#okay soooooo i wrote an outline for it

[basilone]

Folks, I hope whichever writing you’re working on today creates joy for you!

Just this past week, I wrote a good 3k worth of words that were born from an idea 2AM me had. 2AM me is a different animal, you know. 😉 2AM me does not really care about what I’m “supposed to be working on”. 2AM me sees my prompt-filled inbox and shrugs at it. 2AM me has never met an outline she can’t ruin, has never encountered writer’s block once she gets going, and has most certainly never given a hoot about if there are going to be people willing to read the thing. 2AM me cares about one thing and one thing only: does writing this vague idea fill me with complete and utter joy?

So. Here I am. 3k words into a mafia AU that will likely not see publication beyond a groupchat with friends. 3k words into a story that features no canon characters from the shows we love, but features several of my original characters instead. 3k words into a story that is, in no particular order, doing the following: feeding my love for particular tropes, allowing me to explore my OCs in a different setting, giving me a better handle on how my OCs express certain emotions and ideas, fueling and clarifying certain aspects of the main fic these OCs inhabit, and taking away all my self-imposed pressures about needing to have a finished and publishable story as “proof” that I have spent my precious free time well by being productive.

And, friends, I’m having a blast. I’ve talked some of my friends to death about this already because I’m so excited. I’ve spent more time working on the outline for my actual fic in this past week than I have in all the weeks of this year so far because writing this silly AU gave me the confidence boost to sit down and figure that out. (That pesky outline that's been eluding me for months? Pretty much complete at the time I write this.) I’ve gained a truckload of stuff to use as special tools that will help other writing later on. And it’s all made possible because 2AM me had an idea and morning me went “well okay why not try it on for size just once”.

So, I’m writing you a permission slip. Work on what sparks joy. Work on something that inspires love in you for an aspect of your storytelling, for your characters, for the world you’re creating in. Forget about your inbox and comments and requests. Forget about your WIPs you’re either rotating in your head or threatening to smack like a piñata until the complete fic rolls out. Forget about prompts, polls, and whatever you think people’s expectations of your writing are. Work on the little idea you can’t shake, the OC that’s bugging you, the ship that won’t let go, the AU that can fit soooooo many tropes in it, and I promise you that all your other writing is going to fall into place too.

Give yourself the opportunity to love and be joyful about your creativity! I’m allowing it! 💙

[that-was-anticlimactic]

haii!! 🦅💞⛔🎶

🦅 do you outline fics or fly by the seat of your pants?

as a teacher who actively tells kids to outline and helps then outline, i Should outline more... my outlining usually takes the form of "i'm going to write the fic out of order and in the parts that i know i want to have written" lol like... my tractor fic... i just wrote whatever came to mind in whatever order so i wouldn't forget what i wanted to include lol or like i'll leave notes in my fic that i usually forget about so after i post it, i'll see lines like "make dazai leave to talk to his boyf" which is what happened in my big kenji fic ijuhgyfgvhuji

💞 who's your comfort character?

okay well always and forever my boy kyan reki <333 he is so so so special to meeeeee!!! but recently it's been kenji (oh wow everyone is soooooo surprised). i also have a huge soft spot for writing tachihara and jun'ichirou... they're Very fun to write for <333 and sometimes i just really wanna squeeze kunikida in the most gentle way possible <333 but yeah! reki & kenji <333 (in case you couldn't tell based on the fact that most of my bsd fics are kenji-centric lol)

⛔ do you have a fic you started, but scrapped?

god SO MANY!!! the first one that comes to mind is a doc that's just titled "kenji ow". idk what it was supposed to be about. i have like 140 words and i think it was created bc my body was in lots of pain so my brain went "well if i have to hurt, so does kenji <3" lol

i also have a bsd wip that's titled something like "chuuya pretends to kidnap kenji to piss dazai off" and like. it is what it sounds like oiugyftgyhuij i have over 1k written but i don't think i will ever write anymore bc WHAT IS THAT IUYGVHJK

🎶 do you listen to music while you write? what song have you been playing on loop lately?

i actually don't usually! i'm not great at reading or writing with music playing or sound on, so i don't usually do it. but sometimes i can!!! like if the song vibes help me write or if i feel like i don't know the song well enough! i wrote a tachihara fic for grace's birthday last year and we always use titles from songs the other knows for birthday fics, so i was listening to noah kahan bc we were going to go to one of his concerts and i barely knew him, and listened to "dial drunk" on repeat for awhile! except i thought the post malone version was the og version so it was that one. oops. but the latest one i listened to a lot was "if i loved you" from "nerdy prudes must die" for my kunichuu fic if i loved you like i'm capable of bc VIBES were hardcore and i had been stuck with writer's block for MONTHS so i was SCRAPING for inspo lol anyways everyone listen to if i loved you - it's a kunichuuzai song & a bsd thesis song <333

[samaraxmorgan]

HIIIIII HERE TO FORCE YOU TO TALK ABT YOUR WIPS >:) SOOOOOO. first of all, for roommate sukuna, what are you MOST looking forward to writing/exploring???? i feel like there’s SO MUCH w their relationship to see and i am SO EXCITED FOR ALL OF IT!!!!!!!

and also ….you already KNOWWWW i’m obsessed w ddr yuji HAHAHAHAHA AND OFC EARLU 2000s UNCKUNA!!!!!!!! I STILL GIGGLE I LOVED YOUR HCS FOR HIM SO MUCH AAAAHHH HOW FAR INTO THEM ARE YOU????

EEEE HI BABEY!!!

So I’m REALLY excited to put out Ran From The Cops!! Basic synopsis for that one is p much that we ask Sukuna for a ride home from work but he’s the world’s most reckless driver SKAKSK!! That one is the idea I had that started the entire series!! Him driving like a maniac on his motorcycle while evading the cops and we’re SCREAMINGGG at him to pull over but he refuses to <3 He’s such a menace I love him to death

And I’m ALSO really excited to finally reveal his backstory!! In some parts that I haven’t posted yet I have some very subtle little hints thrown in to foreshadow it >:) and also some… not subtle hints BUT I’m just really excited to show the depth of his character!! It’s gonna be angsty and plot twisty and I’m SO excited for everyone to see it!!!!

SO for DDR Yuuji I have the outline written for most of it!!! I just need to actually make it pretty :) I’ve just had so much Sukuna on the brain that I haven’t really been working on it unfortunately :(

And for early 2000s Unckuna SOOO!!! That was the first fic I ever wrote and I only have the draft of the first chapter and a half written, but I haven’t worked on it in MONTHS I really wanna rework it now that I have more writing experience!! I’ve written like 6k words for it and I’ve had some ideas kinda rotating around in my head with it, like I originally planned to make it really angsty but I scrapped the idea bc it was already gonna be so long. I wanna write the full series and THEN start posting it once it’s done so that I can play around with it a lot and not get stuck in a certain plot line bc I already posted stuff and then can’t change it anymore yknow? I have an itty bitty little teaser here if you want a little glimpse into it!!!

Okay and MORE on Tough Love, the original idea I had for it was that there would be no reader insert or any romance and that it would be completely revolving around familial love with Sukuna and Yuuji. Basically it would be a series of oneshots taking place at different times in Yuuji’s childhood that weren’t in chronological order, and then you would be able to piece together The Lore(tm) as more parts came out!! But I scrapped that idea and made it romance because I didn’t think anyone would care about reading something that isn’t romance :( so I think that’s WHY I’m struggling writing it so much is bc I wasn’t originally planning on going the “Sukuna dates Yuuji’s babysitter!” route and it was moreso gonna be “Sukuna helps Jin coparent after his wife (Kaori) dies and Sukuna is BAD at parenting BUT HES DOING HIS BEST!!”

[queerxqueen]

For the ask game 🛠️🧐

🛠What tools/programs/apps do you use to write?

For fanfiction, I mostly use Notion for planning, outlining, and drafting, and then move to Google Docs if I have beta readers. Notion is my absolute favorite because of being able to customize labels and organization systems. It can have a big learning curve but if you learn how to use the databases they can be soooooo delightful.

For longer projects and original fiction I sometimes also use Miro for planning and organization, and then Scrivener for drafting. The longer a story gets, the more likely I'll need to use Miro and Scrivener to keep everything straight. But most of the time just Notion is okay for fics and stories under 50k words.

🧐 Do you spend much time researching for your stories?

Oh god, yes. I'll end up on a rabbit hole researching random shit for one small detail. It's dangerous, so sometimes I put brackets like [research 80s things here] or [would body decompose this fast?] to fill in later so I don't get toooooo distracted.

That's not even counting, like, the media analysis aspect of research for fanfiction. "Researching" by studying the fuck out of the characters to write them as true to canon (or my reading of canon) as I can.

When I first saw Saltburn, I knew I'd want to write fanfiction for it. But first, I read the script, watched the film 3 more times, wrote analysis, read analysis, read and watched every Emerald Fennell interview I could---and only then started writing. Because for a film like Saltburn I really wanted to get them and their psyches right. Moth & Flame is as much a story as it is an analysis of the characters.

I'm not saying everyone has to be a scholar in order to write fanfiction, but for me personally, feeling like a total expert in the media is a prerequisite to me trying to write fanfic.

Is that crazy or is that normal fanfic author behavior????

[Fanfic Writer Ask Game >>> My Askbox]

[killingsboys]

Hi! What is a zero draft? I'm not sure I've heard that before. But I will also send you some numbers! 31, 33, 36, 37, 39, and 46!

hi anon!!! thank you for asking <33333 i'm gonna answer this one under a read more because it got away from me a bit

omg i am so excited to introduce you to the concept of the zero draft. so a zero draft is sort of like a document that's between an outline and a first draft, and it's almost like an information dump for your WIP. there are no real rules to it but the way i do it is i pretty much just type out everything i'm thinking like i'm talking aloud. so parts of it are actual lines that will probably end up in my wip and then some parts are just like "He says something about fate here, I'll expand the metaphor later." and i'll just go through the entire story like that because it's easier for me to put together something resembling a plot when i'm just talking it out (in a google doc) than when i'm actually trying to "plot" or "outline." i hope this makes sense? if not, this article is very helpful i think! again there are no actual Rules to it, just do whatever works for you! it works for me because of how my brain is but everyone is different of course etc etc <333

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

um probably more the characters? plot does NOT come easily to me and it's a huge fight for me to actually come up with one, i usually start with vague concepts and let the characters propel it forward!

33. Do you want to be published some day?

oh sigh what a question. theoretically yes i would love to actually finish one of my original wips and get it published but in practice there is soooooo much about publishing that i find very frightening. i am not a social media darling and if i wrote a book and it ended up on a booksamillion booktok table i'd do something that got me put on the evening news. but yes i would actually like to like, write something original and put it into the world for people to see one day. theoretically.

36. How do you write kissing scenes?

gonna be honest i usually cringe my way through it. writing physical intimacy is NOT a strength of mine and there are really only so many words you can break out before you start to sound ridiculous. other people are amazing at this but unfortunately all i can really do is throw in some metaphors and try focusing more on the emotions than the physical act.

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

i pretty much just give up at some point... okay that's a bit of a lie. while i do suck at all forms of endings, i do generally (think that i) have a sense for good emotional stopping points. i base my chapter endings wayyyyy more on emotion than actual plot. OH and it also depends on POV. like for instance in deep end i have 3 different POVs happening and sometimes i'll get to a scene and be like wait this should be in someone else's POV so i know i have to close things up for this chapter and start the next one. otherwise though i usually like to stop at a semi-emotional moment so a reader is mostly satisfied but left ready for the next chapter!

39. Share a snippet from a WIP

oh god oh fuck um. here is a bit from deep end !

This must be horrible for you, Enjolras had said. And he wasn’t wrong, not even a bit. Every second of it has been horrible for Grantaire. The way his shoes stuck to the floor of the Corinthe, the bartender’s familiar smile. Enjolras’ chaste pink lips, his half-unbuttoned shirt. The crowded street. The smell of the inside of the taxi. The stairs, Enjolras’ weight against his side, the smell of Enjolras’ breath, Enjolras’ voice in his ear, Enjolras, everything fucking Enjolras. Grantaire wonders if this is another trap, if he’s gotta chew through the bone to get out of it. But he can’t, he knows he can’t. He’s all bled out. Carving his way out of this trap will kill him.  (Staying in the trap will kill him, too, he thinks. But there isn’t really anything else to do about it now.)

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

is dialogue-driven an option? because my plots are completely driven by dialogue it's kind of ridiculous. otherwise i would say emotionally driven. possibly too emotionally driven. i have a lot of emotions and i like throwing them all at my google doc to see what sticks. unfortunately this results in a lot of suffering for my characters BUT i have fun and that's all that matters!

get to know your fic writer!

[recurring-polynya]

Writing/Art Update 12.5.2023

It took me all week, but I did, finally, finish Chapter 5.

I had two great wordcount weeks in a row. This was not a great wordcount week. I did spend a lot of time thinking about my fanfic, and plotting and outlining. These are not normally activities that I enjoy, but it honestly wasn't so bad. I decided that I didn't want to keep proceeding forward until I had decided how this thing is going to end. If you've ever read any of my writing advice posts, you'll know that I nearly always advise deciding how the fanfic will end before you start writing the fanfic. The only reason I didn't take my own advice is because I usually don't need to. While I am infamously bad at ending individual scenes and chapters, I nearly always know how a fanfic is going to end, and this time I just...didn't?

Anyway, I thought about it all week and thought up some scenes I would like to do and thought about the character arcs and motivations I wanted my three mains to go through in the second half of this fanfic, and I also thought about characters whom I felt had not gotten enough screentime. All of these things were easier than coming up with an ending, but I did eventually come up with an idea for my last few scenes, and I think it's good enough that the rest will fill itself in as I go. We are definitely shaping up to be 9 chapters and an epilogue, which means I am now slightly over halfway done? Yay? It still feels frustrating because the front half is pretty self-contained and I want to show it to people, but I cannot, it needs to wait but there's soooooo muuuuuuch left to goooooooo.

Anyway, let's focus on the positive! I added 2,939 (new) words to Chapter 5, bringing it up to 10,160, the longest chapter so far, but not egregiously so. I added one scene which is both unnecessary and dreadful. It ruins the pacing at the end of the chapter, it goofs up my alternating narrator structure, and it's just extremely weird. Also, if I cut it, the chapter length will better match the other ones. I wrote a note in my outline "this scene is bad and you should delete it." Will I? Readers, I likely will not. This is fanfic and when you write fanfic, you can just make people read unnecessary scenes about Renji and Iba's dirtbag friendship and they can't do anything about it because I do not receive any sort of compensation for this. I promise that if I come to my senses and actually ax, I will post it here. In other news, everyone who loved the Squad Six-gets-universal-healthcare scene from Hearts will be overjoyed to learn that this one features a bit in which Ukitake-and-Yumichika-discuss-the-Gotei-13-procurement-process. Once again, I do not get paid.

I also spent some time this week fixing up the portion of Chapter 6 that I had already written. Some of it needs to be fully reworked, but there was a significant chunk that could be pretty much pasted in with a little minor editing.

That brings the wordcount for this week to 17,423 for Part B, or 54,296 overall (+10,207 for the week). That is...that is starting to become a fanfic.

It's also December, and there's a lot of stuff going on, so I'm really trying to not be too ambitious in my goal-setting, but I'm hoping that maybe I'll be able to get through Chapter 7 by the end of the year.

I did a drawing tutorial this week. It was okay. I'm kinda 🫠about drawing lately, but sometimes I can only really concentrate on one thing at a time.

[digitalmidnight]

[jadedbirch]

I was tagged by @hithelleth whose real name I know, mwhahaha, mwahahaha, hahahah >:) (I love you, babe)

What is your name?

I immediately thought of Monty Python’s Quest for the Holy Grail...  They call me.... TIM!  Anyways, my name is El, and you may call me El.

What are your fandoms?

I know I’m a big multishipping slutbag, but I’m a one-fandom-at-a-time kind of gal.  So currently my fandom is MDZS/CQL, however, a part of my heart will be Black Sails 4Ever, at least until I write more fics for something than I did for that fandom.  (It was a lot of fics!)  And I’m always a sleeper agent for Dumas’ Three Musketeers, in case anyone was wondering.

Where do you post your fanfiction?

AO3.

Going by kudos, what is your most popular one-shot?

Apparently it’s Fear of Falling (Apart) which was a DeanCas Big Bang I co-authored with @3988akasha (hey girl!).  This is pretty hilarious b/c this fic was actually hidden in a private collection for several years because I have opinions about the SPN fandom, but recently we put it back.  

But my solo highest kudo’d endeavor is Breathless - a short fic I wrote for The Song of Achilles.

Going by kudos, what is your most popular multi-chapter?

Okay I don’t wanna talk about SPN anymore but b/c it was a big fandom my top 2 multichapter fics are both from that fandom.  So I’m giving you my 3rd most popular multi-chapter, one which I am personally extremely proud of still:  

Lightbringer - all the therapy writing I had to do when Black Sails aired its finale!

What is your personal favourite story, out of your current content?

I’m not sure that I have one?  Apparently I’ve written 30 stand-alone fics, not counting the kissing prompts for CQL/MDZS since April 2020, so LOL.  I’m just gonna plug my Big Bang because hey, who doesn’t like a Pirate AU?  Okay, so I’m biased.

Treasure

Although I’m also a little bit weak for my X-Files AU The Truth Is Out There.  Wangxian are so dumb and fit into this world so well!

What work were you most nervous to post?

You would’ve thought it would’ve been the incestuous tentacle porn fic, but NO, I had no problems posting that because it’s soooooo removed from real life.

It was actually Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad because as an ace spec queer myself, it felt really uncomfortable and exposing posting a fic about an explicitly ace spec character, but I did it, so there you have it!

Is there a method to how you title your work?

Nope.  Most of the time I don’t have a title until I’m done with the fic.  On rare occasions, I may title it to set the mood before I even write it.  There’s no method to my madness.

Do you outline your works or just wing it?

Half and half.  For longer fics, I might outline it, or at least outline some of it just to remind me what all needs to happen before I reach endgame.  For shorter stuff, I usually just sit down and drink a lot until it’s done.

Are you excited about any of your up-coming works?

I am currently writing a Noir AU inspired by my beautiful Son’s best Black Widow looks!  And yes, I’m excited about it :).  I even posted a tiny excerpt today for WIPWed.  And @tartapplesauce actually gave me my title, which is “Pearls For a Funeral”

What are your AO3 statistics?

This feels very invasive?  LOL.  Also, in case you were wondering what an Ancient Being I am, check out when I joined AO3 hahahah.

Total history (2010-2021):

User Subscriptions: 186

Kudos:  28161

Comment Threads:  4470 (LOL big shout to the Audience of Immortality AU!!!) @tartapplesauce @favouritealias @mariemichonao3 @thelaithlyworm @porthos4ever <3

Bookmarks:  4641

Subscriptions: 714

Word Count: 2,168,833

Hits: 344,044

And for 2020:

User Subscriptions:186

Kudos: 5506

Comment Threads: 726

Bookmarks: 1497

Subscriptions: 340

Word Count: 246,875

Hits: 51503

This was very illuminating, thank you for taking me on this wild journey! ;)  I always whine about how no one is reading my CQL fics, but it’s really all relative to how huge the fandom is.  Clearly SOMEONE is reading my fics (thank you, if you happen to be those readers!)

So now I tag some writer friends:  @donnaimmaculata @3988akasha @vowel-in-thug @eirenical @porthos4ever @old-long-john @bisexualpirateheart I don’t know, I’m sure everyone already did this back in December hahaha.  

[cake-writes]

Not a request but a general question; how do you set up your stories? Do you have them planned out before you start? Do you change it as you go? Or do you just write where the muse takes you. Genuinely curious how writers do it

So I think I’ve answered this once before, but that’s okay, I don’t mind answering it again! idk where it is in my answered asks lmao and I’m too lazy to dig soooooo

I usually have a general idea of what I want to achieve before I start. The idea usually starts based on the Reader’s relation to her love interest (usually Bucky, so we’ll use him in this example), and from there I branch out to maybe a plot twist or two and/or an ending. 

Six, for example, started out based on the idea that Bucky gets pissed off with our darling Reader over her food wastage due to his having grown up during the Great Depression, but she wastes the food because of her eating disorder. It’s a complex relationship from the get-go, and I love complex relationships in my stories.

That’s where I start writing usually, and I fill in the blanks as I go along. It’s after I start writing that I get a random idea for a scene, whilst writing that scene - i.e. having Reader decide to make breakfast for Bucky wasn’t planned at all, but it further exemplifies how fucked up her relationship with food is. 

I’d always planned to have Bucky get nasty/short with her after one of his therapy sessions, but that particular scene doesn’t happen until later on, and it causes a huge conflict between the two of them. I think something like that was what I wrote down in my outline. Pretty vague, right? While I’m exploring the unplanned scenes and ideas that pop up in my head while I’m writing, that’s when I discover the ideal time to use the conflict point I planned to use. 

For No Vacancy, my outline was 5 chapters long originally, but that’s only due to the required perspective shifts for the ideas I have. Odd-numbered chapters are Reader’s POV, and even-numbered are Bucky’s. Now, that story is going to be 7 chapters long I think because just about everything that happened in chapter 3 was completely unplanned (aside from her taking some medicine), which means my original idea for chapter 3 has to be pushed out to chapter 5.

Some of my lengthier chapter fics have Trello boards set up, where I dump random ideas that might work for the story later on. Ideas pop up all the time when I’m in brainstorming mode, usually daydreaming while I go about my usual day. Most of the time I never use those ideas, but I like to have them written somewhere in case I need another plot point. 

What I have found over the years is that extensive outlining doesn’t work for me, because in the heat of the moment I usually think of a better idea, and if I don’t explore it then the flow goes away or I otherwise regret it. So I have to keep my outlines pretty short, otherwise they get completely thrown off! As you can see with No Vacancy. And that’s just a SHORT chapter fic. Extensive outlining also saps my motivation to work on the fic I’ve found for whatever reason. Still haven’t figured that out yet. Maybe it’s the sense of completion? A lot of writers do benefit from extensive outlines though, so it really depends on the writer!

I hope this helps 💖

[allwaswell16]

List all the things you’re currently working on in as much or little detail as you’d like, then tag some friends to see what they’re working on. This can be writing, art, vids, gifsets, whatever.

I was tagged by @thelouistiti Thanks for the tag Suzon! <3 <3

Okay, so in my mind I feel like I don’t have that many WIPs! But maybe that’s a lie. I guess we’ll both find out in a second.

Right now I’m writing an anonymous Larry fic for the Moodboard Fic Challenge. I won’t say a lot since it’s anonymous, but it’s exes to lovers and I’m trying to not let it get TOO angsty. But we’ll see what happens. lol. 

I’m running the Larry Abroad Fic Challenge (click there and find more info on it cough cough) with @afirethatcannotdie ! So I’ll be writing one of those eventually. Not sure what location I’ll be writing about since obviously Ellie and I will choose one after everyone else has been assigned. But I’ll probably choose to write about one of the places I’ve traveled to and be very self indulgent. ha!

I have a published Larry WIP. sigh. I almost don’t want to link it, but I probably will. I so badly want to finish it, but I am just really stuck. I’ve never been so stuck on a fic before. I just can’t move forward with it until I figure out exactly what I want to have happen or else it will just be shit. I have an outline for it, but something is just not right. So I’ve got to wait until I figure it out to move forward. Anyway, it’s called And I Could Hear the Thunder. (Harry prepares to inherit his family's estate, and Louis is the mysterious boy living in the manor to the north.) It’s historical and magical realism and someday I’m going to finish it.

Okay, soooooo I have a big project that I’m going to hopefully begin soon. I want to write a Larry ABO fic. Well, I’m not sure want is the right word, more like I think I need to write the fic I’m envisioning as an ABO fic. It’s historical and I think ABO is the best way to adapt the historical romance novel I was writing before I started writing fic. I’m very excited and scared about it. lol. It’s definitely the most ambitious thing I’ve tried to write since maybe my first one. And it will definitely be the longest thing I’ve written. 

Somewhere in here, I will probably end up writing another 1000 Feelings fic as well when I’m trying to procrastinate on writing other things on this list. And I just wrote and published a ficlet today on tumblr whilst procrastinating. Welp. 

Okay, so I’ll tag @afirethatcannotdie @taggiecb @melmanpur @lululawrence @fullonlarrie @becomeawendybird @dimpled-halo @worksbeautifully @flamboyantommo @suddenclarityharry