#my first wips were literally all tell. i could not wrap my head around prose and showing. it was something i sorely needed to cultivate

[em-dashes]

after opening my aphelion file for like 10 minutes i already figured out and moved past the part i had been stuck on for forever. it turns out!! that sometimes you really just have to be okay with telling instead of showing. my attempt to show everything just overcomplicated the narration so much that it became stagnant and convoluted. tell! please tell!! “show don’t tell” isn’t meant to be a strict rule!! TELL!!!!!!!!!!!

[scarletsaphire]

I'VE GOT A BUNCH OF WRITING ASKS FOR YOU LETS GO

7, 22, 32, 36, 39, 40, 55, 56, 63, 64, 65

7. How do you choose which POV to write in?

Uhhhh that’s a great question honestly. Most of the time when I have an idea it comes with the POV built in; for multi chapter fics/things from multiple POV’s it boils down to “Who is close enough to the plot to make sense, emotionally charged, and not going to reveal everything immediately/throw everything out of wack.”

Putting the rest under a read more because it’ll be long.

22. Are there certain types of writing you won’t do?

I don’t like mind control, its an ick for me, so unless it’s 1000% necessary for the story I want to tell I won’t write it. I also tend to avoid first person, whether reading or writing. If its original fiction I’m more likely to be malleable with that, but for fanfiction, first person POV is an immediate turn off for me.

32. Name three of your favorite fanfic writers.

I’m going to make the decision not to include people from the pham, because otherwise it’ll just be people from the pham so >:p.

(Also to the author’s I’m tagging, sorry about the notification!)

@jackdaw-sprite is currently my favorite fanfic author. Their stuff is just creatively incredible, their writing style and prose is so, so, so well done. I can think of at least 5 of their fics by name that I am thinking about almost constantly. It’s all so absolutely incredible and I cannot recommend it enough.

@clockways has a lot of really good fics they are currently working on and every single one of them is absolutely incredible. The plots are well thought out and well executed, the characters all feel unique to their own stories while not feeling OOC, and they also do really good art.

@five-rivers is also on the list, which I’m sure surprises absolutely nobody. Obviously you have the Mortifiedverse which, as you know Hannah, I’m constantly freaking out over. It’s so so so well done, but also they have such a ridiculous quantity of other stuff and all of it is Top Tier.

36. How do you write kiss scenes?

Really quickly one after another in a weekend. Obviously.

The actual answer depends on the kiss scene itself. In general, I think my approach to kiss scenes is actually close to my approach to fight scenes? Unless there is something specific about the kiss that needs to be described, focus on the emotions its causing in the character instead. Even if you’ve never kissed someone you know what it’s going to look like, so spending time describing the physical appearance of the kiss is more often than not a waste of time. The emotions driving the kiss, or being caused by it, are much more important and interesting

39. Share a snippet from a WIP.

(From the gray ghost coffee shop story ;) (also tagging kad so she can get some gray ghost soup. @kadziduo

Laying in the rafters was Phantom. His ghostly tail was wrapped under the beam and back into his lap, so that the wispy end of it wrapped around one of his hands. The other hand dangled over the side, hovering in the air a good foot over the tallest patron. His head was leaned back against the post, and tilted to the side so that Valerie could clearly see his face, could clearly see that he was deep in sleep.

“He crashed here one night,” Mama Rose said from behind her. Valerie didn’t take her eyes of Phantom. There was something wrong about the whole situation, and she knew it had something to do with that ghost. You can never trust a ghost. “Literally, from the broken window. Found him asleep, just like that, so I made him a chocolate shake. He helped me clean up the mess, and he came back the next day.”

“I can chase the freeloader off for you,” Valerie said, her blaster whirring to life at her wrist.

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

That’s a tough one. Daytime Stargazing, as much as that fic fought me, has a scene at the end with Sam capturing a picture pf Danny in the middle of an eclipse, phantom (ha) stars visible only around him, creating an aura. That one would be really cool to see.

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

Its going to come as a surprise to absolutely nobody yet again that it’s Danny. He’s. So easy to put in situations man how could I not love him. Valerie’s a close second, but Danny is just so versatile. Something cute and silly? Danny. Crack dissection fic? Danny. Slightly angsty magic adventure? Danny. It’s like one size fits all and that size is a half dead child.

56. What’s something about your written that you pride yourself on?

I’m very proud of a lot of parts of my writing tbh and I’ve never heard of humility in my life so you’re getting multiple B)

I have a knack for coming up with and fleshing out ideas. I write incredibly quickly and do it well on the first try, which means I don’t have to spend a lot of time editing if I don’t feel like it. (Will editing make it better? Yes. But I don’t feel like it.) I also am good at emotionally charged lines me thinks.

63. Something you hate to see in smut.

I’ve spent a good long while thinking and frankly its the same things I hate in most writing: Poor characterization and bad spelling/grammar. Most smut specific things I can sit through if the rest of it is good, but I can’t deal with those unless Specific Circumstances are met.

64. Something you love to see in smut

Possessiveness. It’s fun in fiction.

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

The ice skating scene. You remember the ice skating scene I told you about don’t you? I want to write it but I have SO MUCH ELSE TO WRITE BEFORE HAND. >:(

[prettylittlelyres]

Inside the Writing Process - Part 5

I’ve been so excited about the ideas this chart has given me for Violins and Violets, so I’m making this fifth “Inside the Writing Process” post about it. It’s immensely useful for...

Expanding a Story into a Series

OK, so I’m sure a lot of people with ADHD have seen this going around and related to it a lot, but I think a lot of writers could relate to it as well in terms of things that can distract us from the main points of our WIPs (and of course some writers have ADHD anyway).

I saw a copy of this chart on Facebook yesterday, and it got me thinking. Disclaimer: I don’t know if I have ADHD (I have executive dysfunction and a lot of trouble concentrating, but I don’t know why, and don’t have time or energy to get it looked into), but it did get me thinking.

It made me think about how to organise my expansions of the world around my WIP Violins and Violets (currently seeking beta readers), because I wanted to address a lot of things in the book that just weren’t practical to address (because there’s only so much you can put in a book without it become completely unreadable. This is why I’ve never finished Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey, even though I love it, especially all the beautiful world building... it’s just too much to hold in my head). It was always in my mind that I could solve this problem (too many ideas for one book) quite simply, by writing more books.

This is a really long post, I know, but if you want to learn a fun way to come up with ideas for prequels, sequels and companion books for your story, keep reading! It’s a little bit like the snowflake method, and of course you can then use that to expand each individual idea that you have. It’s also available in shorter form here.

I’d been letting ideas for storylines involving other characters rustle around in my head since I finished the first draft of Violins and Violets in August... and then I saw this yesterday, and realised it would be a pretty good place to start thinking about the ideas that I do have, and listing them in relation to the main storyline of Violins and Violets. I spent about an hour writing down everything, just letting it all spill from my head, and this is what came up.

(Side note: I really do adore Pukka Pads Irlen refill pads. Another thing I may or may not have is Irlen syndrome, which would explain why I can’t read off white backgrounds for very long, and why my eyes hurt if I try. All I know for sure is that these pads help me so, so much, and they come in very gorgeous colours! These pages are from the “rose” pad, but I use “lavender” ones as well, a very soft and relaxing pale purple.)

Expanding Violins and Violets

Pre-Story Prologue for “Context”

Write down all ideas about character backstories to help you develop a prequel (or set of prequels) by exploring those.

Magdalena’s upbringing and Conservatory training with Dorota and Maja (these characters also never appear in Violins and Violets (with the exception of Magdalena) but I really want to explore their lives, going into more detail about Dorota and Maja’s relationship, how they raised Magdalena as their daughter, how they met, and Dorota’s fight to get Magdalena an education).

Käthe and Hansi touring Europe with their music. I’d be missing out on the opportunity to portray a fun sibling dynamic like the Mozart siblings had if I didn’t write this story. However, I do feel it might be better suited to a series of short stories, a collection of small standalone pieces, than a full-length novel, but it’s early days, and I have a lot else to do for this project in the meantime.

Franz and Julia’s early marriage/courtship, particularly how it really only happened once they were married; it would go a long way to explaining why Katharina’s parents are so relaxed about her having an arranged marriage; they genuinely believe it’ll work for her, like it worked for them (and they’re not entirely wrong, but that’s quite literally another story).

Start of Story

Consider all the characters involved in the main story, and ask yourself what’s going on in their lives that the protagonist doesn’t see. If a character only appears partway through the story, ask them what they were doing before.

Katharina goes to Prague (which is of course the main story of Violins and Violets).

Hans tours Europe with a comically large and ever-increasing pet entourage (this post goes into that in proper detail!).

Renée finds her way to Malá Strana and makes friends with Magdalena. Not for a second does she realise that a) Magdalena is with Katharina or b) that she, Renée, is in love with both of them. And then she meets the man who becomes her husband, also a big bi disaster, and Realises™.

Johann and Wilhelm meet at university; they’re both Law students. This would be a fun opportunity to take a step into the Dark Academia genre, but I’m not exactly sure what I’d do with them. Perhaps a poetic treasure hunt sort of mystery love confession? (I know already that this will be tricky because I manage to write about two proper poems a year and I’ve already written one in 2019, for Violins and Violets. I may have to put this off for a while.)

Semi-related side-story

Now think about the characters who come and go in the story and think about why that happens. Develop the stories of what they do after they leave.

Herr Benes and his boyfriend have a marvellous time in Budapest, enjoying their retirement away from the scrutiny Benes faces in the Malá Strana Opera House in Prague.

Herr Havelka is a devious and sacriligeous boi, also a sneaky bastard, but why is that? What other yuck things does he do after he leaves the Malá Strana? What is the origin of his malice?

Herr Janda retires and leaves Katharina (or Sebastian) in charge of the Malá Strana Opera House, but how does he spend his retirement? What does he think of Katharina’s continued work after she’s discovered? He’s a composer, himself, so I want to explore the compositions he works on, later in life. Maybe he’s quite inspired by Katharina both in terms of technique and ideas for music to compose in her honour.

Magdalena’s husband, Bartolomeǰ, runs a bookshop, and this is how they meet. He’s a big fan of Katharina’s music, and gets to know a lot of his regular customers. What are their stories? Who are his friends? What do they think of Magdalena? What do they think of Katharina?

Wait, OK, back to the main story

If you’re a fan of time-jumps, then a) Violins and Violets might be right up your street because it has a massive one, and b) this is probably a good and useful step for you. If not, maybe not. But ask what happens in the time-jump and then write about it. What stories can you tell about the space in between one part of your story and the other?

I want to explore Katharina's life in Salzburg, her friendship with Johann, Wilhlem, Lulu and her family, and her reconciliation with her parents after so many years apart. They're not angry at her, nor she at them, but things aren’t perfect between them, especially while they’re grieving Hans, and I want to look at that.

Something I just now remembered

Do you ever get deep down a rabbit hole, thinking about your story, and realise part of it you’d never thought about particularly deeply is actually very sad or very happy or makes you angry? Go into detail about it.

Magdalena and Bartolomeǰ never have any children born to them, but they're everyone’s Cool Aunt and Cool Uncle, and are basically extra parents to Evžen after Bartolomeǰ took him on as an apprentice.

Magdalena and Renée never lose touch after Renée leaves to marry, and Magdalena also stays in touch with Herr Benes, and they each eventually figure out the other is bi (Magdalena) and gay (Herr Benes), and have many fun letter exchanges not dissimilar to meetings in a Lesbian Crying Cupboard. I love their friendships and I want to dive into them more than I could from Katharina’s perspective alone. Imagine something like Lemony Snicket’s The Beatrice Letters, and you have some idea of the absolutely delicious format I’d want for this--because it wouldn’t be a traditional prose novel; it would be mostly epistolary, and for that, I need something a little different--all the letters bound together in a collection along with diary entries from the characters, ticket stubs from operas, playbills, pictures of gifts they send each other over the years, absolutely everything. A treasure trove and a mammoth project, but I am so entranced by this idea! The Baroque/Rococo aesthetic of the late 18th century is right up my street.

Wrap up story and finally get to the point/end of story

I’m, uh... not excellent at fully understanding the sentiment of instructions, but I feel less bad about (deliberately) misinterpreting this one, because I do so to have it mean “create an epilogue/a sequel”. Write down any ideas you have to that end.

Lulu’s children all grow up to follow careers in music. Hanna becomes an opera singer following help from Katharina and Magdalena to get her into a Conservatory in Berlin. Minna becomes a highly renowned composer (arguably a successor to Katharina), and Theo... well, I’m not exactly sure what he does, but that’s the point. I don’t have to know just yet. All I need to know is that I want to find out.

After grieving Johann, Wilhelm finds happiness and new love. Perhaps he brings his new partner to Prague, or perhaps he meets him there. That’s something I want to explore, as is...

...Herr Benes’ return to Prague with his boyfriend, meeting Wilhelm and his boyfriend (boyfriends for everyone. In this house we write gay joy or we write nothing (or we write angst)). Maybe there follow some nice rag-tag-band-of-elders adventures (quite literally a band, too, since they’ll all be musicians) and/or shenanigans. Do they all--with Katharina and Magdalena, of course--go on a fun trip to Salzburg and Eggwald together? That would be rather lovely. Some kind of Best Exotic Marigold Hotel story. Happiness.

Too many details/lose train of thought

Now’s your chance to get away from the main story! Ah, the guilty pleasure of AUs. Ah, the even more fun version of AU-related guilty pleasure where you get to write AUs of your very own novel! Go on. You deserve it, because you wrote a whole novel and you’ve read it at least as many times as you’ve drafted it... but you still want more content. You want to see how these characters that you love will cope in different worlds, different situations, different everything. Go for it. And if you have any details about the far-flung prelude or coda to the story (music terminology drop? Who’s that? I don’t know her), get into those, too. You know the ones I mean. The ones where you discuss the impact of the storyline on people centuries later, or get into the creation story of the world your characters live in.

I was fool enough to start thinking about a Vampire!AU of Violins and Violets before I had finished the first draft of the actual book. But that’s going on this list, because I have already written a slightly-related one-shot, Daughter, and I certainly don’t plan for that to be the only thing I ever make for it.

Violins and Violets and Varsity - a high school AU I’ve been thinking about since December 2018 - drawing on my experiences playing Swing Band and Pit Band in secondary school. It would be set in the UK, though, and characters would have more Anglophone-sounding names. I have some ideas for this written down somewhere in my computer, but, for now, I’m just going to leave you with the names, because I’m not certain I’m super happy about the current premise for the plot.

Katharina - Kate

Magdalena - Maddie

Hans - Henry

Bartolomeǰ - Bart

Renée - Rena

Going back to the dark academia mentioned earlier, I think it could be interesting to explore--not a modern AU, but in the modern day--how people now would look back on the lives of the characters from Violins and Violets had they really existed. I grew up not far from Reading, where an original handwritten manuscript of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was found in a charity shop in 2011, and I want to take that idea and run so, so far with it. I adore dark academia, as my followers will know, and it seems like a perfect chance to combine my knowledge of Music History and Music Theory with my current studies of Sociolinguistics. Here’s what I’m thinking:

Music History students team up with Sociolinguistics students to study the letters exchanged between the characters and coming to realise that everyone involved was a big and lovely Queer Disaster in some way or other, and that Katharina and Magdalena, as Johann and Wilhelm, were in love. And then all the students fall in love, too, because dark academia plus romance is my downfall (hence my current WIP, She Has No Name).

Steps I missed out of this process, I missed out because I couldn’t think of ways to relate them to my storyline. Those are:

What was I talking about?

Realise I’ve been talking too long.

Apologise.

If you can think of ideas to go along with those steps (although I’m hesitant to encourage anyone to apologise for what they write), too, go for it, and please let me know! I love hearing about everything you write! Now I dare you to have a go at this process for planning expansions of your story.