to cut my hours without losing my position so i could focus more on school, but i was still struggling and my job was just /killing me/ even tho by then i was working 10hrs a week instead of my usual 20-25+ during a semester. I would work a 5hr on Saturday and Sunday, but more often than not I was the ONLY manager on shift bc no other shift managers were scheduled and the gm always had things to do during my shift specifically, especially during the two hours I had 5-8 people, and having 7/8 was a VERY lucky day. Not to mention very few of the crew on my shift were cross trained, so if i was short someone in service or in the kitchen, i was just fucked. And I didnt get the proper recognition either, except by the coworker who I sometimes handed my shift off to who said I gave him a good shift bc i tried to use my very last hour, typically the only hour i had enough staff to do so, to stock and clean for him bc i couldnt deal with the idea of getting bitched for a messy store even though I just wasnt getting staffed like i shoulr by the scheduling manager and GM. Im also a very feminine presenting person who is short, not very strong, and is in my early 20s so being the only manager (and sometimes one of if not the oldest) in the store was also incredibly stressful bc i had to be scared about getting the wrong kind of pissed off customer. They started cracking down on every little thing the last few months too- exact uniforms, phone use, /daily deepclean walkthroughs for every shift manager every time they run shift/... It was just exhausting. My last straw was getting a week suspension over something incredibly petty when i was already so damn exhausted. Ive literally had to clean feces off the wall at this place before, and had to deal with so much bullshit from higher ups and worked my ass into the ground just bc i was scared i had no other opprotunities. So glad i finally said fuck it. Im doing so, so much better.