#making of monday

[palfriendpatine66]

Making of Monday-ish

Miss the days when I could multitask fic writing 😩 PiP was written on the couch watching matchbox races with Blues Clues on the background and from my camp chair at the little league park. These days I require a silent room, indirect sunlight, a cool breeze, and a minimum of one hour uninterrupted writing time on an actual laptop to get any words happening.

[amadwinter]

Making of Monday - How NOT to Write a Long Fic

Haven't posted one of these in a hot minute! Story time: sometime around 2021, I decided I was sick of having all these ideas for Star Wars fics and never actually writing them. So I decided to buckle down, and write a damn fic.

But of course that didn't happen. What I did instead was try to plot out a long, winding, action-adventure story, and to do that, I decided to study to study from the masters. Or master. I wrote down all the chapter titles for every Lord of the Rings book, and was planning on modeling my story based off a similar pacing.

But of course that didn't happen either. And I realized that I was getting nowhere fast. So, I took out a different piece of paper, and with no plan in place, just started jotting down thoughts.

Warning: terrible formatting and terribly inconsistent handwriting below the cut

And as you can see, I didn't get far with unconnected ideas before I started planning once more.

Inspired by short fic I had just read, I wanted to write a long fic where a whole and hale Anakin Skywalker shows up on Tatooine some amount of years into exile. Seeing as how this was before the Obi-Wan Kenobi show came out, there was a lot of room for interpretation in canon. I could take ideas from Legends, make theories about what they were going to do with canon (and be extremely right about some of them), and just make shit up whenever I wanted to.

But immediately, I came to a question that I wanted an interesting answer to: where did this new Anakin come from, and how did he get to Tatooine? Time travel is simple, and not where I wanted to go. Something something Sith magic, yeah, whatever. Also not what I wanted to do. But dimension travel? Now, there was an idea.

Of course, because I am a planner, it couldn't be simple, now could it? It couldn't be just hand-wave the Force that caused it. There had to be a real, concrete, series of events that caused Anakin to appear out of thin air.

And thus began the Yeetverse.

A chain of 4 separate universes (plus 1 bonus one for my own torture amusement. And actually now with one more added on later!). A to B to C to D. It's far too complex for baby's first fanfic in a fandom, and yet the ideas would not stop flowing.

Yes, that was all just written because I couldn't stop thinking about these ideas. It may not seem like a lot, but any brave soul who attempts to read my handwriting can see that there are many things going on at once. (And the only thing I blocked out is the ending to what was meant to be the first fic in this chain, the thrill of the fall)

But for all those ideas, all that planning...

I haven't even finished the first fic I truly tried to write.

I actually have so much of it outlined. I even wrote the outlines of the first 2 chapters of the original fic idea that started it all down on paper.

But I haven't written more.

Why?

Turns out, I'm not good at writing long fics. Planning them? Yes. Finishing them? Hell no.

It will be 3 years since I came up with these ideas. I haven't given up hope yet that I might actually get around to writing all those fics one day, but one-shots and event fics have drawn my attention away.

Who knows; maybe I'll finally take another shot once I've finished up more of my posted WIPs.

[grapenehifics]

Making of Monday: Can't Stop the Suns Part 1

(I am thinking SO positively rn that I am calling this part 1, like I will remember to actually write more. YMMV; we'll see how I do.)

I'm hard at work on the concluding chapters of Pick Up the Pieces right now, and working on Pick Up the Pieces means I also need to do a fair bit of rereading An Uncivil War, so it's very much on the forefront of my brain, and also I have yet to participate in a single MoM, so: here's some backstory on An Uncivil War.

Okay I actually need to back up even farther than that, all the way to Solsbury Hill and February 2020. I started Solsbury Hill - it wasn't called that, then; it didn't have a name, just 'weird doc file/outline I'll probably never finish because I don't have a track record of finishing creative writing projects, ever' - and then the very next month I started working from home AND season 7 of Clone Wars premiered.

To get ready for season 7 - and because I was home a lot more during the day, now, and didn't have to commute to work - we decided to do a rewatch of Clone Wars season 1 through 6. And you know how we joke about plot bunnies, and why they're called that? That the hardest idea is your first one and once you have that the ideas just keep multiplying? So, I'm sitting on an outline for what would become Solsbury Hill, and we're watching Clone Wars, and we get to season 5, and the episode with Ahsoka's trial, and I think to myself, huh. That's weird. Why is Obi-Wan acting like that? Why is he not sticking up for our Padawan? If he had, I bet things would have turned out differently. Ahsoka might not have left the Order. Anakin might not have turned to the Dark Side. Clone Wars is full of all these little things that individually might not be enough to push Anakin over the edge, but they start stacking up, collectively...

From there, it was a pretty easy leap to, 'what if Obi-Wan left the Order instead of Ahsoka', and that created this whole domino effect because Anakin would obviously leave with him, right, and Ahsoka was getting kicked out anyway, and now I've got this scenario with three Jedi on the run in the middle of a war.

And that was fascinating to me. Once I started thinking about it I couldn't stop. But I was also getting really into Solsbury Hill, at that point, so this new story needed to take a backseat. I dumped a bunch of notes into a Word doc and went back to my AU.

It turns out, though - and this was the first time I'd learned this about myself - that I liked having both an AU and a canon project going at the same time. Solsbury Hill and An Uncivil War both used such different parts of my brain and required a different skillset and researching vastly different things, and if I got bogged down in one it was nice to be able to switch to the other one and hack away at that one for a while. So I ended up, from early 2020 until August 2022 when I posted the first chapter of Solsbury Hill on AO3, working on both projects nearly simultaneously, although obviously Solsbury Hill (despite being three times longer) got to the finish line first.

For a long time - almost three years - An Uncivil War was just called, An Uncivil War. And it had this expansive outline that I just kept cracking away at, and whenever I came across something cool in another piece of Star Wars media or another show premiered or I read another book I'd think 'Ooh, that's neat! That's going in the fic!' and I'd add it to my to-do list. And at some point I looked at my word count and realized I was pushing 100k and not anywhere close to the end of the story I wanted to tell.

So, I started thinking about sequels, and series. I had (still have) this outline, fortunately, and there was one pretty obvious stopping point at what was then the mid-point of the plot. (I say, 'then' because it has since, of course, expanded. It turns out I'm very bad at guessing word counts.) So I took half my outline, dumped into a brand-new doc, called that one Pick Up the Pieces, and wrote the 'ending' of An Uncivil War, as much as possible, as if it were the ending, just in case I for some reason never got around to writing Pick Up the Pieces.

Because it was important to me that An Uncivil War be able to stand on its own. It's got a beginning, a middle, and an end, and the end calls back to the beginning, and the main threat to the characters is resolved, and they talk about what they're going to do next but even if that was the only story you had, it should still be a satisfying conclusion (or, at least, I hope it is).

But it isn't the entirety of the story I wanted to tell. Because they originally were one big story, I actually had maybe half of Pick Up the Pieces already written by the time I started posting An Uncivil War, so while the first part took me three years to write, the second has technically only taken me a year, but I was definitely not starting from scratch.

I also - and this should shock absolutely no one - was once again wildly off in my word count estimate. Pick Up the Pieces is, right now, already as long as An Uncivil War (120k), and I've still got three chapters left to go...plus a bunch more things in my outline I haven't gotten to yet.

So, in true Star Wars tradition, I'm now plotting a part three! Pick Up the Pieces, like An Uncivil War before it, has a logical ending point, so it will wrap up there, but the plot will move merrily along to the next thing on my to-do list, which is in fact the same to-do list I've had since March 2020. (It's a good thing I love this story so much or I would have quit long ago.) Part Three, at the moment, is tentatively titled Sometimes Fate Steps In, and I'm really, really sorry to have to admit that that's where all the smut is going to be. (I know. It's Solsbury Hill all over again.)

(I do love it, though. I feel like I should...apologize, to my fics, somehow, for having a favorite? I do have a favorite, though. It's this series. I love it so damn much. This is the one thing I write where, if you told me right now that I would never get a single comment or kudos on it, I would still write it anyway, because I just get so much enjoyment out of researching and writing it and re-reading it.)

(Which is not to say you shouldn't comment on it. Please, please do! You will absolutely make my day, week, month, year! But I love it enough to do it anyway.)

[wibzenadarksiderwithasoftheart]

Making Of Monday What to do with plot bunnies.

I've found that one of the wonderful and terrible things about being a fic writer is all the many plot bunnies. They breed, the little bastards, and I'll never be able to write them all, sadly. I do enjoy playing with them though, just letting my mind run wild with a weird idea. They're something positive for my overactive brain to focus on, and for that I'm grateful.

But what to do with them.

Of course there are the ones I choose to work on, the ones that end up being more than just a plot bunny, but those are the special few. There are many that I should kill off, but I'm possessive and can't bring myself to just let them go, so I put them in deep freeze (stasis sleep) so I can find them at a later date. The list is now incredibly long, there are so many small and large iders just waiting for their chance, but I have no idea if I will ever return to them.

A few I've released, set them loose on Tumblr so that they might torment/inspire others, and I should do this more often, but like I said, I'm possessive of them, so it's difficult.

In my note app on my phone, I have a running list where I can quickly write down the pesky bunnies when they come to me, usually at the most inopportune times. It can be anything from a single sentence, or just the title, to something more.

This is my current list: It's far from all my bunnies, as I'm constantly moving them to the deep freeze (a document on my PC) or promoting them into real plot ideas with their own note.

To have one last day with you

Ghost Ship

You're a pretty devil, I have to agree (Halloween fic angel and demon)

Same age Obi Luke Ani

The elven prince and his human, Elver Obi human Ani

To love a god is a terrible and wonderful thing

The dragon in the soul, Anakin turns in to a dragon

In to the woods, Quiobiani, Werewolves, Found in the woods, Forest time strange, Motorcycles

Hig treason, You are found guilty of having assinated the hig Chancellor and will be executed, They found Padmé in the crowd

Bride of the Dragon

Seeking comfort, Padawan and master sleep together, Ahsoka and Anakin didn't know it but with this they continued a tradition in their lineage.

The Pact, Sith and Jedi married every generation So there is this very old peace treaty saying that in each generation of Sith and Jedi two will be designated to be 'married' to maintain peace and balance (this would probably be in a universe where there are more Sith)

The dark fairytales of the galaxy

R2 secret recordings, Luke discovers that R2 has recordings of sex between two hot men and a woman. He shares with Han and Leia… Unaware that it's their parents and Kenobi. Poor R2…

first kiss reveals a soulmate

fan meet, Anakin Obi and Padme are all fans of meet, modern

song fic, you are the reason, in the end

darkness, gone blind, living in darkness, turning to new other senses, the power of sight.

Feel free to ask about these, I would be thrilled, and if there is one you would like to adopt, abduct, make yours, let me know, I need to practice sharing and letting go.

[cottonraincoat]

making of monday: r.e. bad first drafts

so the question is, what are y'alls opinions on first drafts?

obviously different things work for different people, but something I learnt in writing the one long project I've got is that I prefer my first drafts as horrible and shapeless as it needs to be

it's a bit of a stretch even calling it a draft. because when I say first draft, it means pure word vomit, no finesse, no grammar. it's essentially a very detailed, half-mad, messy ramble of a bullet point slide, where I'm talking to myself and writing down everything that occurs to me. it's barely readable, and pretty much every single sentence will be rewritten. but it's more than nothing, cause it's got the vibes, the things that need to happen, bits of convo, etc.

I mean something like this:

which, in the second draft, turns into this:

which isn't perfect, needs more work fitting in with the rest of everything, but is much closer to the final version. it might even be what I used to call a first draft, but having the other first first draft makes getting here so much easier

[sendpseuds]

Making of Monday - Die for You - Alternate Ending

First of all, thank you to everyone who has read Die for You. This fic took me a really long time to work through and I'm so happy with the way it has turned out.

Anyway, I figured Making of Monday was a perfect place to reveal that, in the original draft of this fic, the ending was from Anakin's POV, not Obi-Wan's.

I never thought this ending was bad, but when I finished, it just didn't feel right [thank you thank you to @yourfavoritefridge and @palfriendpatine66 for encouraging me to make the change]

The shape of the events stayed the same, and some lines made it over from one version to the other, but I do think there's something to be gained from what was left on the cutting room floor.

Anyhow! You can find the original ending below the cut 🖤 [backed it up a few lines for context. you get it.]

“—kiss me like you don’t think you’re dying.”

Obi-Wan’s entire body is trembling like he’s struggling to hold onto some wild beast, and when their eyes connect and his master breathes “Anakin—“ there is nothing in the entire galaxy that can stop him from taking what he wants — not when the Force burns with need and Obi-Wan’s lips are practically begging for Anakin to drag him into danger the way he always does.

That’s why he never hesitates to jump.

That is why he has no fear.

Because Obi-Wan will always jump after him.

The first few moments are fevered and frantic — a frenetic collision — clashing together like blades in a desperate duel, all teeth and tongue and shattering tension and it’s immediately too much and not nearly enough.

Anakin loses himself so quickly he’s certain it should scare him.

But how could it?

How could he be scared when it’s Obi-Wan?

Strong fingers twist in silky curls, tightening in a warning Anakin’s mind does not register until the hand in his hair is tugging him back far enough that he can see Obi-Wan’s focus lingering on his lips for half a breath before his hungry gaze connects with Anakin’s. 

Obi-Wan’s usually bright and brilliant eyes are stained dark, pupils blown so wide Anakin feels like he might simply fall into them.

Desire burns behind his stare, desperate and dizzying but the fire in his eyes flickers with something far more familiar — his brow hard and his jaw tight the way it always is when he has some biting retort about Anakin’s petulant impatience hiding behind his teeth and for a moment the knight worries he may have made a horrible mistake.

His vision begins to blur and his pulse races but before fear can pull him under — his mind spiraling like a wild hurricane — a gentle warmth wraps around Anakin, soft and familiar, a tender touch tugging him back from the edge of panic.

Slow down.

It’s a familiar refrain.

“You said you wanted me to kiss you.”

That silky voice is low and rough and the knight can only nod.

“Then please, darling—”

Anakin has never been good at slowing down.

But for Obi-Wan, he’s willing to try.

“—Let me kiss you.”

It takes every ounce of strength in the young Jedi not to collapse onto the ground, his knees going weak beneath him but Obi-Wan has one hand still twisted in his hair and the other grips tight around his waist and the moment Anakin sees the last drops of doubt drain from the man’s gaze, his eyes flutter shut in sinful surrender as he simply lets his master kiss him.

There’s a soft press of lips to one corner of his mouth, then the other, copper whiskers tickling Anakin’s skin in a way he feels all the way down in his toes. The hand in his hair slides to his jaw, a saber rough thumb stroking reverently along his flushed cheek and Anakin can’t help but lean into the touch, shivering when he feels the breeze of a small laugh against his lips.

Then Obi-Wan kisses him.

Really kisses him.

And Anakin has never felt more alive.

He can feel the fire inside Obi-Wan. 

Taste it.

The life he tried to give away.

The faint flickering flame Anakin had gripped so tightly even as it seared into his soul.

The fire Anakin had fed with his own.

The piece of himself he’d left behind in a man who has always felt a part of him.

Obi-Wan kisses Anakin again.

And again.

Then the man is sucking on his lower lip and Anakin’s mind finally catches up, his fingers twisting in beige robes as he kisses Obi-Wan back, ignoring the way heat pools in his stomach when he feels a familiar smile press to his lips.

It’s slow and syrupy, the drag of Obi-Wan’s lips against his covetous and indulgent in a way the man never is and Anakin is content to just let himself be kissed like this until the world fades away and time becomes a foreign concept.

The air around them sings and slowly the kiss begins to deepen, their lips parting to explore a topography of teeth with their tongues tangled together.

Obi-Wan tastes like fate and for the first time in his life, Anakin truly feels he is Chosen.

Prophecy can’t possibly compare.

By the time they break apart, gasping for air, it feels like the entire galaxy is vibrating.

A breath passes.

And another.

Their eyes meet.

“You’re never allowed to leave me—” 

The words slip from Anakin’s lips before he can stop them.

It’s not the right thing to say.

He knows that. 

A petulant demand in the face of the only thing he’s ever truly wanted.

But Obi-Wan only smiles.

“—Never again, master— I will never let you go.”

It’s more true than the man who presses a hungry kiss to his lips could possibly know.

But when Obi-Wan pulls back again — his eyes shining with the vibrance of a life that Anakin is certain has always belonged to him— he thinks perhaps the man understands perfectly.

“And I will die for you as many times as I see fit.”

The words hang in the air, and for a moment, Anakin wants to argue.

He wants to protest.

He wants to lock Obi-Wan away somewhere he knows the man will always be safe but when their lips meet again in a soft sweet kiss he suddenly understands the man’s meaning—

You are never allowed to leave me, either.

“I love you, Anakin.”

It tastes like spun sugar against his lips — soft and low and full of honest affection, blazing with a fire he’s always known has roared inside his master — and this time when the words sink in, Obi-Wan isn’t trying to slip away into the living Force, but slipping his arm around Anakin’s waist to pull the young man impossibly closer, repeating the words again and again against longing lips.

“I love you.”

“I love you.”

“I love you.”

“I love you, too,” Anakin whispers as his master’s words wrap around his bones like armor around his soul, close and comforting, a cloak he will wear for the rest of his life. 

It becomes an echo in the cavern of open mouths, a mantra repeating on kiss-bitten lips long after the words fall away.

I love you.

I love you, too.

I love you.

I love you, too.

Too much.

I love you.

I love you too much.

[piecesofeden11]

Feed my Inbox! 💞 Half-Pass & Half-Pipes Q&A

In celebration of Half-Pass and Half-Pipes being finished, marking my first full fledged *finished* writing project (that I have published on ao3) I'd love to do a little round of Q&A! So if you have any questions, comments, wishes for future stories in this AU, shoot me a message! 💞 Also in vein with the amazing Making-of-Monday initiated by our friend Palfriendpatine66 (not tagging you dear as to not to clog up your inbox!)

[dark--whisperings]

🦋Making of Monday🦋

The fantastic @palfriendpatine66 had this lovely idea (see this post), and I was eager to jump on board!

---

This week, I thought I'd talk about my editing process, because this is where things really start happening for me!

As I mentioned last week, by the time I've finished the first draft of a chapter/story, it's usually a bit of a mess. During the writing process, I usually just try to get words on the page and touch the major plot points I want to hit.

It's during the editing phase that I start to hone in on the mood I want for the various scenes, and start to incorporate a style and figurative language. During this phase, I'll usually do 1-2 full rounds of editing where my main focus is culling the word count (because I'm a wordy bitch), curating a vibe, and attempting to make the experience interesting for readers.

Once this is done, I usually do one quick walk through for SPAG, before sending it off to be beta'ed (I thank my lucky stars I have a beta as amazing as @mischievouschan4... I literally don't know what I would do without her 💖).

... yeah, I know my editing process is wild. Lately, I've been experimenting with a looser process, including forgoing beta'ing and attempting to communicate the same vibe with fewer words. 'Get My Way' was actually an example of this experimentation, and I'm quite proud of the result! 😜

---

Happy Monday friends! 💖✨

[tideswept]

Making Of Monday (TMA/SW + Obikin)

A look into the writing process - “how it’s made” for fics (for more on what it means see this post here)

So this first MOM is an interesting one! It's for and inspired by @sweet-cynic during our meandering conversations about horror and eldritch things and TMA and Obikin and of course they all fused and it's like, yeah, we're doing this baby!

Granted, that's not normally how the process goes for me. I'm usually a solitary kind of writer. But it's good to talk with people! Throw silly ideas at each other. Sometimes one of them sticks. Like a magnetized bowling ball.

In this case the catnip quotent is high. I don't want to divulge too much ahead of time (even though I've gushed to way too many people about it already lol) but there's a fascinating element of inherent otherness to Anakin that I love to see explored, and this is a good fic to play around with that.

And Obi-Wan, good god, Obi-Wan, canon-wise and in this fic--he's handed this walking nuclear bomb and he still only sees Anakin (always only eyes for Anakin) to the point that he doesn't see other things as clearly. Things that alarm others.

Did I mention we're flirting with horror? We're flirting with horror. ;)

Horror is... hm. Honestly? I never thought I'd vibe so hard with writing horror. But there's something fascinating about it that I find exposes characters in ways that are fascinating. So I like to, if it's feasible, Put the Blorbos in Situations and then sit back and watch what happens. But it has to be the right idea. I do think Star Wars has some intrinsic elements that make it horror-friendly, but it's certainly not usually the focus and therefore, I like to tread carefully, wait until the perfect reason comes along, rather than manufacturing one. (Good on writers who can do this! alas, I am weak.)

So. Idea. Where does it go from there? It goes to "I don't know what I'm doing but the vibe is right, LET'S GO" and I zoom over to Google Drive. (I know, I know, there are better programs out there, but I'm just... so used to it.) I try to keep the main page of Drive neat, with only the things I'm actively working on being listed. Which, yeah, sometimes can mean up to 5 WIPs, but once I hit that number of active WIPs I put the pause on everything until something clears out, like a queue. Otherwise it really starts to feel... oppressive.

And writing can be difficult for a lot of reasons, but it should never feel oppressive. It should bring joy even when you're clenching your teeth and muttering darkly about characters being assholes and not doing what you want, or having to rewrite entire scenes because they don't work anymore.

Actually, I have a confession; I used to never edit. Like. Ever. It bored me. My brain would say, scene done, moving on, there's no looking back. And honestly that was fine for how I felt at the time. But I'm glad I've learned to edit, to line edit, to accept with begrudging grace that oftentimes I do have to kill my darlings.

It's for the better. Even though I was kicking and screaming about it like a baby for the longest time.

(Maturity? Don't know her.)

[the-obiwan-for-me]

Making of Monday

Very impressed with some of the things I've seen as people sort out their fics.

My contribution to this new idea is that the other day I figured out the general order of events for the next chapter of "What Must Be Done." It's all in my head except the few hundred words I wrote yesterday morning.

I write lawlessly and without honor.

You all impress the hell out me.

[palfriendpatine66]

Making of Monday: endings

Let’s talk endings. I hate them (writing them). More accurately, I hate figuring out endings. I’ll ramble about how I end up doing that below BUT talk to me, dear writers: I’d LOVE to hear the process you go through to reach the endings for your own fics

As a rule, I’m more of a gardener when it comes to writing (aka plant the seeds and let them grow). I usually start with a vibe in one hand and a really clear scene in the other, plus a vague direction in mind, and off I go. I let the story unfold as I write and usually it tells me where it wants to go. I know that’s a big no-no, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ that’s what happens for me. I often don’t know what the ending of the fic will be, or if I do I usually not the details, because the characters haven’t gone through their story yet to experience all the things that make them this version of them. Once they have then they can influence how their story ends. (Am I crazy? Yes, I’m crazy)

Some of my hardest fics to write have been the ones I’ve planned in greater detail. I think I get caught up in the little details of how do we get there and lose the feel of what should follow. Become focused on the destination and miss out on the journey, if you will. (looking at you, Criminal Minds)When I’m more of a fly by the seat of my pants-er it’s all about the journey. The ending (hopefully) is a natural conclusion of all that has come before it. The journey dictates the destination? Something like that…

But the other problem I have, and it’s a big one, is committing to an ending. It just feels so…constraining maybe? After the freedom to take each chapter where it wants to lead sometimes it’s restrictive to narrow down the ending and commit to the path that leads to it. But obviously it has to happen at some point.

While writing my obikin titanic au I had an detailed outline of the voyage and the events of each day, followed by a list of five possible endings. I quickly narrowed it down to four. When I couldn’t decide which way to go I started writing. I figured I would write the events that I knew for sure would happen, starting with the boarding the ship, and see what felt right when I got to the sinking.

When I’d written that much, the fic was finally about 80% complete and I had a much better sense of the story and the versions of Anakin and Obi-Wan I’d created. It was easy to decide on the ending I used at that point. I crafted the prologue that went along with it and began posting, filling in the gaps and writing exactly how I wanted the sinking to go in between updating each week.

Here’s a look at all the ways it could have gone (I definitely think the ending I went with was the right one!) 😉

[amadwinter]

Making of Monday - Theme Weeks

I actually made a post last Monday. I wrote an emotionally-charged, nonsensical rant about how much I hate writing, because I was in the middle of editing a very long chapter and I needed the catharsis. But I deleted it because I needed it to be written, but I didn't feel it needed to be seen. Sometimes, writing is like that.

But! Anyway! Something completely different now.

Last year, I participated in 3 different theme weeks (Stewjoni Biology Week, Blasphemous Week, and Sith Obi-Wan Week), resulting in me writing 60k+ over 15 fics! Some people write their fics for theme weeks or theme months (Kinktober, Flufftober, etc.) day by day. I do not.

This is what I do instead.

Step 1: Make a list and brainstorm

Whenever the prompts for each day of the theme week are revealed, I write them all down in one document along with their dates. Having them all together in one place is great for my own reference. Then I start writing down different ideas that could fit on each prompt. Some are short, one-sentence ideas. Some really get the creative juices flowing and include little snippets of dialogue.

Step 2: Create individual documents

After letting these ideas marinade for a time (a week, a month, etc), including thinking them over, playing them out in my head, getting a feel for where these ideas will go, I create an individual document for them. Hopefully, this stage occurs at least a month out, or preferably two+ months before the posting date.

Step 3: Fluctuating creativity

Over the course of the remaining time, I flip back and forth between each of my documents. When inspiration on one wanes, I rush back to another. What's extremely helpful is having each one at different stages. One fic still needs to be outline, another two need to have the rough draft written, one needs to be edited, etc.

Step 4: Panic

You see all that time I've given myself to write? Yeah, usually I don't use it to the fullest extent. About 2 weeks before the theme week kicks off, I don't have anything finished. Everything is in various stages of progress. But that deadline coming up? Yeah, that really gives me the motivation to power through and do most of my writing in those last two weeks.

But I wouldn't be able to do that without thinking over the fics so much over a few months, and getting the outline down. It's all part of the process, and it doesn't work without all of it.

Step 5: Posting

If I'm lucky, I'll have the fic finished the day before I'm set to post it. Once or twice, I haven't finished until the day after. But if I'm far enough along, I will push through and finish it no matter how much I regret it.

Should I have a different process for getting all this done? Maybe. Might save me some stress. We'll see how any of the theme weeks of 2024 go.

[impossibleprincess35]

[Making of Monday]

Joining this spiffy little idea, here's the literal piece of madness that got me started with writing my fics last spring. After watching S3 of Mando, I started trying to figure out the Bo-Katan age shit, and it led me to all this:

So, some of this is me trying to figure out different theories for Satine and Bo-Katan's ages (are they twins? is there a small age different? a big age gap?). Please don't put any stock into any of this shit. I am unwell and fixated way too hard on this for a few days.

But what ended up happening here was, I started thinking about the timeline and I was joking with my husband like, "Look at all the opportunities Satine and Obi-Wan had to hook up," and then I started writing.

And now look at me.

Insane.

Unhinged.

Literally working on a chapter right now.

[wibzenadarksiderwithasoftheart]

Knowing, to understand, to create.

Making of Monday

I haven't always been a SW fan (I came late to the party), and I'm definitely behind in my knowledge of canon.

Wookieepedia is a great help when I'm lacking in knowledge, but I've also thrown myself into reading the books that can give me more knowledge.

This is my modest collection.

[cottonraincoat]

making of monday: my friend, the dictionary

just kidding. you can't search up what a word means when you don't remember what it is!!

instead it's: my favorite dinosaur, the thesaurus

it's most likely these tabs that are constantly open when I'm trying to write:

wordhippo.com, which I like the most out of the thesaurus websites, mostly because it groups different meanings/word types in a way that makes success rates higher. and the webpage is less cluttered & less likely to crash my browser (:'D)

www.onelook.com/thesaurus, which is a reverse dictionary that works less well as a thesaurus but tried and tested has saved lives when brain freezes and you know the meaning but not the word.

google translate, because yknow, bilingual struggles.

p.s. there is the relevant other case of knowing a string of literals without knowing its meaning, and a quick google search is sometimes most revealing. (I once confused "entrails" for "entourage", and wrote "the Queen's entrails" instead of, yk, the normal one)

p.p.s. another thing r.e. dictionary is things like finding out the etymology of "seminar" contained "semen" and now I realize this is totally unrelated but me and my friend had a good laugh about it

[palfriendpatine66]

Making of Monday

Any advice for when an idea flops? Re: my abandoned but not forgotten fic Coruscant 212

There was a time when *all* I could think about was a Brooklyn 99 style police dramadey in which experienced Detective Kenobi becomes the reluctant partner/mentor to brand new Detective Skywalker. I had a *constant* stream of silly head canons floating around my head ex:

Anakin would crash too many cruisers and be demoted to bike cop.

Obi-Wan would be stuck in a revolving door while Maul got away.

For a long time I didn’t write it because while I loved the idea, I didn’t have a plot. Then when I did finally develop a plot it was a way too complicated mob/corruption plot that had way too many parts and I wasn’t actually invested in it. The fic felt doable when I decided that, like a sitcom, it didn’t have to have a larger plot than “often at odds police detectives work together to solve cases and funny moments ensue” and each chapter could be its own stand alone plot line - its own “episode”.

I eventually envisioned the scene that became the first chapter: Anakin’s first day on the job/Qui-Gon hands the reins to Obi-Wan. It took a lot longer than I thought it would to get through, but I thought I would pick up momentum to start the series, occasionally posting new chapters in between other more plotty or angsty fics. It would be nice to turn to some low pressure, silly moments I thought. A palate cleanser of sorts.

And then nothing. (uncomfortably close to one year later: still nothing)

I have a couple of snippets that I really enjoy written before I posted that first chapter that I shared during Wip Wednesdays and got great feedback on. I have a doc with lists of ideas for chapters. Some ex:

There’s a lot there to work with! And yet I’ve done nothing with them. I can’t do anything with them, and I don’t even know why. I still love the idea dearly, but it refuses to come to life.

I’ve let it fall to the back of my mind, I don’t *worry* about it anymore, but I do still occasionally think about it. I’d still like to make it work.

Advice is welcome, I certainly have no answers. If you’ve made it this far through my babbling 1) ⭐️ for you!!! 2) please join me in a moment of silence for all the fics that have been lost but not forgotten 💕