#if you're worried about reading wips don't be part 1 is its own contained story from part 2

[the-priestess-of-dawn]

Chapters: 1/2 Fandom: Fire Emblem Heroes, Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Chrom/Gimurei | Grima, Chrom/My Unit | Reflet | Robin Characters: Chrom (Fire Emblem), Gimurei | Grima, My Unit | Reflet | Robin Additional Tags: Brave Chrom - Freeform, Fell Exalt Chrom, Bodyswap, (and they stay that way), life go wrong? just trade places with a you whose life went wrong in the other direction, brave chrom goes to the bad timeline to give grima love and hope, fell exalt chrom goes to the post-sacrifice ending timeline to lead ylisse Summary:

Brave Chrom, having had time to reflect on where his life went wrong, now longs for a second chance to meet Grima and be the friend he should have been to his tactician-gone-dragon. Fell Exalt Chrom, now freed from Grima's control in Askr, would do anything for a second chance at living. The two decide to swap their bodies and their lives, ultimately thriving under the very conditions their other self loathed.

[ardenrabbit]

Do you have any advice for keeping motivation going when writing longer fics? I’ve tried a couple times to write longer fics but my motivation almost always dies out quickly even when I have ideas galore. I get really sad that I’ve never written anything over like 14k 😭

Aaaah idk if I'm qualified to give writing advice but I'll try! If these don't work for you, please ignore them!!

I think my best advice might be my favorite technique: WRITE OUT OF ORDER. Think chapters ahead and write scenes or even just snippets for things toward the end of the story you have in mind, even if you change the outline and end up cutting those scenes later. If you need, have a different doc just for writing future scenes or put the snippets under a cut at the bottom of your wip doc. It'll give you a goal to work towards and help you think about the story as a whole. So just, I guess, pick the scenes you're most excited about throughout the entire story and start with those, and the rest will follow as you get excited about the scenes that fill in the gaps. Don't be afraid to write messy. Nothing is wasted; even the scenes that you cut help you explore and process the ones that stay.

I think I'm kind of just obsessive as a person and I get writing blinders, like. I'm cranky if I go too many hours at a time without writing, so I'm almost constantly writing on my phone. If you only write on your computer and find yourself losing momentum, maybe try writing on your phone whenever you have an idea for accessibility's sake? It could keep your story on your mind and keep the juices flowing.

Another thing is to REREAD YOUR WRITING. Start from the beginning of your fic and just reread what you have, and the inertia might help you remember or come up with what happens next. This kind of goes hand-in-hand with the general "write what you want to read" and tbh it helps you fall in love with your own writing.

One of my weaknesses is that I get too many different fic ideas, so I keep ONE doc per fandom with just blurbs of different AUs separated by line breaks lol. That helps me keep the runaway ideas contained, and if there's one that gets too big because I can't stop writing for it, it graduates to its own doc and becomes an active wip (I still have too many tbh but I'm trying to just stick with the ones I'm posting for now).

If you have ideas galore for one wip you want to work on, write them down in a list, no matter how disorganized. When you're IN your passion for writing that idea, get down as many scenes or even just blurbs you like about it while the energy lasts. Hopefully that can help hook your attention on it, because you'll have already devoted attention to your favorite parts of it. Don't try to organize the ideas as you go; you can clean up later. Don't even worry if the scenes conflict while you're still playing around with them. Just create and write freely while you're feeling the height of your motivation. And don't worry!! Even if you lose motivation for a while, it doesn't mean it won't come back!! Don't let a loss of inertia make you feel discouraged!!

So I guess in summary:

1. Write the scenes you're excited about, regardless of order or outline, and cut and organize later

2. Keep your wip at your fingertips

3. Reread your writing

4. Contain the other wip ideas

5. Losing steam for a while doesn't mean the end!

I hope this contains something helpful for you! Everyone's writing process is different and mine's a mess, but it's a fun mess.

Honest to goodness, do you have any advice for me on writing oneshots?? Probably my biggest downfall is that I can't wrap oneshots up neatly and finish a short work. I admire people who can take an idea and conclude it efficiently. 😭