#it’s important to the plot. the plot I’ve never written down and am just keeping in my mind palace lmfao

[ovrarches]

Missed ur flower au😭🤍

Also love ur cane thomas hc to it, it gave me ideas to my personal aus<33

I love your AUs<3

Cane Thomas you will always be famous!!!

(it’s the fuck you bouquet from that one tumblr post)

[clonebrainrot]

So I came across an article it was basically Dave Filoni talking about how he does endings

The important quote is

I think that in some ways you want each season to have a feeling of an ending. But in a lot of what I’ve done, I don’t like hard endings”

And this is very true. Look at Rebels, the clone wars and to a lesser extent the bad batch. Although I think a wholly separate post can be made a very long one on Dave’s influence and or lack thereof on the bad batch. It definitely fits into no hard endings.

But I also think you need a hard ending eventually. Sure you could theoretically keep making things with the characters, but eventually I as the creator of stories like to end them. Due to my poor writing skills I have never written my fanfiction down, but while I was younger say between the ages of 8-15 I would verbally tell my friends my stories. The point is. While I am not a writer I have been known to tell a good story. And eventually any good story needs an ending.

But Star Wars currently thrives off the no hard endings rule. Because they always return to the characters.

It’s why I think I have continued to get more and more disappointed with Ahsoka’s continuing story. There were times you could have had great endings for the character such as Twilight of the apprentice.

Hell a hard ending doesn’t even need to be death. Take the bad batch as an example. While the no hard ending rule definitely applies to characters such as Omega, Echo, Rex, Emerie. It does feel like the ending we got for Crosshair, Wrecker and Hunter was the hardest ending we have gotten in Star Wars in a long time. And I am completely happy with that fact.

A story needs an end. Now of course this is my opinion, but if you keep doing soft endings you’ll eventually get to the point in a decade or two where you grow tired of the character and just stop following it up.

Hard endings are important for a story because it means it’s done.

Now I have a feeling many of you may disagree with me. I want to stress though I am not saying soft endings are bad. I liked the bad batch and TCW and rebels. All three shows have soft endings. I am saying following a show up with another soft ending after another soft ending. And then never doing a hard ending is a bad idea. Because eventually you run out of the story and you just end it forever on a soft ending. And that in itself isn’t satisfying. It’s why I personally prefer shorter fanfiction. Or completed fanfiction.

Doesn’t mean I won’t read long stories. I do. But a part of me gets bummed when there is no ending because a creative abandoned it. In the Ahsoka movie Dave has a fantastic opportunity to do a hard ending. Do I think he’ll take it? All signs point to no.

Again this may just be me. But my point here is I do think you should have a general hard ending in mind for characters and plots. And I honestly don’t think Filoni does. Because he likes playing with the characters so much. Maybe he’ll prove me wrong.

Maybe this is why I like the ending of Revenge of the Sith so much. Because while it isn’t a hard ending. In many ways it is a hard ending for those characters. Padme dies. Anakin for all intents and purposes dies and the man Obi Wan was is buried deep down. It’s a hard ending for who those characters are.

Just my two cents.

Also this doesn’t reflect my opinion on spinoffs. I think that’s a wholly different debate.

So I think soft endings are fine as long as you do have a hard ending in mind eventually.

[tryslora]

Hi

Do you have any advice on dialogue and how to make it flow?

I'm constantly stuck with "he said as he looked away"

"He smirked and replied"

It never feels flowy

I don't write fics I mostly write OC stuff so I have to build around my characters to really put them together.

It's just having my quiet and stoic character respond to the hyperactive pyromaniac is hard because one doesn't speak much and the other speaks too much.

Or when my other two characters are in the conversation it gets all messy and hard to keep up with who is talking and what they're doing.

Maybe I'm just blind to my own writing and don't see everything I want to see, yknow?

Hullo, Nonnie.

I’m so sorry for taking so long to reply to this question! Life has been… a particular form of chaos for the last couple of months, and I’m trying to wrangle all my tasks under control now. Which includes keeping up with responses and blogging!

ANYWAY. You’ve asked a really great question, and I’ll admit, I might struggle to answer it.

I’m one of those folks for whom the personalities come first—complete with dialogue patterns and habits—before I get descriptions, setting, plot, or oh… anything else… so breaking down how to best make your dialogue snappy and flow means taking a step back from what I do and looking at how I do it.

This is going to be a mix of advice from how I do things, and advice I’ve adopted and found useful from other writers.

First and foremost: there are two parts to creating natural, flowing dialogue. One is the dialogue itself—the words the characters choose, and how they come out—and the other is the description around it (such as the dialogue tags you reference in your examples). They have different focuses, but both are important to how the text flows.

I’m going to drop a caveat here first, because it’s my downfall: we, as humans (and uh, especially those of us with ADHD, *cough cough me*), have a tendency to repeat ourselves. We also um, ah, like, y’know, a lot. Some of this is fantastic in dialogue. Too much can change flow into drag. So. With everything else I say, please take that into account as well. When I’m editing, I have been learning to trim out the spaces where I am saying or doing the same thing multiple times in a few paragraphs. BUT. That’s the important part—it can ALL be fixed in edits!

Let’s talk words first. You say you have quiet and stoic character matched up with a hyperactive chatterbox (a dynamic I enjoy). And you’re right, this can be tough when the stoic character is like “grunt” or “mm” or “yeah” and there’s nothing else coming out. BUT. This is true to the character and gives great insight—in this case, the character’s actual dialogue is going to come from their actions. So, we’ll get to that.

The thing with the stoic character is that every word needs to mean something. Every word they say is going to be solid and important because they say so little. It might even be overloaded. I’ll admit, with this kind of character, I love writing from their POV because I can put the few words out into the open, but let them ramble inside their own head (which yes, can sometimes be like pulling teeth). I get that flow out of their thoughts more than what they say. The freebie story I drafted for my newsletter subscribers is an outtake missing scene from my next book written from the point of view of my (more) stoic character in the book, because I wanted to play with that myself.

For the chatterbox, I’m curious—do they talk so much in order to hide what they’re really feeling? I know most of my talkative characters are spilling everything in order to hide in plain sight. After all, if you’ve left every card on the table, no one can claim you’re hiding something. Even if you are leaving that one important thing out (keeping a last ace up your sleeve), no one will notice in the glut of other information.

One way to handle this is to have the stoic character really listen and pay attention to what’s underneath all the chatter. Let them respond to the one thing that really means something in the flow of words, which might stop your chatterbox in their tracks. Being seen/heard can be a shock for the kind of character who lets it all hang out.

Let’s get back to those dialogue tags and talk about actions. Every character (every person!) has body language that does a lot of the talking for them. If someone’s arms are crossed, they might be resistant to and idea, or they might be cold, or they might be trying to hold themself still. One of the things I’ve done is to roleplay my character through a scene—move like they move, fall into why they say what they say, and what they do when they are not saying something to hold back. What actions do they take, and how can I put that on the page? Not just movement, but also what do they smell/see, what’s going on inside their head, and all the why involved.

And here’s the thing: sometimes “He says” is a valid way to do it. It’s okay. Let the dialogue do its thing and don’t worry. Remember, you can add blocking later, if you need it. 

Here, quick example from one of my serialized pieces:

“I don’t feel like I can talk to Hannah.” Nevaeh scrunches up her nose. “God, no, I don’t mean that I want to be involved with her. Just. She was so weird about Stevie, and I think she might get even weirder if I asked Liz out. And I don’t know if Liz is even ready to do dating things. Or if she’s into girls! We’ve never talked about it. Why is it all so weird and complicated?” That’s one thing Pawel can answer. “Because humans are gloriously complicated beings, and we have a tendency to take even things that could be simple and overcomplicate them by worrying at them. Anxiety, intelligence, fear… they all make things feel big. And these questions are both very big and very small all at once.” “Because labels are helpful, but not necessary,” Nevaeh says. “Because they make it easier and harder all at once.” “Yes.” He’s not sure if she really gets it, so he adds, “Follow your heart.” “Is that what you do?” No, it’s not. Pawel has too many things to weigh before he can make any decisions. His career. The kids in his care. His own son. There are so many variables in his life, and he hasn’t had any chance to just leap after emotional responses. Not since Conor was conceived. Not since Chelsea first disappeared. “When I can.” He glances sideways at her, away from where Alanna and Jennie have finally stopped their game and are on the swings. “I’m glad you feel comfortable talking to me.”

This is a chatterbox teen talking to the guy her two dads are trying to bring into their relationship. And Pawel is a chatterbox as well, but he’s definitely the kind who will talk constantly in order to not say a lot of things, which is illustrated by letting him ramble internally in the final paragraph of the example.

Also, they’ve been given a setting where they are both somewhat distracted by two of Neveah’s siblings playing at the park, so they have something to do. If I were better, I’d have included things about summer scents, the sky, etc. etc. in the descriptions (they are my downfall).

If you look at the dialogue, you’ll see that the sentences are all over the place in length. Long ones, short ones, and ones that aren’t much more than fragments. I try to echo how people really talk, but avoid the pitfalls of things getting circular or buried in extra words (except Neveah says “like” a lot and it is absolutely on purpose).

One of the biggest things for me is being inside the head of the point of view character. Being able to hear the things they don’t say can really help when it feels like they aren’t saying anything, and you a build a whole story in those subtleties. Kind of like having subtitles that interpret what’s happening rather than what’s said.

If you have a lot of characters, it’s going to get confusing—90% of the book I excerpted above included multiple adults on screen and 7 or 8 kids. It was chaos. People talk over each other. In those cases a simple “Neveah says” is the easiest tag. Let them talk, and let the dialogue shine. And if characters have quirks, let those shine, too. If someone’s screaming about sugary desserts in that book, it’s probably Jennie—no need for an attribution. Growling is Leo. Finishing each others’ sentences are Emma and Conor. Spattered with “like” is Neveah. Little quirks and details are things you can hang a lot on.

And just to say… yeah, we’re all blind to our own writing. It happens. We are so close to our own words that it’s hard to see them as words anymore. I usually have to set something aside for months if I want to do a truly deep edit on it, because I need to see it as Not Mine first. Then I can be objective. Do you have a reader? Either an alpha cheerleader, or a beta you trust? That’s the best. They can tell you if they trip over something, or if something feels stilted. Or if you’ve had someone shrug six times on one page (I certainly do that, like, all the freakin’  TIME).

And in the end, less is more. It’s okay to strip things back and focus more on sentence length and how words taste in your mouth if you read them aloud. It’s okay to write just the conversation first, then figure out how they move around each other while talking. It’s okay to write the blocking first, then fit the dialogue around that. Sometimes stepping back to one piece of the puzzle helps the other one shine in your mind’s eye.

I’ve rambled a lot, and I’m not sure if this is what you were looking for. And uh, again, I’m sorry how late this response it. I really hope you are still here and see this!!

Best of luck with your words, Nonnie. And remember: whatever you write today, that’s another step on your writing journey. It’s okay to delete them, edit them, love them, put them in a box for later… whatever you want to do. Just write them, and tomorrow write a little more. Even if this isn’t your final book, pieces of it will come back in another way later. I’m currently writing “fic” of people I’ve been building over the last uhhh thirty or so years. 

Enjoy your characters and your stories. And remember, everything comes with time. Keep writing, and keep learning. You’ve got this!

[lavendermoonlitskies]

Life updates that nobody asked for <3

Hi. So my life has been kind of hectic lately and it has been really hard finding comfort in anything, but I think I might slowly be coming out of that stage. I posted a little while ago that my dad might have cancer for the second time in his life and I was kind of falling apart at the thought of it, and now it has been confirmed that it is, in fact, cancer.

The good news is it’s localized, which means that in its current state, it’s a small tumor and it hasn’t spread, so all hope has not been lost, which is what I think I was really afraid of. Someone told me that the hardest part is waiting for test results and not having any idea what the future looks like, and I think that’s true because even though it was bad news, we are not experiencing the worst case scenario at this point. That could be set to change, but I would drive myself insane if I keep thinking about it like that, so I’ll try not to. He has a treatment plan, and that’s gonna go on for another couple months before they reassess and figure out where to go from there. I still have hope that it will go away, and I think it’s really important for me to hang onto that for my own sanity.

With everything going on, with all the crippling anxiety that goes along with it, I still have the urge to create. I’m not the best writer, I’m sure my work at this point is littered with mistakes and it’s clear to any professional that I am most certainly not, well, a professional. I know my writing hasn’t reached that much of an audience and I am so okay with that, but it brings me joy. I’ve always had little stories floating around in my head and this last year has been the first time in a while I’ve actually sat down and put it to paper (or perhaps more accurately to a google doc that’s never going to be printed on actual paper).

I know that the gap between the time I posted the first chapter of The Road Less Traveled (GO fic) and whenever I’m going to finally update it again keeps getting larger, but it crossed my mind again today and I remembered all my plans for it, and even though things in my real life look bleak right now, I almost felt excited for just a moment. It’s going to be slow, but I want to keep this story going, so I’m just going to have to be patient with myself.

In addition to that, I’ve been reading a lot of original novels lately and I feel inspired. I’ve never written anything that even comes close to a full-length novel, but I have this concept and I think it’s a good one. I’ve created characters, plotted stuff out, and even written a scene or two, so I guess I’ll just have to see where it goes. I think that this has kind of always been something I’ve wanted to do in the back of my mind, and with where I am in life right now maybe it’s as good a time as ever to try something new just because. I’ve let depression and anxiety consume me before, so even though this is a very real and very scary situation that could go in a lot of different directions, I don’t think I want to let myself do that this time.

November is coming up (sort of), and I know that that’s a really important month for writers, so I’m sort of getting myself ready for that. People are organizing NaNoWriMo alternatives, so I might jump in on one of those (side note: fuck the NaNoWriMo people for claiming that denouncing the use of AI in creative spaces is “ableist.” As a disabled person, that is a deeply insulting misuse of a word that is meant to shed light on the real issues disabled people face every day). I am an amateur, I don’t know what I’m doing at all, but maybe there’s something beautiful in someone who doesn’t have any “credentials” as a writer/artist/etc. just creating something because they want to.

[domini-porter]

Hello, as someone who is no writer but an avit reader of your stories I kind of have a question.

Have you got the plot all drafted out in your head before you start writing or does it come as you go? Cause to me it feels like extremely difficult to write towards something you don't know the ending of. But again not a writer but very curious how your mind works and comes up with these brilliant stories.

Hi hello!!!! Thank you for asking!!!

Short answer: it’s both!

Usually I have one strong image or scene or concept and go from there (Maura doing taxidermy in a fancy dress kicked off the whole thing, for example, or knowing I wanted to do something partly set in an asylum). As for the plots—my approach to how I write the books is kind of changing as I write more of them. The first couple were really me discovering what was happening in real time—sometimes it’s literally like I’m experiencing the story as a reader too, except in order to keep reading I have to type the words first, which probably doesn’t make sense. But it’s super-exciting!

Sometimes I’ll be cruising along and then a character will say something totally unexpected (to me) which sends things in new or different directions, or sets up a whole big story beat I really didn’t see coming. This happens to a lot of writers—it’s incredibly fun! An analogy (from a life-long West Coaster) might be surfing—you’re the one sort of controlling what you’re doing, but mainly you’re just trying to hang on while the ocean (ie, the world of the story that exists only in my head) determines exactly where you go and how fast.

I’m not a disciplined writer, in that I don’t keep notes or outlines or anything. I am disciplined in that the cohesion of each part of the (inevitably super-complex) story is the most important thing, so I constantly (constantly) re-read; by the time I’ve finished a chapter I’ve usually re-read everything up to that point at least once or twice, and the chapter itself way more than that (I write in the notes app so there’s probably more scrolling back up and re-reading than there is, like, writing).

I’m fortunate in that my brain simply maintains this entire universe at all times, like a movie playing in my head, so it’s more like transcription a lot of the time; also that I am both a (literally) compulsive writer and have a lot of time and space and support to do it. So I’m just allowed to spend 10-14 hours a day daydreaming or typing or staring blankly while I try to remember that word I like. I know how lucky I am for sure, but also that these books would be way way way harder to write, and probably less densely detailed and complex, if I wasn’t able to devote so much time to thinking about tiny little intricacies of the plot, or history, or characters.

But back to plots! Like I said a bunch of filler words ago—I don’t usually plan them out in great detail; they sort of just fall together, after I’ve set up enough little twists and Easter eggs. Or (more often) when I’ve laid out a bunch of things that sounded cool to me, and now they all have to make larger sense, because that’s how plots work. There have absolutely been times when I’ve inadvertently written myself into a corner, and it takes me a while to write myself out again. But I guess that’s part of the fun—it’s like putting together a puzzle, even if it’s one I cut myself.

All that said! For this latest one I actually sat down with my best friend/research assistant and talked through the entire plot, which I’ve never done before. I’m not sure if I like now being obliged to write a book where I already know the ending, but what good writerly discipline, I guess.

Ugh I dunno I feel like I did not answer this adequately. But I hope sort of? I mean the other part of it, the part that feels kind of shitty and secret, is I just . . . can do these things, and I really don’t think too much about how or why. But of course a lot of the how and the why is practice practice practice; it feels like these things come naturally because I’ve gravitated to writing and storytelling my whole life, and have been practicing for decades. I guess that’s the short, annoying answer that feels cheap but turns out is frustratingly correct: a brain that loves puzzles, and practice.

Anyway. Sorry for another wall of text that probably doesn’t even get there, but thank you again, sincerely, for asking! And for reading!!!

[thowawayuntilfurthernotice]

So I had originally planned on doing a Danny Phantom retrospective, mostly because I’ve been watching a lot of video essays on YouTube about old media and internet personalities, and Danny Phantom was always one of those shows that I had a complex relationship with. But during my research, a simple question kept popping into my head over and over again. 

What does Butch Hartman actually do? 

He constantly keeps claiming that he created Danny Phantom, and a lot of people do consider Danny Phantom to be Hartman’s best show, but how involved was he? 

I’m not saying Hartman just slapped his name onto a product and took all the credit for himself, as he is credited for writing, storyboarding and directing various episodes. But from all the interviews and clips I’ve seen of him, he doesn’t seem to know that much about the show’s lore or why people like the show to begin with.

For example, the show clearly establishes that there are ghosts who used to be human at one point, but Hartman has always insisted that every ghost you see in the series is a supernatural creature from an alternate dimension. And that his explanation for why some ghosts are more human looking than others is because they wanna be human? Um…..okay. 

Feels odd that Hartman had a problem with the ghosts being spirits of deceased humans but he originally wanted Vlad to be a vampire. 

It’s also pretty interesting how Hartman never wrote any season two episodes, as that season is when the show started to heavily incorporate elements of serialized storytelling into its main narrative. Something that was previously absent from Hartman’s other show, The Fairly Oddparents. 

And yes, I am still annoyed that we never got a legit payoff to the Ring of Rage and Crown of Fire, they were clearly set up as these major plot points that were gonna be important later on, but were completely dropped entirely after Reign Storm. 

Guess now is the perfect time to talk about Steve Marmel and the controversy surrounding him. Long story short, Marmel was a writer who helped develop the series. A lot of the best episodes were written by him and once he left the quality went down the shitter. 

Many people have speculated that he was fired by Hartman/Nickelodeon for wanting the show to go into a more darker direction, while others claim he left due to creative differences. 

None of these rumors have been confirmed by Hartman, Nickelodeon or Marmel. And as such, should be taken with a huge grain of salt. 

Regardless of what you believe, you can’t deny that Marmel wasn’t influential during his time on the show. He really helped flesh out a lot of the characters and lore. 

Say what you will about the Green Bay Packers jokes in Bitter Reunions, but I kinda loved that aspect of Vlad’s character. It was a nice little touch that helped him stand out from your typical Saturday morning cartoon villain. 

And if I’m being perfectly honest, I don’t think Hartman could pull something like The Ultimate Enemy or Reign Storm off on his own, as he’s not that good of a writer. 

Which brings me to season three, now I don’t usually like parroting out the default opinion but, season three of Danny Phantom is just…..really bad. 

I’m not going to go into that much detail about season three, mostly because it’s a topic that’s been covered to death and I really don’t have anything new to bring to the table. But I will say that, if season three does anything well it’s that it showcases just how terrible of a writer Hartman actually is. 

Take for example the episode Urban Jungle, Sam’s eco friendliness is taken up to eleven, to the point where she starts feeling less like a character and more of a caricature. All she does in this episode is complain about how terrible humanity is, get captured and brainwashed by the villain of the week before getting rescued by Danny in the end. 

Oh, and Danny gets ice powers because…..reasons. 

I genuinely do feel bad for all the Danny Phantom fans who want to see a legit continuation or reboot, I came across a ton of amazing fan art and AU stories/webcomics that are a billion times more entertaining than the shit we got in season three. 

But alas, Nickelodeon has made it clear that they aren’t interested in a Danny Phantom revival/reboot, as they seem to only want comedy shows. Plus even if there was some sort of continuation, I doubt fans would support it if Hartman was heavily involved. Considering that he’s spent the last couple of years destroying any good will he had left with animation fans. 

Still, while the show may never get a proper continuation or revival, it will continue to live on in fan media form.

[tariah23]

Thoughts on JJK lately? Especially with them running through nearly every character one by one? Got inspired after seeing the hydrogen bomb (Sukuna) vs Coughing baby (Babyboyblorboman)

*looks away*

Gege……… he needs to take FOREVER OFF lmfao. I’m still enjoying the story because the characters are what’s keeping it entertaining for me but you can tell that Gege just wants to hurry up and be through with JJK, too. This is the final stretch!!! The protagonists are facing off with the big bad! It’s almost over! But at what cost………

I’ve talked about this in even greater lengths before but the quality of Gege’s pacing and story telling has been extremely noticeable over the span of the last two years of its serialization. Literally everything from the flow to the pacing and build up of major moments and plot points within the story had all been *chefs kiss* beginning from JJK 0 all the way up to the end of Shibuya. Gege was definitely feeling himself, especially after writing two of some of the best arcs that I’ve ever read in a shounen back to back? I was like

All while reading the shit, I am so SERIOUS!!! Not even glazing JJK, the arcs were just that fantastic!

Unfortunately, shortly after this amazing run, Gege had started to take hiatus after hiatus (I felt so bad… the fans were being assholes about it of course because they’re entitled and ugly, but his health was more important so I was glad that he decided to take a month long break. Now, Gege goes on breaks all of the time and I’m happy for him but at this point, I just wished that JJK became a monthly release instead because Jesus Christ, JJK used to be written SO much better than what we’re getting now. If he had more time to work on his story, I feel like both his health and story would drastically improve for sure. The fans would just have to learn how to be patient. I hate that Gege is just rushing through JJK like water out of a faucet right now. Because as a long time reader, I know that it used to be written better than this.

The stakes are always so high… (I get it since they’re fighting Sukuna after all, but man), the characters don’t have a moment to even breath, and the cast of characters are being treated like background fodder instead of the amazing characters that they are. It’s all just… “my turn!” *dies horribly* “my turn!” *dies horribly* “my turn!” *dies horribly* “my turn!” *dies horribly* “my turn-“ over and over and over again. Like, what the fuck?

It sucks. There’s little to no exposition and development involved in the story and it’s characters anymore. Thank god that most of them already had their own character development arcs already because Gege doesn’t focus on that at all anymore. Everything’s just so fast paced and erratic. Things are just “happening,” now instead of building up to these big moments and a lot of the character deaths of the major players have just felt like they were written purely for shock value and or to simply, “get them out of the picture so that Gege could move on-“ *coughs* Gojo *choking up blood*

Even the whole thing with Gojo was… it’s like, I just didn’t enjoy how it all ENDED with him passing on and not ever being able to evolve on an emotional level? Him being able to get over being “the strongest,” would’ve been such an incredible breakthrough for his character. His trauma and complex of being essentially, this deified monster instead of the human being that was, and never being able to fully connect with anyone that understood that about him. That would’ve been GREAT. He deserved it! Even the people who loved and cared about him only really saw him as this all mighty thing instead of the person who he was deep down (it wasn’t their faults… and Gojo’s never made it any easier for others to get close enough to “get,” him anyway so 😭…)

I can see JJK ending in at least 20 more chapters or so. Maybe 30. I do remember back in December where vol. 25’s cover had first been revealed, that the seiyu’s for both Gojo and Sukuna, acted out some of the future content from the manga right before their big fight and how Gege had announced that JJK would be ending this year but that guy said the same shit last year/ or back in 2022 so lmfao.

[sundayinthcpark]

okay so i’m still scribbling down ideas and i’m kinda stoned and idk if i’ll ever manage to write this cos i have never rlly written anything like this (literally anything i’ve never written for one of these fandoms i’ve never finished a multi chap plotted fic i’ve never written an in-depth au like idk if i even could do this) but the other day my brain decided WOULDN’T IT BE COOL if Kingsman and UNIT were the same people. (and honestly MIB: International a bit too) but like. Kingsman Doctor Who AU. that’s mostly focused on osgate.

for whatever reason, the code name Arthur isn’t used and is instead replaced with The Doctor. why, idk. there doesn’t need to be a reason. just, when the doctor, the brig, and liz shaw all started this, he decided his code name was The Doctor and it’s been that way since

also the plot was: three different stories, spanning a couple different time periods.

first story (kingsman: the secret service) is very much just stolen ideas from what i know of the Cyber-Reality Big Finish stories. which admittedly about 80% of that (i did start listening to them. finally) is because of @technicallywrite’s fanfic 🫡 but i promise i am doing my research. but anyway like that cyber program instead of valentine’s program??? osgood thinking kate’s dead for like half the story adds some fun to it and i could add kate’s pov w whatever’s happening to her OR i could just. go off from Kingsman and do it closer to Big Finish and just call it good.

ideally: harry = kate; eggsy = osgood; arthur = 12th doctor; merlin = river

considering replacing jakobi!master w gomez!master for some extra fun? like it just could be fun is all.

also: focus is osgate but there is background stuff going on. 12/River/Missy ???? do some fun little twists get them all together i think they deserve it. also other knights/agents would be (possibly.) amy, rory, clara, rose, yaz, donna, martha, bill, sam, josh, gwen, ianto, maybe jack? not as important characters literally just names to fill in blanks. i have code names for them too just in case it’s needed as well as ships cos background ships r always so fun

also was thinking abt the possibility of: sarah jane is the lancelot being replaced. i don’t wanna kill her either but. it adds some fun messy stuff for kate cos i am always a sarah jane/kate truther but also establishing it all could be messy

also was considering just having sarah jane have been a past agent that kate’s father knew (will get into family history in a sec) and kate got to occasionally hear some stories about her OR sarah jane is kate’s aunt (basically they knew each other but sarah jane is gone now and kate struggles with that a bit)

cos kate’s dad was obviously part of Kingsman which is how Kate got recruited- sorta. (here is why i want sarah jane to be. important and not related to kate but i can’t change some of it) cos she technically still had to be recruited but sarah jane kept an eye on kate while she was in military training and actually recruited her having not realised who she was until after she had already decided

which is about to be what happens here cos. osgood is a rlly fucking good hacker and they can hack into p much any database okay so kingsman has been keeping an eye on them- not cos they’re worried that osgood will reveal them, just cos they kinda think she’s brilliant- and kate actually ends up running into them at a bar. where idk what but some kinda relatively easy to defeat alien shows up right and kate has to get rid of it and suddenly there’s a lot going on but kate is asking osgood to come to kingsman with her

and basically what osgood had been doing is kinda like. non-violent the beekeeper type shit like hacking elon musk’s bank account to send a billion dollars to palestine or some shit like just trying to improve the world in whatever ways right

and then osgood’s ends up joining kingsman (sorry but skip the ‘roxy beats eggsy’ plot line cos even tho i love roxy i don’t have time to figure out how to fit weird sexism into this especially cos not one man has actually been a part of this story yet) and proceeds to get sucked into the Cyber-Reality storyline

lowkey tho a) i need to learn how to write smut because i need them to hook up at least once probably pre-cyber like. anything. like they r attracted to each other. maybe that’s how kate learns about them in the first place is they hook up and osgood tells kate what they do with their life and kate decides to look into her work

(just occurred to me this may not be obvious but she/they osgood. possibly they/then doctor too cos i like fucking around w characters’ pronouns)

but anyway yeah i actually lowkey want the story to end with them not quite having figured themselves out but knowing they’re gonna do it together (😏)

but def positive ending cos i have not thought out Kingsman: The Golden Circle yet

i have figured out origins but not entirely how to make it follow a plot line yet but there’s a strong chance of it involving the third doctor, liz shaw, and the brigadier and possibly autons. liz = galahad; brig = merlin. and obviously it’ll have threebrig. but it’s a separate story i’ve barely thought about

also figuring out how to make the time jump from three to twelve but also still having time in there for kate to come around? it’s gonna be interesting for sure

this is so much rambling j am very sorry and i’m also very tired and i definitely could do better hashing this out and i’m working on doing better hashing this out i just also needed to ramble at someone. lol

[lbhslefttiddie]

Could you talk a bit about how you plan out your longer fanfics? I’ve have a long fic I’ve been wanting to write, but I’m not sure how to plan/outline it, and I’d love to hear what your process is!!!

Mouse and the Thorn and Into This Wild Abyss had some very different things going on in the planning stage—it really came down to what kind of story i was telling and what was important for executing that!

(longish sowwy)

ITWA, from the moment i conceived it, revolved around sqq going through a largely preordained plot, and so i created a longass bullet list of all the major plot points and moved them around into the general order i felt it was best for them to happen. I generally kept the points brief and without flavour, lest it mess with the writing of the scene itself or I get bored of it before i even start. There was some variance in the writing stage, partially because i (cough) forgot to add several plot points in the originally planned spaces (see: xin mo), and partially because that's just sort of how it goes when you're actually feeling out a chapter, but the outline was like a guide that i would be able to pull back towards if i strayed too far, and allowed me to keep the end destination in mind, and keep track of important details. All told, the core aspects laid out in the outline didn't change much in the finished product. Frankly, it was huge relief to have that outline!! It definitely saved my ass many times. Truly a revelatory experience for me.

MotT, on the other hand, doesn't so much have a hard plot—lbh is currently 13 years old, before even the beginning of scum villain, so even the plot that comes built into this universe is a very distant thing. We basically just have a core cast of a few inextricably connected characters who are constantly influencing each other, and the "plot" is really just who is going through what character arc at this particular point in time.

Trying to create an outline would, to me, feel horribly rigid, when a lot of flexibility is necessary for something like this. Instead, i have a handful of cool scenes in my head, a general sense for where each character is at and where they're going, and it's just a matter of passing the mic around in a way that feels balanced for whatever arc we're in.

............It's worth mentioning that the way i've written/am writing MotT, while i think is for the best for this project, is also way fucking harder than how ITWA was planned and written. I've mentioned this before in passing i think, but on multiple occasions, i'll have written entire scenes out, and then need to push them back or move them around way more than anticipated because Something Else Needs To Happen First. (this also reflects in my art; the files are listed by date rather than chapter, and so some clusters of art are actually in backwards order--i did the art for what became ch 16 before 15, and 15 before 14)

It's not necessarily a problem, and I'm certainly enjoying myself, but this messy and fluid way of putting a story together straight up would not be possible if i did not already have a solid sense for pacing and balancing emotional elements. I'm absolutely certain that even a few years ago i would not have had the skill to write this fic without writing myself into a corner or rushing everything in a forced way or losing something important to the core of the story; i would go so far as to say this story is only possible because I wrote ITWA first.

I definitely would not recommend this strategy for your first longfic, personally. obviously, do what feels right for yourself, etc, and at the end of the day you should never let concerns of skill or experience stop you from writing the stories you want, but i think this process could, uh. Cause headaches. If you're out of your depth

[findroleplay]

Hello hello! My name is Spots (20 and she/her) and I’m currently looking for a One Piece (specifically the anime/manga) writing partner.

Specifically, I was hoping to do an OC x Canon roleplay with doubling because I’m a silly indulgent dumpster gremlin. That said, there are certain rules and facts to keep in mind:

• I currently am on Water Seven (I’m an anime watcher but tempted to pick up the manga. I’m just terrible at reading) and while I am aware of spoilers, I would prefer to only play characters that appear before or during the arc. Yes I am aware that is at the beginning and it does lead to some characters like Law and Doflamingo being excluded so if this is a turn off for you I completely understand. If, not epic! That said, I am doing my best to get through the show quickly and know too many spoilers (… I spoiled a good chunk of WCI for myself cause I am a sucker for Sanji content) so you don’t have to worry about completely tiptoeing around spoilers with me.

•If you can’t tell by my icon and the talk about spoilers, I would love to play against Sanji. I’m just a sucker for this silly little guy man. That said, if you’re willing to play him for me, I would be down to play just about anyone for you in return as long as like I said, I’ve been able to see them on the screen.

•That said, this is not a requirement but I would love to have our OCs involved in the same plot rather then being in two separate stories because I am a sucker for OC interactions and the stories feeling connected. So I would be especially be down to play another Strawhat for you (especially Zoro since I feel like that could allow for some very funny interactions but I’m down for anything).

• I prefer to rp on Discord but am down to try other formats just inform me.

•I am a literate-novella roleplayer and often tend to write 2-3 paragraphs at the very least and have written some pretty long winded posts. That said, I never expect the same length. Just quality replies I can work with.

•I love OOC and headcanons. Please please hit me with all your ideas, memes, rambles. I beg. I will eat all that stuff up. All I ask is that we both show equal interest in each other’s stuff and it doesn’t feel like one’s OC is more important than the other. If you ever feel like that is the case with me, tell me and I, in return, will tell you.

•That said, you don’t need an OC prepared to respond. I don’t have a bio myself. If anything, feel free to message me if you don’t have an OC at all because I would adore to bounce ideas off of each other and see what we can make together. If you do have one ready though, feel free to hit me with them and I shall gush over them

•I try to be fast with replies but with school, reply times can be a bit shaky. That said, I usually am a fast replier with ooc and if anything, ooc helps motivate my responses so please feel free to chat with me even before I respond.

•That said, I usually send check ins if you’re gone for 2-3 days. If this is irritating, let me know. That said, if you have to disappear for awhile please inform me.

•I usually prefer canon over AUs at least when I first rp with people but I am willing to do AUs if convinced. But with a world like One Piece, I do sort of wanna explore canonverse

•Like the way I am craving a canon divergent rp where we rp through plot events and such but with our OCs and change whatever we wish to fit them or have things go how we prefer. PLSSSSS! I’d love that. But I’m down for other plots too!!

•I am fine with NSFW just don’t want the plot to focus solely on that. No explicit DD stuff please. It really makes me uncomfortable

That said, if you’re interested, feel free to either reach out to me in DMs or interact with this post via likes or replies or reblogs and I shall reach out as soon as I can ^^

Hope to sail with ya!

-

[roleplayfinder]

Hello hello! My name is Spots (20 and she/her) and I’m currently looking for a One Piece (specifically the anime/manga) writing partner.

Specifically, I was hoping to do an OC x Canon roleplay with doubling because I’m a silly indulgent dumpster gremlin. That said, there are certain rules and facts to keep in mind:

• I currently am on Water Seven (I’m an anime watcher but tempted to pick up the manga. I’m just terrible at reading) and while I am aware of spoilers, I would prefer to only play characters that appear before or during the arc. Yes I am aware that is at the beginning and it does lead to some characters like Law and Doflamingo being excluded so if this is a turn off for you I completely understand. If, not epic! That said, I am doing my best to get through the show quickly and know too many spoilers (… I spoiled a good chunk of WCI for myself cause I am a sucker for Sanji content) so you don’t have to worry about completely tiptoeing around spoilers with me.

•If you can’t tell by my icon and the talk about spoilers, I would love to play against Sanji. I’m just a sucker for this silly little guy man. That said, if you’re willing to play him for me, I would be down to play just about anyone for you in return as long as like I said, I’ve been able to see them on the screen.

•That said, this is not a requirement but I would love to have our OCs involved in the same plot rather then being in two separate stories because I am a sucker for OC interactions and the stories feeling connected. So I would be especially be down to play another Strawhat for you (especially Zoro since I feel like that could allow for some very funny interactions but I’m down for anything).

• I prefer to rp on Discord but am down to try other formats just inform me.

•I am a literate-novella roleplayer and often tend to write 2-3 paragraphs at the very least and have written some pretty long winded posts. That said, I never expect the same length. Just quality replies I can work with.

•I love OOC and headcanons. Please please hit me with all your ideas, memes, rambles. I beg. I will eat all that stuff up. All I ask is that we both show equal interest in each other’s stuff and it doesn’t feel like one’s OC is more important than the other. If you ever feel like that is the case with me, tell me and I, in return, will tell you.

•That said, you don’t need an OC prepared to respond. I don’t have a bio myself. If anything, feel free to message me if you don’t have an OC at all because I would adore to bounce ideas off of each other and see what we can make together. If you do have one ready though, feel free to hit me with them and I shall gush over them

•I try to be fast with replies but with school, reply times can be a bit shaky. That said, I usually am a fast replier with ooc and if anything, ooc helps motivate my responses so please feel free to chat with me even before I respond.

•That said, I usually send check ins if you’re gone for 2-3 days. If this is irritating, let me know. That said, if you have to disappear for awhile please inform me.

•I usually prefer canon over AUs at least when I first rp with people but I am willing to do AUs if convinced. But with a world like One Piece, I do sort of wanna explore canonverse

•Like the way I am craving a canon divergent rp where we rp through plot events and such but with our OCs and change whatever we wish to fit them or have things go how we prefer. PLSSSSS! I’d love that. But I’m down for other plots too!!

•I am fine with NSFW just don’t want the plot to focus solely on that. No explicit DD stuff please. It really makes me uncomfortable

That said, if you’re interested, feel free to either reach out to me in DMs or interact with this post via likes or replies or reblogs and I shall reach out as soon as I can ^^

Hope to sail with ya!

.

[roseandmaple]

Hi, I, uh. Don’t send asks to people. Ever. Maybe that’s obvious here. Anyways, I needed to say something.

I’m sure you get a ton of people complimenting your old works, but I just finished reading Lapse and I am in shambles. The pacing, the story, the humor, it’s all so good, but I specifically adore the way you characterized Connor and Evan.

I joined the fandom a little under a month ago and have just been binge reading so so much fanfiction, and. I don’t want to say all of the fanfiction is bad, because it’s not! So many of the Ao3 authors whose Dear Evan Hansen fics I’ve read are super talented and come from a good place. But so many of them write Evan as this innocent, soft, defenseless boy who just wants the best for himself and the people around him, and Connor either as someone who magically has his crap together after Evan “saved” him as some knight in shining armor, or as this soft uwu boy hidden under all the depression and edginess (this is an exaggeration, but also, not really). Those aren’t the only character flaws I’ve seen, obviously, just what I’ve read boiled down. But the mischaracterization of these two that I see so commonly has never sat right with me. I could dive more into all of that, be real nitpicky, but I wont, because I don’t want this to turn into a tangent.

Point being, as someone who’s poured literal hours into character analysis and studies of Connor and Evan both from the musical and the novel, I adore your work. You are the first author I’ve stumbled across who’s DEH content I’ve really connected with. You stay true to the characters and their individual personalities, you don’t erase their mental illnesses (that one is very important to me), and you highlight the ups and downs of their relationship in a real and authentic way that isn’t just a miscommunication trope to keep the plot rolling. Not only do you characterize them right, but you usually have a compelling plot to go on top of it, too, which is just. So cool!!!

Dear Evan Hansen and the characters in it are just so dear to my heart as a mentally ill person, and it makes me so happy to see them being written well. I could go on, again, about the specifics, from the way you don’t make Evan stammer the beginning of every other word to how you write Connor’s dialogue so well I can hear his voice saying it. But I think I’ve rambled enough, so, like, from the bottom of my heart, thank you. For everything you’ve made. Are making. Both. The detail, the care, the passion, all of it. You’re so awesome. Thank you.

My friend,,,,, you have no idea !!! How much this ask means to me. I’ve been struggling with writer’s block and pressuring myself to work on BITD bc I’m being hard on myself about all of the things you’re complimenting me on (lol) and pressuring myself to just get chapters out when I’m not happy with them just to put something out there. I get wayyyy too in my head sometimes. Seriously: thank you, thank you, thank you, ily, you’re the best!!!!!!!!! This is so meaningful!!

[stormears]

Questions 1-77 of the writer ask game >:]

Jammie decided to MAKE my night and ask me to answer every damn one the 77 Fanfic writer questions. I assume tumblr will automatically add a readmore thing to make it not be a Bible-length post. But I’ve got 15 years of fanfic history to go off of and I can ramble like nobody’s business when I’m typing.

But if you have any interest in my fics, maybe scroll a while and stop to read 2-3 of my 77 answers hmmm?

Also I shudder to think how many tags this is going to pop up in because of the ships I name here and there, sorry strangers lol

- 1) Do you prefer writing one-shots or multi-chaptered fics?

I thiiiink I prefer to write oneshots because they take a shorter amount of time, meaning a few months instead of multiple years. Because multichapter stories almost always take me fucking years. And my oneshots are still extremely long and big time commitments to write. The last oneshot I wrote (JJK, gofushi) was 25k and took a little over two months and god I SLAVED over it…

2) Do you plan each chapter ahead or write as you go?

There is always at least a rough plan in my mind, if not written down in an outline or notes document somewhere. If I don’t know what is happening in the upcoming scene, I am not writing.

3) Describe the creative process of writing a chapter/fic

I see a vision in my mind of Character Doing Thing or Characters I Ship Doing Thing Together. I create a universe that exists only to create the circumstances where they can do that thing. However even if I just want a sexy or weird af ship scene, I STILL want their to be plot elevating it all. I often struggle to tie together a plot that makes sense and isn’t fucking stupid but still caters to my stupid preferences and kinks. It’s like trying really hard to mix oil and water.

Practically, I write down all the plot beats, ideas and important bits I can think of into a Scrivener document, maybe scrape it into an Outline ish thing, and then start writing. Before Scrivener (up until end of 2021) I wrote stories in Word. And either had a separate Word document for the story’s outline/plan, or just kept the outline in my head.

Oh yeah I also have a pretty notebook from Target with roses on the cover and soft pink pages, where I write down a VERY general outline of the story or late plot beats/important things to remember to use. This isn’t as helpful or as long as the Scrivener version but I LOOOOOVE having a physical bite of my fanfic vision, seeing it outside of my head or the internet/laptop screen. As of end of 2022 I discovered I looooove writing things in journals!

4) Where do you find inspiration for new ideas?

Imagination, music, books I read, movies, etc. Like everyone else I guess.

5) Do you like constructive criticism?

Fucking YES!!! I feel a tiny bit of resentment that fanfic comments seemingly have to be glowing praise all the time or you shouldn’t say anything at all. Good concrit isn’t about your preferences, but how well the scene accomplished what it set out to do, and why or why not. You can give concrit to a tentacle fucking scene and give the author advice on how to write better tentacle sex.

But the author of course reserves the right to either absorb that concrit and keep it in mind for next time, or just say/think “That person’s concrit makes sense, but I like the way I did it here because it’s hotter to me and I just like it this way so I’m not changing.”

6) Do you have your work beta'd? How important is this to your process?

Lmao no. I mean once, but lmao never again. I’ve never wanted a beta, I am my own editor and in my experience (reading my stories after posting) I generally don’t have typos or grammar to fix anyway, I catch them successfully myself.

HOWEVER…one time in 2019 I decided to try a beta for a Haikyuu fantasy AU story whose plot beats I was having a lot of trouble pinning down. I asked around on Reddit and only one person offered and I felt fed up with the story and irritated enough to just accept them, grateful for their willingness and time. The person offered next to no advice on the plot and instead corrected grammar that was wrong as a stylistic choice (little kids’ speech) and nothing else.

In exchange for their beta services, I had promised to review a story of theirs. So I read their FFN story which was a Naruto fic featuring a Kakashi crackship. I enjoyed their creative exploration of that ship but was flabbergasted to find their writing was. Um. Not that good. I mean down to seriously using “orbs” for “eyes.” That cliche was still alive in 2019 thanks to this person. It really felt like a teenager’s fic from 2008 but it was only a year old or so and they said they were 26.

I found things to compliment in their story and then happily ghosted them. No betas for me ever again.

7) How do you choose which POV to write from?

I usually write ship fic and I usually write from the POV of the character in the ship that I like more lol. Even if it’s a plot heavy fic and there’s little to no romantic or sexual scenes or vibes or whatever, if the ship is present at ALL that’s how I immediately arrange the plot/POV in my head. So I guess it just boils down to favorite character bias.

However I am toying with the idea of writing a JJK fic featuring a creepy problematic yandere character and usually such fics use the POV of the Object of Affection so you can feel the oppressive weird sexiness coming out of the screen at you. But this fic will be written from the yandere’s POV instead of my fave’s, so you can see their crazy af animal-like thoughts when their love interest runs away/goes missing which sets the plot in motion. The story is about finding that MC in a cyberpunk city, so hanging with the yandere the whole time who is forced to put themselves on a leash and solve a mystery facilitates the…mystery vibe of the story.

8) Do you prefer the beginning, middle, or end of a story?

Hmmm difficult to say because for many of my multichaptered fics I don’t even make it to their endings…again, it takes YEARS sometimes. One of my greatest fics, a MadaSaku dark fantasy au called Chasm, started in 2015 when I first had the idea, I didn’t publish Chapter 1 until 2018, it currently is sitting at 6 chapters, with C6 being posted on fucking January 1, 2021. It’s not even reached “the middle” in my opinion.

I guess I prefer…the beginning? I love setting up the intense stakes and unknown factors and threats and suspense that doesn’t yet have answers…very tasty…

9) Do you comment on stories you read?

Fucking yeah I do you want to see my post with MANY screenshots bragging about how I carry 95% of AO3 readers on my back and support the fucking economy???

I don’t tell people on twitter what my AO3 is (because I rarely talk to people on twitter and when I do they fucking ignore me anyway!!! :D) but there’s 3 separate people on twitter who have made gushing tweets floored by the length and interest in my comment. I kept those screenshots too and ahhh it feels good.

10) Cltr+f "blinks" on your WIP & copy paste the first sentence/paragraph that comes up

Nothing came up. Maybe because I don’t write in present tense. Not really a fan.

11) Link your three favorite fics right now

Uhh I’m not sure I have favorites, these are the ones that came to mind. I don't keep bookmarks on AO3 so I don't really have a "favorites list" and these aren't necessarily recent just the ones I wanted to mention...

1) “Shard Society.” Haikyuu mystery crime drama about Oikawa being murdered just before high school graduation, Iwaizumi is arrested and jailed for it. Eight years later, law student Kindaichi discovers a recently written confession from seemingly the REAL murderer and is on a quest with youngest prosecutor in Japan, Sakusa, to find out who did it.

I followed this story for over a year, gave a few dozen MASSIVE comments to the author who always giddily replied to me. They also expressed their gratitude by sending me a physically published copy of it in the mail!!

2) “He Had No Fingers”. I’m gonna go for oldie fics now lol. This is a horror Naruto fic about Kyuubi being an eldritch monster, with deadly serious and ominous prose. The story makes it pretty clear that it will absolutely take over and consume kid Naruto and the whole world, in time. I remember passages describing like how the Kyuubi is its own dimension, and speaking aloud even the names of its body parts will turn its attention to you and make you explode.

When I first read it in like 2010 or something it actually made me light-headed. I remember the story described the Kyuubi as smelling like chitin (what bug exoskeletons are made of) and I somehow thought I could…smell chitin when I was reading. I remember sitting on my bed reading this story and SMELLING something I never had before. And never did again.

3) “Lapsus Memoriae.” This is an OG cartoon Transformers fic. I watched a bit of the cartoon as a kid but I don’t even go here fandom wise lol, I forget how I even found this…maybe in 2008 ish when the Michael Bay movies were new, because I was kind of into those as a teen?

ANYWAY THIS IS TRANSFORMERS THREESOME SOULMATE AGE GAP YAOI, AMNESIA AU! Medical autobot Ratchet and his 2 friends wake up at headquarters missing the last several years worth of their memories. None of them remember their respective “bondmates”. The main character is Ratchet, a prickly, older medical bot whose bondmates are a pair of hot, sexy young twins named Sunstreaker and Sideswipe.

The other 2 ships get attention too, but high school me was sooooo into the twins being clingy and protective over their beloved angry old medbot uke Ratchet. 5 stars, still a fun read despite never being completed.

12) how does receiving or not receiving feedback/support impact you?

Not…much? I feel like I “write for myself” a little more than the average person bc I’m uhhhh arrogant I guess. Low feedback generally does not bother me because I love my story more than anyone else ever could. I always spend WAY more time re-reading my own stories, sighing in appreciation at my own hard work and prose, than I do re-reading people’s comments about it.

13) what’s a common writing tip that you almost always follow?

Write what you want to read. That’s what I’m always doing. I can’t think of any other common tips besides “Write what you know” which I don’t follow nearly as strictly. One wip right now is a fantasy/comedy MatsuHana in a society where gardening is mega-popular and culturally important and I didn’t know jack shit about gardening or flowers, etc., I was googling plenty of basic information to try and make the characters sound like they weren’t total beginners.

14) how do you write emotional scenes? Do you ever feel what the characters feel? Do you draw from personal experiences?

I’m not too sure how to answer the first one. I try and write them…realistically? Keep their emotions in mind? I try to remember that a character feeling intensely emotional will probably be too overwhelmed to properly/fully explain what they’re feeling or doing. So I’m careful with my word choice. No, I don’t feel what they feel. I’ve seen people say they get emotional/teary eyed themselves sometimes writing what their characters feel, that has never happened to me.

Do I draw from personal experiences, I don’t think so. The reason I write a fic, or the scene I want to get to, or the point of a story, is never based on something I experienced, just a cool idea I want to see. I've always kinda disliked the idea of projecting yourself that blatantly into a story. That’s not why I write.

Well shit I just thought of a new Haikyuu fantasy au I’ve got cooking where the villain is an OC whose backstory is basically that she’s a sad, bitter, loser failure and doing antagonist stuff out of resentment. That fit the plot I wanted, but I realized later a lot of her life is reflections of what happened to me when I felt like a sad, bitter, loser failure in life. She’s like…30% me. And that feels like a fucking LOT, I’ve never done this with a character before, it feels like…invasive or insulting or something but I’m going ahead with it.

15) How do you write smut scenes? Do you get very visual or detailed? How important is it to be realistic?

I’ve written very few smut scenes because I’m a coward and don’t much trust my ability to write them well. The couple of times I did took a looooot of work though I ended up liking them okay. I thiiiiink I’m ace and I rarely actually want to read characters having sex. A lot of the time the idea…bothers me somehow? I’ve got my own hangups with sex both irl and in the silly fandom world. Like I remember there was a #Whore(character)week on twitter where big fans of (character) wrote/drew him being a total cockgobbling passed-around-the-room slut, and I liked a little of the content but later felt so angry I had to mute the tags bc he’s NOT a whore don’t fucking insult him, he would NOT act like that in a million years, stop it stop being mean to him etc

Anyway realism is fine up to a point but I’m not here to read about realistic sex, usually, it’s fantasy sex where nonsensical things can happen and be portrayed as appealing. If realism doesn’t facilitate the hotness, then out it goes.

16) How many fic ideas are you nurturing right now? Share one of them?

Lots…too many…I’m angry and despairing at how many ideas I have and the fact that I’m slower than almost any fanfic writer I know, so many of my ideas are doomed to never manifest or will manifest and then sputter and die before completion. I’m sad about it all the time. This is my favorite hobby and I can almost never do it at a level where I’m truly satisfied.

Anyway one of my ideas is a Haikyuu fantasy AU where Kageyama is a fantastic mage but a shitty person no one likes and he manages to capture a talking unicorn (hinata) which are hella rare, but he seriously injures the prince (Daichi). So as punishment he’s forced to tame the unicorn for the crown, and if he doesn’t he will be kicked out of the mage guild, which will ruin his life as he’s not good at anything but magic, it's his volleyball equivalent here.

He befriends Hinata the unicorn and accidentally does a spell that turns him human a la the Last Unicorn. Then other unicorns come to humanville to rescue Hinata and Kageyama gets embroiled in unicorn politics and there are many unicorn OCs based on horses I have in a racing game called Rival Stars omgggg I fucking love unicorns horses yadda yadda

17) What do you do when writing becomes difficult? (maybe a lack of inspiration or writers block)

A majority of the time I wallow in self-pity tbh.

When I make myself be constructive about it, I try to write another story which can sort of unstick my writing gears by writing in a new way/new tone for that story. Also, reading helps a lot. Reading interesting ideas and good prose is GREAT for greasing the wheels in your head and reminding you what good writing looks like.

18) Do you title your fics before, during, or after the writing process? How do you come up with titles?

I LOOOOOOVE COMING UP WITH TITLES! This is my way in which I’m Not Like Other Girls, I hear this so often among fanfic writers that they don’t know wtf to title their story, not me baby!! I love cooking up a new title and to me it’s a very important part of the story process. I usually decide the title very early on, if not before I even start writing!

My titles are usually phrases I make up that sum up the vibes of the story or point to a very significant event, the kind of thing that would “be on the cover of the book” you know? EX:

CHASM - Naruto, MadaSaku dark fantasy au. Mostly named for a point in the story where Sakura looks across a huge literal chasm and sees…something on the other side that changes her forever ;) Also points to Sakura’s deteriorating mental health due to surviving an attack on her home where many residents were killed by monsters

THE SUN ON JAKKU - Star Wars, Reylo fic I’ll probably never finish. But it was about Kylo Ren invading Rey’s mind and seeing her entire horrible childhood on Jakku. Even though only hours pass irl, he is present in her memories like an invisible ghost standing nearby and experiences those years alongside her. And over time becomes obsessed with her. His gaze is “the sun on jakku” that watches over her every day.

DAY OF THE NAVIGATOR - Haikyuu, Oiiwa space/sci-fi horror au. Aliens arrive on earth and destroy it, lone astronaut (called “navigator” in this fic) Iwaizumi barely escapes in a little ship but is pursued for YEARS through space by sexy alien Oikawa (+alien wolfpack Seijoh) who totally wants to fuck him and put an alien ring on it but Iwaizumi assumes the aliens want to eat/kill him. Iwaizumi keeps himself together with his navigator training, which stresses that your work “today” is the only day that matters. Also gives significance to the moment Oikawa finally breaks into the ship and hears Iwaizumi speak for the first time. He says “Today is it for you,” and alien Oikawa is so fucking turned on

19) What is the most-used tag on your ao3?

I think it might be Possessive Behavior or Obsessive Behavior? Yeah that’s been my fanfic food of choice since high school haha, some things never change. I just get better at dressing up my creepy ships in cool plots to make them feel less cringe.

20) Have you noticed any patterns in your fics? Words/expressions that appear a lot, themes, common settings, etc?

I definitely prefer fantasy AUs. Worlds with magic and mystery and cool places to go adventuring in, and scary but sexy monsters who can hunt down the protagonist in an open World(tm)

I’ve tried to search for common word choice or expression in my fics, tbh but I either never found any or just can’t remember.

21) Would you ever collaborate with another writer for a story?

I don’t think so. I don’t like the idea of ceding over control of my story to someone else. And if it’s a story we made up together so they “had control” over some of it in the first place, I’d automatically be not that interested and committed because it’s not fully mine. And I want it to be mine.

22) Are there certain types of writing you won’t do? (style, pov, genre, tropes, etc)

I don’t really do present tense. Can’t think of a fic where I have. I vastly prefer past tense. And I’ll probably never touch the following tropes because I hate them and think they’re stupid: Fake Dating, There Was Only One Bed, FWB.

23) Best writing advice for other writers?

Just write what you love. Even if it doesn’t really make sense, the plot doesn’t really come together, something about it doesn’t “vibe”…if you love it, that is all that matters.

24) Worst writing advice anyone ever gave you?

I can’t think of any writing advice that was outright stupid or bad…then again I don’t ever look up writing advice. I’m sure I have room for improvement much as anyone else, but I usually like the way I do things.

25) What fic do you wish you got more of a response on?

Ehh I guess my AtsuHina sci-fi horror au, The Abandoned City of Saint Winona…though I knew it wouldn’t get much of a response, because AtsuHina is such a sunny, cute ship, I don’t think most of its fans are the type to want a story where Atsumu is a disgusting maneating, shapeshifting alien who says he loves Hinata but the narration leaves it unclear if he means it or will eventually eat him.

But man I put a hell of a lot of work into that story, when I first posted Chapter 1 in 2021 and this past July when I scraped together Chapters 2 and 3. It was the first time in a long time when I wrote something where I knew the audience truly was me and MAYBE 3 other humans on this planet. Most other things I write do have a ship audience at least. And yet I wrote 35k...for me :)

26) Which of your fics would you call your wildest ride?

Oh Jesus, “Darcia” all the way…2019 OiIwa fantasy au that I only wrote one chapter of (BUT I STILL ADORE IT) I wrote/started no kidding THIRTEEN drafts of that chapter… Because I couldn’t decide certain plot points or WHY certain things would happen, I just couldn’t get a vibe I enjoyed…I toiled over this for a huge chunk of 2019, this is the story where I had that stupid useless beta on board for a bit. I actually seriously cried about this story a couple of times…

After fighting like hell and nearly eating my own skin I FINALLY posted the chapter, and took a day off work to celebrate…only for my mi litary boss to text me at 11am that day and say “Hey you know your yearly fit test was coming up next month, can you do it next week instead?” which fucking RUIIIIINNNNED MY DAAAAAAAY

27) What is your most and least favorite part of writing?

Favorite: when I end a successful evening writing session only because I am falling asleep, and I’m thinking “dammit, I could have written more!” I’ve found that many times, when I get lucky and pump out a huge word count in a session, I ALWAYS think to myself “dammit I could have gotten even more!” So even having that thought is itself a sign of success.

Least favorite: scraping my way through the dialogue for an important scene that moves the plot forward. Finding ways for characters to properly elaborate wtf is going on or needs to happen, in words that make sense for that person to say. If I get stuck on a fanfic, it’s EITHER because…I can’t make a decision about a HUGE plot beat, or I can’t fucking write the conversation that makes the scene go.

28) On average, how much writing do you get done in a day?

Oh geez…not a lot…I spend far too much of my life not writing because I’m busy with work or family obligations…but when I DO write, it’s maybe 400-500 average? Plenty of 200-300 days…Here’s my little wordcount log from when I was writing the AtsuHina sci-fi horror fic last month, like when I was really slaving away at it.

This makes me look better than usual, I think. I AM NOT USUALLY THIS ON TOP OF IT

7/17 evening from at least 700 7/19 - 1195!!! Though 160 are not being kept 7/22 - 1500!! 7/23 - 720 7/24 - 100 if that… 7/25 - 251…sleepy after post-dinner treadmill… 7/26 - 700 exactly! We’re at THE SCEN!E 8/5: 531 (well 731ish but deleted 200 ish) 8/7: 845 words 8/8: 1425 words 8/9: 742…getting closer…the narration doesn’t sound great though… 8/10: 1154. My god maybe this weekend will be it…

29) What’s your revision or editing process like?

I usually edit as I go. At the end of finishing a chapter, I will do a read-through that’s a little deeper than a “skim”, where I fix any spelling errors, tweak any word choices I was on the fence on originally, etc. Usually, after I finish a chapter, I will be posting it one or two hours later. I don’t usually wait.

30) Do you share rough drafts or do you wait until it’s all polished?

Wait until it’s all polished. Maybe this sounds contradictory to the answer above, but by the time I reach the end of the chapter, everything above it has already been combed through/edited along the way many times. So when I finish off the last scene, it’s already pretty well polished.

31) Do you start with the characters or the plot when writing?

I start with the plot because setting that in motion in the right way, and starting at the right time in the plot’s timeline, is ultimately more important.

32) Name three of your favorite fanfic writers.

Time to out myself as a toxic loser bitch but the two authors who come to mind as favorites, whose works I SO admired and enjoyed (and followed them both on other social media so I saw some of their irl happenings too) are also the two people I got the most pathetically, hatefully, despairingly envious over in all my life. They happened a few years apart. But my jealousy lasted months for one of them and YEARS for the other. People would point and laugh...or maybe just not know wtf to say...if I actually admitted how deeply my envy of those two writers affected me.

I swear on my life I don’t have jealousy problems in any other avenue of life…it’s JUST fanfic writing, the hobby that I most care about and that gets more of my passion and soul than anything else I do. I basically stepped away from their fics and decided to not look at them anymore. And even though I truly adored their works, I’m kinda scared to ever look at them again. In case it turns out I never got over it or the bad feelings just flare right up again. I don’t want to feel that way again. Sorry. Next question.

33) Do you want to be published some day?

I actually drafted 10 or 11 chapters of a fantasy YA book when I was in high school but that desire to be traditonally published faded a lot during college. I realized I like fanfic writing much more than original fic writing and don't really want my irl peers reading my work. But I did also write a shitty “book” in middle school that was 120 pages on Microsoft word about talking dragons, totally plagiarizing plot points from Majora’s Mask and Princess Mononoke.

And the YA book was about people with wings living in floating cities in the clouds. The MC’s little brother fails the Rite of Passage flying test and falls to the earth, so MC and Love Interest dive down to see if he survived and find him (a forbidden act!) and find out Earth is a nearly dead wasteland with gross monsters and some wingless dragons. The dragons dream of making it to the floating cities and conquering/stealing their resources. They hang out with a wingless dragon who barely tolerates them and carries around his extremely weak, almost-totally paralyzed little sister dragon on his back.

34) Five years from now, where do you see yourself as a writer?

I’m sure I’ll still be writing, and I’ll still have SOME of the same fandoms I do now, because fandoms last years and years for me. I’m still a bit into Naruto and read fic of it now and then despite it being over for nearly a decade. I hope I will have finished some stories by then! If I have, I might pursue my half-hearted dream of getting a physical copy of my fanfic published hehe! But I’m greedy and would only do so if I could somehow find a fic binder who’d make it to my totally extra expectations (gorgeous commissioned cover, black pages with white text for the first page of each new chapter, probably Garamond font…sprayed edges ahhhh)

35) What is one essential thing to remember when writing a villain?

They see themselves as a “protaganist” and will deal with “antagonists” accordingly.

36) How do you write kissing scenes?

Depends on who the characters are. I guess I’m usually writing characters who haven’t kissed very much or at all, or characters who at least haven’t kissed each OTHER before, because I tend to write characters at the start of a relationship because that exploratory, careful manner of figuring out how to kiss is just so fucking cute for damn near any ship.

37) How do you choose where to end a chapter?

I decide in my mental outline or Scrivener outline how much I can fit in this chapter. And it’s just…the last thing I can stuff in. My tendency to write long af chapters is a more important factor than wanting to end on a particular scene.

38) Would you ever write commissions?

I…don’t think so. I’ve definitely thought about the idea. But even if I had buyers, writing a commission probably wouldn’t go any faster than my own fics do, which, again, take months or possibly fucking YEARS…my payment would be fractions of a fraction of a cent per hour if you wanna slice it that way which is SOOOOO not worth it for the amount of time it takes me, and the time it takes away from my own wips, and there’s not many customers who I think would have the absurd patience required for ME to pump out a finished piece…the outlook is just not good.

39) Share a snippet from a WIP

(I’m putting a snippet of the dang AtsuHina Sci-fi horror fic I keep talking about)

The metal circle was knocked inward. It fell onto the basement floor with a hard thud, kicking up a puff of dust. Shoyo glimpsed a slice of the semi-dark inside: the innards of Saint Winona’s wall, wires and circular metal things with tiny glowing lights. Machines that kept his city alive. He’d seen some of those things in textbooks long ago.

The arm of a filthy spacesuit shot out of the hole and grasped for purchase on the basement floor.

A man with dirty, dark hair crawled out through the small hole. He was smeared with dust; his space suit looked ancient and strange, like dirty white leather. There was no helmet around the collar, only a metal collar at the neck of the outfit where one might have once fit on.

His hand slipped on the metal circle he’d cut out of the wall and fell forward onto his chest. He pushed the circle out of the way with a furious shout that made Shoyo gasp aloud in fear.

That’s when the man noticed he wasn’t alone in the room. That’s when he finally raised his head and showed his face and Shoyo’s soul writhed inside the cage of his frozen body.

The face—the face—his face—

He had Atsumu’s face.

-

40) If someone were to make fanart of your work, what fic or scene would you hope to see?

I have daydreamed of commissioning some artist many months in the future to draw scene in Darcia, where Oikawa is a demon a la FHQ but with some eldritch qualities. There’s also many dragons in the fic.

I have this scene in my head of Oikawa in the foreground, walking away from the camera towards four or five dragons backed up against a huge cave/dungeon wall in the background. They're like 20-50 foot tall beasts, who are all terrified of this human sized creature because he's going to kill them and he CAN. They are shooting fire or trying to claw at him but he is magically shielded and nothing works. The point is to amplify how utterly horrifying and powerful Oikawa is even in the face of gigantic and powerful monsters.

But imagining scared dragons backed up against a wall afraid of a small human can easily make them look goofy, unfortunately like an elephant scared of a mouse...so it would be a tough balancing act to portray the scene as scary instead of accidentally comedic.

41) Do you tend to reread fics or are you a one-and-done kind of person?

I am mostly a one-and-done person. There are a handful of fics I might return to to read specific scenes or chapters but I basically never re-read entire fics again. The memory of the fic and me appreciating it afterward is usually enough.

42) What’s the last fic you read? Do you recommend it?

I've been slowly going through the "horror" tag in the Haikyuu fandom, a kind of slim tag with only 400-some fics out of the whole Haikyuu section which is probably to be expected...

But I found this total gem called YACHI HITOKA: ZOMBIE SLAYER.

It's only 3 chapters long and not updated for many months now. But the chapters are quite long, and intense and horrific and WHOOO what a rush! I think it's a fantastic read for horror fans. Yachi is far from being a "zombie slayer" so far but I can see that there's tiny bits of growth in her bravery, inching their way up. I absolutely recommend it.

I left a huge glowing review to the author almost a month ago but they moderate comments and mine still hasn't appeared tho :0)

43) Do you take a sadistic joy in whumping your characters, or are you more the "If you hurt them I would kill everyone and then myself" kind of person?

Closer to the “taking joy” in it end of things I guess. I enjoy writing characters going through intense action or adventures or escapes. If that involves pain, fighting, getting hurt, etc then hell yeahhhhh.

44) What mistakes do you keep making no matter how many times your beta corrects you?

Me thriving with no beta and dick flapping in the wind: YEEEEEE

45) Do you want to break your readers‘ heart or make them laugh?

Leaning more towards the heartbreaking side. But being able to come up with a truly funny line is an accomplishment as well, and harder I think.

46) How would you describe your style? (Character/emotion/action-driven, etc)

Intense, more focus on narration than dialogue, viscerally ugly and suspenseful, romance is always at least a little creepy lol…I wonder how other people see my work in general like this.

47) How many times do you usually revise your fic/chapter before posting?

It gets combed through several times as I write, then one last once-over after I finish the chapter. Therefore the “rough draft” (after getting to the end of the draft) and “final draft” look very similar.

48) What do you look for in a beta?

#44 ^^^

49) Do you ever get rude reviews and how do you deal with them?

I can only think of one rude review I got, it was for my naruto/pokemon crossover story on FFN that I got 26 chapters into before basically abandoning it in 2014-ish. Someone said basically “no one cares about these characters except ur ugly cringe ass”. I just ignored it.

Though nowadays sometimes I hope a hater would comment on my fics because I think coming up with a sniping comeback, and then freezing the comment thread so mine stands as the last word in the conversation, would be so fuckin gooooood…

50) How long is your longest fic?

Well uhhh I think that’s the Naruto/Maximum Ride crossover I wrote in 8th and 9th grade and I just had to check, it was 25 chapters when I abandoned it and 227k long! Cringe af now but lord I was so proud of it at the time.

People reviewing that story gave me a real-life confidence boost to the point that in 9th grade, classmates and teachers and people I didn’t talk to at all actually noticed and started chatting me up, because I was suddenly more interesting and engaging. 9th grade was the start of me understanding how to socialize...because of my fanfiction!

51) What’s your total AO3 word count?

273,602 (wow only slightly longer than the 8th-9th grade fic maximum ride crossover fic WOW?)

52) Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

If they are long, substantive, or directly ask me a question. Otherwise not usually. I don’t feel the need to respond to every comment when I already wrote the damn story. I also don’t like the idea of half my comment count on a story just puffing my stats by endlessly replying “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Tha

53) How do you spend your time when it comes to fanfiction? Are you primarily a fic reader, writer, or a perfect 50/50 split of both?

Definitely a writer more than a reader, though I’d say in high school it was a 50/50 split. Somehow I read more but also wrote overall more…because I didn’t have to work aghgnghgh

54) What’s your favorite part about the fanfiction writing process?

The fact that I can do what-EVER the fuck I want. I can write batshit insane endings. I can add “obsessive/possessive behavior” magic fairy dust to my favorite characters to make them have sexy interactions with my faves that appeal to my silly fictional tastes. I can give someone an unexplained Raikou companion in a universe that has no other Pokemon and not explain it if I don’t feel like it. I can indulge in anything, dress it up how I please, and still practice a fun and interesting skill, and CREATE! I LOVE CREATING STORIES!

55) Of the characters you write for, which is your favorite? Has that choice been swayed at all by your followers/readers’ reactions to certain ones?

It has to be Sakura Haruno, doesn’t it? Even long past the end of Naruto, she lives on in my heart, in my beloved story Chasm…I own three figures of her for god’s sake. I started caring about her in middle school and I was part of the growing “MultiSaku” fanfic scene in the late 00’s and 2010’s. Even after all these years and all these fandoms and stories and life events and things I had to pass through and carry…I never let go of her.

And no my choice of favorite character to write for is not swayed by any other people, lol please.

56) What’s something about your writing that you pride yourself on?

I think I write very good intense action scenes. Scenes that feel like a razor’s edge slicing your skin that might penetrate and cut through you. I re-read my own action scenes a lot and still feel proud of the ugly, harsh imagery and the suspenseful nature of a movement making you unsure if it will turn out safe for the character or not. I love thinking up “cinematography” for movements like that in my head.

57) Do you prefer editing as you write, or waiting until it’s finished?

Mostly edit as I write, with a final pass over after the draft is finished.

58) What part of the writing process do you enjoy the most? (Brainstorming, outlining, writing, editing, etc)

I feel like I answered this. 58 questions into the 78 I've realized some of these questions are rather similar to each other. The writing part is the best.

59) Does anyone in your personal life know you write fic? if not, would you tell anyone?

My bff and I have been into fanfiction since 2006. Though I don’t think I told her my FFN name until 2010 or 2011. More than a little disappointed that she doesn’t read my fics anyway because we’re not into the same genre and she’s not a person I can talk to about writing either so wtf was the point. Also my brother knows I write fic and is friendly/nice about the concept of fic in general. I certainly don’t share with him but he doesn’t mock fanfic as cringe or a waste or anything.

These two are exceptions. For the most part, HELL NOOOOOOO. I never plan to tell anyone irl I write fic, it is too private and precious to me. Someone irl finding out about my fanfiction or fandom things in general is truly my worst nightmare.

60) Have you had a writer you admire comment on your fic? What was that like?

Yes, a couple of times. Their words meant more than the average commenter of course because they’re on a pedestal in my mind. I know their exceptional work so they damn well know what they’re talking about when they say similar things about my work. That’s the kind of comment I will keep in my email inbox for days if not weeks for easy re-reading.

61) Why do you continue writing fics?

Because I love them. Because I love the art of translating a character into a plot of my making. I love placing my favorite characters into a canvas I made and making them a part of it, and making something that is perfectly suited to ME. It has my colors, only mine, it’s my love letter addressed to me.

62) Thoughts on cliffhangers?

Not many thoughts on cliffhangers. If I write one, I rarely think of it as such, more like, this is a suitable place to end the chapter if possible. The usual “it sucks if you’re a reader, gotta wait for the next update, aw man” whatever.

63) Something you hate to see in smut.

Dirty talk involving one character calling the other a whore or slut. Once in a while I’m into it, usually I’m not. I think I’ve got a bone to pick with…humiliation, or something? Sometimes it can be hot as hell, sometimes it borderline offends me. And that’s a really popular and hell, a NORMAL thing for people to do, like some of the most basic dirty talk there is, so it’s hard to dodge. I have to just scowl a little and keep reading.

64) Something you love to see in smut.

One character acting like an animal. Rutting, biting, licking. Possessive behavior and body worship. Character calling the other one “mine” can be a lame fanfic stereotype but I’m SO INTO THAT

65) Tell us about what you’re most looking forward to writing – in your current project, or a future project

Really looking forward to the end battle in my Haikyuu fantasy au where Kageyama is a mage and Hinata is a unicorn. The battle involves KageHina (both human at this time) and also mage Oikawa and Iwaizumi who is in human form but by this point everyone in the story knows he’s actually a dragon. The villain is a unicorn OC who’s filled with rage, resentment and bitterness and wants to make others suffer, she’s a sad bitch but mostly a petty bitch.

In my head, the battle happens to the tune of the final battle theme in Elden Ring (which I have not played) and I just loooove what happens to the villain at the end. It is beyond satisfying, and unexpected, I think. But god, that’s like 50k words away at LEAST.

66) How do you deal with writing pressure (ie. pressure to update, negative comments, deadlines, etc.)?

My pressure comes 95% from ME feeling bad about how long I take. I deal with it by…trying to fucking write and also a lot of feeling bad, idk.

My update schedule is so slow that the shit mentioned in the question does not affect me at all. Also, those things don’t really happen to me? I get almost no negative comments, hell I kind of dream of getting a negative comment because I like thinking up snide, uncaring, rude etc., ways I’d snap back at them. No way in hell would they make me write faster.

67) Do you prefer prompts and challenges, or completely independent ideas?

I don’t really do prompts or challenges. The closest I can think is a few prompt asks I did her on tumblr, years ago. I did maybe 3 in my entire life. Not really a prompt person. I got WIPs out the wazoo, like I need more on my plate.

68) What, if anything, do you do for inspiration?

Lately I’ve been doing the absolute normie shit of making Pinterest boards. I have about 15 boards that are dedicated to either a specific fanfic or just a common theme in many fics (board for dragons, board for fantasy castles and towns etc). I usually don’t need to like manually force inspiration though, it comes when it comes and I prefer that to needing to use Pinterest tbh.

69) What work of yours, if any, are you the most embarrassed about existing?

Oh man, I don’t even know if I want to say the names of some of them haha. Probably one of my various MultiSaku stories from my Stormdragon6 account on FFN, which I’ve had since 2005 when I had just started middle school…I didn't use AO3 until 2014-15 and most of my FFN stories are NOT cross posted there.

I’m sure there’s many on the FFN account that are equally cringe and I don’t really want to look. They meant a lot to me when I wrote them and took quite a lot of effort and time for a teen to do…I’ll keep them in my mind that way instead.

70) When asked, are you embarrassed or enthusiastic to tell people that you write?

Outside of fandom social media I don’t EVER tell people I write, period. My mom knows I wrote the middle school talking dragon book and STILL once in a while says I should publish it bc she hasn’t read a book in about 15 years and is a horrible judge of good writing. I keep telling her I “forgot” where I put that book but it’s gathering dust in my garage and I hope she eventually goes senile and forgets about it.

Otherwise I haven’t mentioned writing as a hobby to anyone irl but my bff and brother since like 2012. It is EXTREMELY private to me.

71) When it comes to more complicated narratives, how do you keep track of outlines, characters, development, timeline, ect.?

I used to just keep two Microsoft Word documents per story (at least longer ones) one for the story itself, whatever most recent chapter I was working on, and a second one for the notes/outline on that story. Sometimes I kept a third one for storing axed/rewritten passages of writing. It was tedious but I knew no other way.

I’m glad I have Scrivener now to keep all those things in one “document” basically which makes it easier to look through it all and compare things side to side.

72) What order do you write in? front of book to back? chronological? favorite scenes first? something else?

Chronological! I can’t imagine writing any other way omg ew. Writing a big epic scene when I have'nt written or decided the buildup sounds like a horrible idea. It simply will not be written the same as it would when I know and have experienced all that led up to it.

73) What do you think makes your writing stand out from other works?

I’m having a lot of trouble with this one. Any quality I can think of, some other people surely do as well. I like focusing on dangerous, scary conflicts and situations that are more horror movie-esque than like, fun? I bring in magical or supernatural creatures whenever I can. I love writing chase scenes especially between two parties in a ship. I ship damn near anything. I have my own flavor when you mix these things together, I guess.

74) You’ve posted a fic anonymously. How would someone be able to guess that you’d written it?

This is getting kind of repetitive again. The stuff I mentioned above. Maybe if there’s a lot of horses, unicorns or talking animals that might be a sign that it’s me…using the possessive behavior tag…shipping Sakura with a man who tried to kill her at least once…nowadays I think the horses/unicorn inclusion would be the biggest clue lol.

75) What scene in [Fanfic Name] took the longest to write? What was difficult about it?

There’s a few scenes in Chasm (MadaSaku dark fantasy, Madara is a huge wingless gryphon) where Sakura has to talk to Madara and/or the Uchiha clan, and they’re big scary monsters and she’s terrified. Pushing these conversations along to get to the point of them while not having the two parties just insulting/dismissing the other, trying to build up a bit of a relationship between them at the same time…was really hard! Those Madara-Sakura talking scenes are HARD! I remember being stuck on the dialogue several times, for ages each time. Gah!!

76) Did you have any ideas that didn’t make the final cut of [Fanfic Name]?

Lots. There’s several stories of mine with pieces that I scrapped (put in the 3rd word doc) and didn’t use. I remember writing that I scrapped 12,000 words of Chasm chapter two back in the day.

Oh I had a scene in the AtsuHina sci-fi horror recently where Atsumu and Hinata get into a van that’s basically a taxi. Suna, Atsumu's friend, is the driver and interrupts when AtsuHina are feeling each other up in the backseat. I forget the timing exactly…but Atsumu playfully asks if Hinata has ever fucked in a taxi, and Suna is right there looking through his little divider window and replies, “* I’ve * fucked in a taxi,” and Atsumu shouts at him to listen to his fucking podcasts and shut the window already.

I thought it was really funny, but I cut it for time/word count and not really fitting the tone of growing ominousness. That chapter ended up at 15k without that scene which was 1k by itself.

77) Do you have a favorite scene you’ve written from [Fanfic Name] story/chapter?

Yes, I really like the writing I used in the “alien Oikawa finally breaks into the ship” scene in Day of the Navigator, end of Chapter 2.

I think its ominous tone is strong at the start, which bursts into shock and horror when Iwaizumi sees the alien at the end of the hallway and almost faints, he imagines his dead captain Ushijima to fucking get up and move, and he bravely stands against the charging alien with a flamethrower. Catches him in a net shot out of a....net gun...first, then burns him with the flamethrower up close. Alienkawa can regenerate tho and will NOT be deterred from claiming and fucking his cute humanbride so he shakes it off.

But god, it was fantastic to write.

-

Oh my god I wrote 77 answers (this took 2 days). Why can’t I write fanfic at this kind of speed. I guess because following a plot matters and takes much more care than 77 individual questions jeeeeeeeeesus I answered 77 questions…sending my corpse to Jammie in the mail

@spacejammie-eimmajecaps

[raekensarcher]

can u do all??

hells yes (for the sake of my brain i am just putting emojis)

✨: my first fic!!!! i wish people would give it more credit. also the religious one

💘: again, like, all of them. i am my own worst critic

💫: how you interpret my work!! if you point things out that i hadn’t even thought of before!!

🌈: i did struggle the most with my newest fic. the plot and first chapter was written and rewritten a handful of times before it got to what it is now

🦋: most insecure about people not liking my interpretation of things. always worried i’m not seeing the characters how everyone else sees them and it won’t be liked.

🌻: writers block fr. my brain jus stops working. what keeps me going is that i love writing, i can just shut my brain down and type and end up with 3k words like nothing even happened. i love it.

🌿: creating makes me feel powerful idk like writing is such an escape , even when most of my writing is projection, it feels better to put it on someone else and something else. it gives me a chance to breathe and to think about things

🍉: like i said, projecting. it helps in terms of being able to sort things out, to problem solve. if i can figure it out for my characters, i can figure it out for myself. it helps

🎀: my writing has improved significantly since i was 14/15. i really love the writing style i’ve settled on.

🎈: again, big on imagery and behind the scenes things. love it.

🎉: dude?? every time i post a fic i lay down and read it and feel proud of myself. always celebrate your work!!! always!!!

💞: the most important part of the story, to me, is being able to picture it. when i write things i want to be able to see it in my head, i don’t want unanswered questions. i want to be able to feel what the characters are feeling and be there with them u know? i am a sucker for imagery and racing thoughts. i want to be in the characters head.

💝: definitely my first one. was super worried ab posting that one.

🤍: first big one/religious one. for sure.

🕯️: probably my religious one and the one i did about theo and his guilt. lots of projection, like, so much. but it wasn’t difficult to write so much as hard to realize what i was writing? and ig just recognize how much i was hurting.

💥: theo guilt fic!!! deserves more reads and credit. it’s sad but it’s probably the most honest theo i have ever written.

🍭: i started writing as a diary type of thing. it helps to smash a keyboard instead of anything else.

💎: it makes me feel better,, and if i write something that someone else connects with??? i feel wonderful.

📡: i think writing is important because it’s giving people a voice u know? like even if it’s just fandom things, people are being creative and allowing themselves to dive into a different reality to build new things. it’s fun!!

🪄: i honestly don’t have, like, a set routine or anything after i finish something? aside from going through and reading it as a ftr, i kind of just sit there and hope everyone loves it

🎙️: oh god that’s a lot of pressure shsgjdhfk i think the zoo one maybe? it’s something that’s up to interpretation for everyone and we’re never actually gonna know what happened. i would love to hear everyone else’s thoughts n opinions on it

🤲🏼: peace of mind, actually. my writing is me trying to sort out my own problems, if i’m solving the issues for my characters i’m solving the issues for myself

💋: YES!!! i don’t typically leave comments bc my brain is scrambled but when i have and it involves a question then yes absolutely i would love to hear back

☯️: i think communication in fandom is healthy and it’s so fun to make friends on tumblr/twitter/etc. i’ve made a few since joining tw tumblr and i can say it’s been a great experience so far. some of my best friends (of 4+ years) are ones i made through fandom. they’re family to me

🧿: honestly? if something isn’t getting the response i would like then i just try to forget about it hagdjfj i care too much about what people think and i’m trying to care less about that. i write for me, if someone else happens to like it then yay but if not then it isn’t the end of the world.

💌: current wip things?? i’ve just got the one big one and i swear i’ll have a chapter update for it soon i’ve just been dealing with a lot of family issues lately. new chapter soon though!! i have plans :)

[bonesandthebees]

hi bee!

I’ve been reading your fics for almost half a year now and I'm always thinking how much I want to write some big message about all the things I like in your works, but because it's big I'm never able to sit and just. write it down. so here I am to just tell you that your work awesome in a little message just because I feel that I need to say it at least in some way.

I've read all the big fics and a lot of the smaller ones and your work always have like .perfect. balance of interesting plot and characters/emotions-centric stuff. which is like. the most important thing in my opinion when you want to create a story that is able to connect with people. and oh boy it works so well with me. every time I start reading your fic it's like jumping into a hole and I can't get out until I reach the end. (and omg I'm so hyped for the rose!! I'm a big fan of GoT so seeing your fic that is inspired by it and HotD... I'm gonna be honest I've cried a little from happiness)

anyway I hope you like silly random thoughts about your fics because yesterday I've read "starman waiting in the sky" and it was great. I really love the concept of this thing that is terrifying especially because you have no idea what it is and what it wants. but. with this "X" on the Eye I couldn't stop thinking that the Eye is twitter. twitter is watching Wilbur and Tommy. twitter is coming for them. twitter consumes all the town around them.

have a nice day!! <3

I'm sorry I'm so late responding to this I totally forgot but thank you so much!! this made me so happy to read :)

for my longer fics I put a lot of effort into balancing plot and emotions so I'm so glad it works out. I try to tie it all together so that the plot progression directly pushes the emotional progression as well or vice versa, and of course the two have to move independently of each other a lot of the time, but I do my best to keep them on the same track.

(omg I'm so glad to hear you're excited about rose I'm soooo excited to really dive into it. I actually started reading the asoiaf series when I started planning rose as kind of research for how to write this stuff. I'm still only on the first book bc I don't read a lot so I'm just reading like a few chapters once a month or something but it's very fun. also so tempted to rewatch hotd while doing my planning I'm so excited for s2)

LMAO the 'X' in the eye was definitely not tied to twitter bc that fic was written long before elon musk had even bought twitter let alone tried to rebrand it. but I'm so glad you enjoyed the fic I'm still so insanely proud of that one <3

[universitypenguin]

Hey, can I get some writing advice?

So, after you come up with a story idea what do you do next?

Do you brainstorm for that story? Or make a character profile?

Because I have a story idea and idk what to do next. I read about it and they say to brainstorm but then I'm like "how am I going to right if I don't know who I'm writing? " But then I feel like I'm not doing it correctly.

I know it sounds silly but I would really appreciate some help. 🙏

So, I had to think about this one for a while, because the way I write has changed so much over the years. What I've put together is more geared towards how I used to write when I was developing my skills.

Without further ado, here's my official advice.

The most important thing you can do is realize that not everything you write is gold, and that's fine. Never compare your unedited draft to someone else's published work.

As C.J. Cherryh once said:

"It's perfectly okay to write garbage - as long as you edit it brilliantly."

Be consistent about writing and keep going, even on the days when you're not getting very far. Even on days when you know your writing sucks, write anyways. (They made the delete button for a reason. Go make your mistakes, and cover up the evidence as you see fit.) Forming the habit of writing regularly is what turns you into a writer more than anything.

Step #1: Pre-Writing

When I first get a story idea, I take time to daydream about it. Letting my mind wander is usually the best thing to do in these moments. At first, I don’t take any notes. I just like to see what sticks. If the idea drifts away, I assume it wasn’t meant to be and move on. If it sticks around and keeps circling back, then I know it’s a thread I probably should start spinning. 

Next, I like to do concept maps. The quick diagram with bubbles and arrows that show relationships helps me organize things in a simple manner. This step usually helps me enlarge the plot and figure out what I need and what’s extraneous. 

The most important thing about prewriting is to make sure your story has a solid conflict and at least four parts. These four parts are: 

Introduction

Inciting Incident

Immediate Reaction

Reaction

If these conditions seem to be fulfilled I begin writing.

Step #2: Writing

Step two is writing. Here, I’ve found the best thing to do is write while the idea is hot. This is when I do my best writing, when the emotion is fresh and my mood is just right. However… I usually have an amazing writing day about once every two years. So, I have to do what most mere mortals do. I sit down at my desk, put my hands on the keyboard, and demand of myself that I at least produce 200 words. Once I’ve hit that mark there’s usually some momentum going, which makes the next 200 words much easier.

This is where I write the first four chapters, which are what I listed out above. The introduction, the inciting incident, the character’s immediate reaction, their considered reaction after they’ve had their “off the cuff” reaction, and then I stop. 

Here, it’s good to take a step back and look at what you’ve written. Does the story have enough conflict? How does your character sound and feel? Are you enjoying yourself? I think writing four chapters should be enough to identify if you’ve got a story or if you need to develop the idea a bit more.

Step #3: Developmental Editing

Whatever the answers to those questions are, I usually do some developmental editing at this point. I might not finish the story, but it’s always good to flex your creative muscles and see if you can fix something that’s flawed. 

To develop an idea, I rely on story structure. There are a lot of good resources out there for structure. My first experience with structure was from the 27 scene outline. 

In my opinion, this is a great way to learn how to form a coherent plot. It’s very exact in laying out the story beats a writer needs to hit. That said, it’s also very constraining. I used this to learn how to form a narrative, but since then I’ve become more flexible with my story structures. 

Other plot structures I’ve enjoyed using are the beat sheet from “Save the Cat,” as well as four act structure, and six act structure. Each of these presentations of a story structure has its strengths and weaknesses, so figuring out what methods appeal to your style and what doesn’t work, is very useful. For short fiction there’s a thing called the “seven point” structure which I often refer to even now. Short fiction is not among my strengths… so I have to work harder at it than I would a novel. 

Another great resource for developmental editing is the YouTube channel run by Ellen Brock. She’s an editor and posts really informative videos about things like what type of writer are you, which is a very useful thing to understand when you're trying to write. She also has a phenomenal story structure series that’s one of the best I’ve come across. 

If you’re struggling, turn to other sources of inspiration. For myself, I like to read about the craft of writing. It's always good to remember that inspiration comes and goes, but skills can earn you an income. My book recommendations would be: 

Save the Cat - Blake Snyder 

Plot and Structure - James Scott Bell 

How to Write Dazzling Dialogue - James Scott Bell 

On Writing - Stephen King

Lastly, always remember this quote from Ray Bradburry:

“Write a short story every week. It's not possible to write 52 bad short stories in a row.”

I hope this has been helpful. Also, I love to talk about the craft of writing, so feel free to message me if you have any follow up questions!