#or at least rough drafts/outline notes about those scenes

[apocalypticdemon]

wondering out loud, but do people usually post snippets from fics they're working on just apropos of nothing? is this a thing that's normal? i feel like i've seen it done, but i'm unsure if that's typical or not

[nanowrimo]

Writing Tips for Every Age and Mental State

Not every piece of writing advice will apply to you —  and that’s okay! Sometimes, your writing strategies will change as you go through life or learn more about yourself. NaNo Participant Clara Ward shares writing advice that they've learned over time.

There’s no right way to write. Writing—like life—is about finding your best fit. What follows are tricks that worked for me. Please borrow what works best for you right now. (Then save a few ideas for future you!)

I wrote my first novel four decades ago, when I was thirteen. I’ve written while juggling three jobs or zero. I’ve written as a kid, a parent, and an empty-nester. I’ve learned from my own neurodiversity and mental health challenges along the way.

Each struggle taught me how to customize my writing practice. Here’s a list of what worked for me at different stages. Adapt as you see fit.

Stage 1: Meet Yourself Where You’re At

Outline - For my first novel, I sketched furtive notes on the back pages of a school notebook. I created headings for each page that became section or chapter titles later. Numbers helped me order the scenes and letters delineated details.

Note: Leave extra space for fun facts or snippets of overheard dialog. Years later, I heard a NaNoWriMo buddy joke, “Careful, or you’ll end up in my novel.” My apologies to my high school geometry teacher, who received no such warning.

Avoid Distractions - I needed a closed door to write at first. I couldn’t read other fiction during the week or two when I frantically converted my outline into a rough draft. Luckily, I wasn’t in charge of meals back then!

Stage 2: Find Your People

Give Yourself Permission - I first heard about NaNoWriMo in 2004, when I was parenting, working, and volunteering as if there were two extra days in each week. I hadn’t written a story, an outline, or notes in over a year, but I knew exactly what I wanted to write. I signed up for NaNoWriMo and opened a family meeting by showing the webpage to my spouse and kids. I explained how I’d budget four hours a week for writing in November.

Note: I didn’t complete 50,000 words that first November. But the next year, my kids enthusiastically joined the Young Writers Program!

Enlist Support - Eventually, my kids and I designated one hour each day for writing. There were many distractions, but it felt great! We attended NaNoWriMo write-ins at a donut shop to build community, and my kids each persuaded a friend to join. (Yes, donuts are a sometimes food, but at least they weren’t asking for coffee!). With support and determination—and for me, a bit of sleep debt—we all met our writing goals most years!

Stage 3: Embrace Your True Strengths

Emotion Mapping - In the last couple decades, as attitudes and terminology evolved, I’ve learned a lot about my own neurodivergence and mental health. Oddly enough, the self-knowledge I gained by masking and compensating before I knew those words, informed both my writing and the tips given above. As I became more honest with myself, I brought more emotion to my writing.

Note: Sometimes it helps to skip scenes I’m not in a good headspace to write. I jot down key plot and character points inside curly brackets and skip to a scene that suits my current feelings. Since I don’t used curly brackets anywhere else in my writing, they’re easy to search for when I’m ready to go back.

Fascinations - After years of being warned about “info dumps,” I realized that my own fascinations (neurodivergent or otherwise) were assets that could serve my writing. At the beginning of 2020 I did a deep dive into researching sea creatures and ways to protect our oceans. At the back of my research notebook, I gradually outlined my 2020 NaNoWriMo Novel, Be the Sea. Parts of that outline cross-referenced pages of ocean research or articles I’d saved online.

Note: The system above worked well enough for me that I now have a book deal for Be the Sea, which will be published by Atthis Arts in early 2024!

Seriously though, this isn’t a post about how to get published on a 40-year plan. By matching your writing practices to your ever-changing self, you give all your stories the chance to be told. I wish you and your stories that success!

Clara Ward lives in Silicon Valley on the border between reality and speculative fiction. When not using words to teach or tell stories, Clara uses wood, fiber, and glass to make practical or completely impractical objects. Their short fiction has appeared in Strange Horizons, Decoded Pride, The Arcanist, and as a postcard from Thinking Ink Press. Clara’s 2020 NaNoWriMo novel, Be the Sea, will be available from Atthis Arts in early 2024. For updates on this and other projects, follow Clara on their website. Photo by Anastasia Shuraeva from Pexels

[a-pale-azure-moon]

WIP Wednesday

It's done.

There will be revisions and tweaks to make between now and when I post it in a few days, but I have finished the final chapter of Someday We'll Shine Together. At long last, it is complete.

I'm struggling to distill all of my emotions into words at the moment. This fic has been a part of my life for about three years now. I'm feeling accomplished and proud of myself for really and truly finishing it despite the fact that when I first had the idea, I was convinced this was another of those fleeting inspirational flashes that would never go anywhere and would forever languish in my WIP folder. I got very attached to this story in the process of creating it, and I got even more attached to it when it was one of the things that helped see me through a very difficult time in my personal life. As such, I'm also grieving that it's over and that I now must let it go. Sure, it'll always exist for me to revisit whenever I want, but that feeling is never the same as the one derived from actively working on it.

While I'm still digesting all of these emotions, here's a rough timeline and some background of the fic's development, so you can all see how I finally got to this point. This is pretty personal too, because the two are irrevocably intertwined. (Content warning: death/grief)

Summer 2020: Initial inspiration hits after I rewatched Utena during COVID lockdown.

Fall 2020: Brainworms are on-and-off active, writing short blurbs in a Google doc when they come to me, but there's no true shape to the whole plot yet, it’s just random scenes. It's more or less still strictly a 3H-esque retelling of Utena, and I'm not expecting anything to actually come of these blurbs.

Winter 2020: More blurbs trickle in here and there. The story in my head is starting to divert more drastically from the show.

February 19, 2021: Draft of the pivotal scene at the end of Chapter 15 written. I remember the specific day for this because I wrote it the same day we put down our dog, Clancy. (Writing emotional scenes often helps me process my own emotions.)

April 11, 2021: Creation of my dedicated author's notes file to keep track of the various threads and ideas I'd come up with, especially the backstory about Faerghus and how Dimitri became the Lion Prince. I filled it in like an extended summary or wikipedia entry about the 'verse and the overall plot of the story. I jotted a lot of stuff down between April and June as the brainworms really got to work again.

Summer 2021: I'm starting to entertain the idea of actually seeing this project through. Chapters 1 and 2 are drafted over the summer months, but I hit a block and the self doubt comes roaring right in to deter me.  A LARGE part of my struggle with getting this fic out of development hell was me being unable to get out of my own way.  Every stumbling block I hit (especially early on) was an invitation for my inner critic to resume browbeating me into giving up this “stupid” idea.

September 2021: I finally make up my mind that I'm really going to do this, and I spend the next six weeks ironing out the bumps in the plot and making a chapter-by-chapter outline highlighting the key scenes/plot points/character beats within each one. I organized the various blurbs I had into chronological order and put them under the correct chapter headings. I also started thinking of the best way to get myself to see this project through, as well as what would be a realistic timetable for its completion. I estimated that the final length of the whole thing would be around 350 pages or roughly 150K words. (This is hilarious to me in hindsight.  I severely underestimated the scope of this fic!)

November 2021: I try to do the NaNoWriMo challenge (50K words in a month) to draft as much of the fic as I can. I "only" produce about 35K words in the end, but it was enough to draft Chapters 3 and 4 and write at least one decent-sized blurb within each of all of the remaining chapters.

December 2021: I took a short hiatus from working on SWST to finish Beneath the Ethereal Moon. When that's done, I went over my outline yet again to refine it further and then cleaned up my draft of Chapter 1 with an eye on posting it after right after New Year's. I determined that posting (and writing) one chapter per month should be doable, especially since I have a generous buffer to start with.

January 2022: I get a bad case of cold feet/anxiety and don't post Chapter 1. I'm having trouble getting a feel for Chapter 5 and fail to finish it before the end of the month. (This naturally doesn't help alleviate my self-doubt or silence my very loud inner critic.)

February 2022: Cold feet strike again and I fail to post Chapter 1 a second time. I'm still stuck on Chapter 5 (though I've at least made some progress), and while I'm extremely aware that I'm being my own worst enemy, that doesn't make it any easier to beat back old habits.

March 2, 2022: In the wee hours of the night (it was after midnight), I finally posted Chapter 1 and went straight to bed after. I slept terribly of course, haha.

I wish I could say "and you know the rest from here," but that's not true. Posting Chapter 1 was a huge mental hurdle cleared, but there were other things going on behind the scenes that almost derailed this project for good. The timing was such that if I were more prone to hubris, I'd think that the universe itself was testing my resolve. Or possibly mocking me.

On March 3, 2022 (yes, the day after I posted Chapter 1), my father was admitted to the hospital with a debilitating pain in his lower back. Initially, we thought it might be a flare up of his sciatica or maybe something like a kidney stone, but the truth was far worse. What he had was a spinal epidural abscess caused by a bacterial infection in his blood. He was transported to the ICU of a larger (further away) hospital once the severity of his condition was discovered, and he was pumped full of massive doses of antibiotics. Thanks to that, he stabilized, but what followed after was a long period of uncertainty as he would start to make gains only to suffer a setback. Even once the infection and his pain level were under control, he'd been so severely sick that the bacteria had ravaged his various body systems, leading to issues with his kidneys and his heart.

For 91 days, my family and I were stuck on a wretched rollercoaster of getting hopeful (he was transferred to a rehab facility three different times when it looked like he was improving) and then having our hopes dashed when something would happen that would see him sent back to the hospital (falling out of bed, chest pains, difficulty breathing). Hope began to fade in mid May when he was transferred back to the ICU due to diastolic heart failure, which caused his lungs to fill up with fluid. They tapped his lungs thrice, removing at least a liter of fluid each time, but they kept filling up again despite all the diuretics the doctors were giving him. Then his kidneys began to shut down too. We kept hoping right until the end, but he passed away on June 1, 2022, the day before what would've been his and my mother's 49th wedding anniversary.

(Proof that real life can be even crueler than fiction.)

I was only able to continue updating SWST while my father was sick because of that buffer I'd had, and I very nearly deleted the story from AO3 altogether after he died. I remember ruminating about how futile it was to continue with this project; I'd written almost nothing while he was sick, so my buffer was now gone and I questioned whether or not I'd be able to write, let alone write consistently, with the promised months of grief and general upheaval ahead. Even writing a story that I had, to that point, been passionate about felt utterly pointless.

It was strange though. I woke up on June 2nd thinking that maybe I should go ahead and post chapter 4 anyway, since it was already done and it was one of the chapters I particularly liked. So I did. And in the following days, we had my father's funeral and a part of me felt like I could breathe again. I was grieving yes, but the constant daily stress and uncertainty from his illness was gone, and I think that freed my creative drive to start working again. I remember the first day I sat back down at my computer with the intention to write and how much better I felt in general after I got some words onto the screen.

It's hella ironic that I planned SWST with grief and loss as major themes and it turned out I'd be processing such things myself while writing most of it. I know my own grief affected the story, though it's impossible to say to what degree; I get a lot of catharsis in general from writing emotional scenes, so I tend to go hard on them regardless. It didn't change the plot or direction of the story at all, since that was already planned, but it's certainly safe to say that I channeled a lot of my own feelings into some of the most intense moments. The ending of Chapter 9 stands out in particular as something that felt like it was coming straight out of my own heart.

Even on the hard days when I was feeling too overwhelmed and/or the words just weren’t coming, this story gave me a reason to keep going.  Just keeping the goal in mind and reasserting my resolve to be consistent and see this project through to the end helped me cope.  It both kept me grounded and helped me process what I was going through and it gave me something to look forward to when I uploaded each chapter and anxiously waited to see what the readers would think.

I started this fic as a means of testing myself: testing my commitment to writing consistently, to finishing a long-term project, and to getting over at least some of the many, MANY mental hurdles that have held me back from writing for way too long.  I knew that this story would always be near and dear to me if I managed to finish it, but it became even more precious than I ever could’ve imagined back in 2020.  It hurts that I must say goodbye to it, but…it’s forever mine.  I can say with my whole chest that I MADE THIS THING and I’m so very proud of it! <3

[artpharos]

5, 18 (fic of your choice) for the meme :)

5. Do you outline the fic?

It depends really! For my longer fics that have multiple scenes and chapters, I tend to do a rough outline at least, because I know that I will forget the feeling I wanted to write very easily within the next few hours if I don't at least put those to words. For my multi-chapters, I do pull out an outline document because I usually have a vague collection of scenes I want to write, but I still haven't figured out how to string it all together, so writing it down helps! Plus, it's better to use an outline to track the overall progression of the plot and ensure that I don't miss out any tinier details, like how the character is feeling or WHAT THE CHARACTER'S FEELINGS ARE SUPPOSED TO SYMBOLIZE OR SOMETHING--

For the shorter fics that I think I can burst through or remember easily, I don't really outline, unless I start to feel like I'm losing thread of the plot and at least jot a few notes here and there to keep me in the right direction the next time I open the file :D

(This is discounting whenever I corner my friends and just randomly throw a million fic ideas at them on twitter/discord for me to refer to later. Yes I count this as outlining UwU)

18. Talk about your editing and revision process

OOOH boy this is hell LOL. I tend to edit while I write, mostly because I write extremely slow (average of 300 words/day if I actually get going), so by the next day I have to re-read everything I wrote to get back into the feel of things. I also already usually have a vague idea of where I want to go (re: see above on the outlining) so mostly I'm pretty uh. Single-minded about what I want, so mostly I don't need to go and do huge edits to my fics and instead just keep editing my draft over and over again LOL

Sometimes this is hell because I would write 10k of words already and then I'm like "hmm so I should read all of this to remember where I was going..." and then I'll get lost in the reeds thinking that my word choices need to be better or I need to add more description or checking the overall emotional flow of the story LOL

Usually at some point I say fuck it we ball and manage to finish the fic and then I do the proper thing which is to give the fic time to rest before I try re-reading it again for another check, and then whenever I get fed up and am like 'FUCK IT I'M SERVING THIS' is when I call the revision phase over XD

Unfortunately the moment I let my editorial glasses go and appreciate the fic as a reader I usually end up having like 30 other ideas on how I could have improved the fic and I end up writing another fic to address this LMAO

'Tis a vicious cycle...

[potatoesandsunshine]

hi anna!! writers ask game 1, 3, 7, 17, 26, 27, 28? :)

yay!!! thank you abby <3

1. the last sentence you wrote

“She is dead,” the Witch of the Wilds says, “we are what remains.”

3. how you feel about your current WIP

good!!! as you know i work on a bunch of ideas all at once whenever the mood strikes me but my current one is very fun! i love to do a ‘we’re using gestures to convey things because saying them out loud is too much to bear’ scene and this fic is gonna have like, five of those.

Lady Morrigan leans forward, reaching a hand across Josephine’s desk—they are not touching, but her fingertips brush the lace cuffs at her wrists and it feels as if they are, as though this gesture is grander than the most sweeping embrace, coming from her. Lady Morrigan’s eyes are golden, the sun streaming through Serault glass or catching on the gilded parapet of the Grand Cathedral, and her gaze is as sharp and deadly as any hunting bird. Josephine sees something in her then, in the closeness—lonely, she realizes, you’re as lonely as I am.

what if they Yearned................ you see it

7. your preferred writing fonts

i used to have strong feelings about this but i have just become a default arial size 11 girl. if i need it to be bigger i don’t even change the size i just zoom in.

17. talk about your writing and editing process

i pretty strictly follow 1) outline 2) write it in order 3) get so happy when i finish the rough draft that i barely do any editing before posting it. the story is at it’s most changeable in the outlining stage; i do a lot of moving around scenes or reordering events then, instead of later! i’m trying to get better about editing in general - forcing myself to sleep on it before doing a pass with fresh eyes, stuff like that - but as soon as i finish something i really do want the instant joy of sharing it.

26. are you able to write with other people around?

only in the general sense if that makes sense? like i used to do a lot of writing at coffee shops and i had no issues with that. i don’t think i would want to write while hanging out with friends or family though. if it’s strangers it’s fine.

27. your favorite part of the writing process

hmmmm i really do love outlining. i’m someone who will have a notes app, a paper outline, and a typed outline + whatever sticky notes are around, and it’s super fun to me! i like feeling like i’m piecing the story together, before i actually have to piece the story together

28. your least favorite part of the writing process

about two thirds of the way through actually writing any given story i lose all confidence in the idea and start to struggle. no matter how good i think it will be! it happens every time! pushing a story across the finish line is always the hardest part.

[hideyseek]

5, 9, 12!

crab!! hi hi hi hi hi hiiiii~! ty for quastions :3

from fanfic asks for the new year

5. Which WIP is first on your list to complete this year? Will you post a snippet?

aha, well. technically the first is mini heist!au but none of it is written that is in the shape of the final thing that i haven't already posted on here so i'm gonna cheat and say uh. wow huh okay then i kind of have no idea. ah! maybe my arthurcobb fic then! cos it sure won't be narrative!fic, lol!

here is a snippet from the current draft which is uhh three and a half years old (by which i mostly mean to say, there are a couple things in here i would write differently now.):

Arthur brings his coffee up to the counter where Dom has already deposited his onion rings and says, “Excuse me, can I purchase a — a temporary phone?” If he doesn't call it a burner maybe he will come off as more the kind of person he actually is. The cashier puts up a finger in question and Arthur nods but behind him Dom says firmly, “Two.”  Arthur turns, surprised. “Why — we don’t need two?” They’re traveling together, after all. Arthur’s not about to leave Dom alone, so it’s not like Dom will need his own phone. It’s not like Dom’s super functional, anyway. The three days he’d spent on Arthur’s couch before they read the news and had to leave town extremely suspiciously, he’d really just spent on the couch. “We don’t need two phones, Dom,” Arthur repeats.  “What if we get separated,” Dom points out. “How would we get in contact with each other again? You should have your own phone, too.” Arthur would rather not think about circumstances that would separate them. Dom says, “Arthur,” and it feels pointed. Something like panic hollows Arthur’s chest. Things are already out of control, apparently. Two days into being on the run and apparently Dom can call these shots but he can’t be on the run by himself.

9. Short term goals… what do you hope to complete this week or in January?

ahaha actually, getting this ask made me decide that i'm going to try my absolute best to finish the project i've been calling "mini heist!au" (which ... at this point ... is just an au of heist!au without any heists in it, lmao) this month! i used answering this ask as my bribe for reading through all the existing material and drawing up a revision plan / new fic story structure actually. i'm not sure i'll be able to, i suspect there are 2-4 drafts and i simply do not write that fast (at least one from scratch based on a new outline, possibly a second from scratch, and then a second/third that's just like. content/theme/cadence/character arcs etc revisions. though that might get complex enough to be two drafts). but we'll see! there are still 24 days so at this current moment i am optimistic :3

12. Will you change anything about the way you edit or rewrite this year?

YES I SURE FUCKING WILL. I HAVE BEGUN IT ACTUALLY, mostly i'm continuing to test a thing i tried in december 2023 to see if it still works for projects that aren't the specific situation of the beginning of devotion (so far, yes!) anyway the way that process goes is like this (recipe below):

first, write a terrible draft. some scenes can just be a note of what needs to happen. ideally: expend as little fucking effort on this as possible bc like. almost none of this will stay. just write enough to get the vibes of what you're going for.

second, read through that draft taking notes of what you like or don't like (or, the way i phrase it for myself to make the goal clearer "what feels like it is aligned with my vision for the fic vs what isn't") but most importantly. WHY.

for me doing this second step has 2/2 turned into "here is a rough outline of the story, completely restructured" but also, with no ending (which is fine, i just have to trust that the ending will appear when more of the draft is written).

third, compile those notes on a new draft into a narrative-order outline (linear for me).

fourth, write the new draft.

fifth, try to do step 2 again. but what i found for the beginning of devotion and therefore what i'm to a certain extent expecting, is that i will just have a bunch of Ns/dislikes and then go. ah. because the things i dislike are too granular to require big-picture story structure changes now.

sixth, copy the most recent draft into a new doc. and read through and revise directly on the page. maybe title at some point so that revision stuff is aligned with the mood/tone/content/vibes/whatever of the title. and maybe come up with initial tags and a summary here also to make sure the vibes are all aligned. hopefully the content of the ending will become clear at this point and you'll draft that for the first or second time.

seventh, idk i like to do an out-loud readthrough bc reading cadence is important to me personally. and also i am scared to lose the skill of reading aloud considering i do it about zero times a year other than this.

that's it basically.

[darlingpoppet]

i love wtdf so much!! how is the writing process and how far out have you planned the chapters?

Hi anon!! Aww thanks so much for your ask, you made my day! I’m really happy to hear you’re enjoying the story and also that you’re allowing me the opportunity to talk about the process :D

I’m normally kind of a pantser (or plantser?) when writing most of my oneshot fics—that is, at most I jot down only a vague concept that captures the vibe of what I want the story to be about, and then the rest of it comes together during the actual writing process.

Since WTDF is the very first time I’ve ever attempted a serialized longfic, I did not feel confident at all in my ability to completely go with the flow and find the story as I went along, especially with all the elements I’m attempting to juggle at once. In addition to the slowburn romance, I really wanted to include the sorts of tropes & techniques I love in stories, such as foreshadowing/chekov’s guns, unreliable narrators, uncovering a mystery, re-readability, stuff like that! (Chapter 1 especially is like, Foreshadowing: The Chapter and pretty much every detail about it has or is gonna become relevant in some shape or form later on lol!)

Admittedly idk how successful my execution will be so I don’t wanna oversell it too much, but if any of you out there enjoy looking for clues and theory crafting, fwiw that is absolutely something you can do with this fic ;D One of the reasons I was really excited about posting chapter 7 is because it was an opportunity to really start flexing those muscles and let a few planted things pay off… so if you liked that, there’s gonna be plenty more where that came from! ;3c

So anyway, all that to say I did a lot of planning for this story and in the broad strokes, I have the entire thing planned out all the way from start to finish. It’s not quite meticulous bullet points scene by scene though, that’s not my style—I’m still a bit of a plantser in that chapters & scenes are outlined at most with general vague summaries and maybe a few stated goals (there are some spots where I have to put stuff like “be sure to mention Thing A here which will be relevant to Scene B later on!”) and stuff keeps getting added and shuffled around (upcoming chapter 8 for example was a relatively late addition to the story and was split off from chapter 7 only a few months ago because I decided I really wanted to go whole hog with this particular episode lol.) I originally thought this story would be around 100k, which was already much longer than I envisioned, but now I’m certain that it’ll be at least twice that length, and I’m resigned now to the fact that this project is gonna continue be a big part of my life for at least the next year or two XD

That all said, I still wasn’t confident enough to start posting with just a roadmap, and I spent the last two NaNoWriMos in a row trying to lay down as much track ahead of the train as possible. As of right now, between published and unpublished bits over the span of the entire story, I think I have about half of the prose written.

On that note, my process for writing an individual chapter at this point seems to be: 1) write as much prose for the rough draft as I possibly can (or in other words, filling the box with as much sand as possible); then 2) I copy the individual scene documents on scrivener into a fresh single “second draft/editing” doc, where I 3) try to fashion it into something more refined, until I ???? and then 4) PROFIT/end up with the finished final draft.

This middle process takes A WHILE because I’m usually adding as much as prose as I’m taking away; and I’m often inspired to take more outline notes or skip ahead to write a bit of prose for something further down the line; I’m referencing my notes, referencing past & future chapters to make sure everything is staying consistent, doing new research; and I’m always trying really hard to be careful & particular about how I’m wording things… I often have several alternate wordings or sentences in every paragraph that I spend a long time swapping between and fussing over lol. And even then I often step away several times during the process to let the words marinate for a while. So if you’re wondering why it usually takes me about two months on average to complete a chapter, that’s why haha (even longer if god forbid I get blocked like I did with Chapter 4 oooughhhh). I’m sure many can relate! I still feel like I’m particularly slow though, and it’s only been getting harder as my story grows more intricate XD But I’m also having tons of fun with it!

I think the other thing that has helped me chill out a bit is keeping in mind that AO3 works are editable and so I can always just go back and fix stuff if, worst case scenario, I accidentally write myself into a corner or something like that haha. (Hopefully that won’t ever be necessary though!) I have already occasionally gone back to quietly tweak wordings or add a sentence or two that help keep the earlier published chapters consistent with the later ones (for example, I recently decided to stick with using the anachronistic term of “Greeks” rather than “Achaeans”, since it’s more consistent with Hadesgame naming conventions and ultimately this is a Hadesgame-verse fic.)

I think right now my biggest source of anxiety with this story is over how well I’m executing the pacing… whether or not I’m revealing things too soon/not soon enough, or whether or not the flashbacks are enhancing or undermining the momentum in the present story, especially the slowburn—it seems to me like the sort of thing where I can’t really anticipate at all how it’s gonna come across until I’m able to reread the complete story, haha. But I guess I also tell myself that I’m doing my best to order it in the most impactful way possible… and hopefully y’all are enjoying it too, so far :) I recently expressed this in an updated fic summary, but this story is now fully a three-in-one Hades fic: a canon divergence AU, a canon-compliant pre-canon story, and a mostly complete Iliad retelling with a Hadesverse spin… so the final word count is gonna reflect all that.

Thanks so much again for your ask! I’m delighted & eager to discuss my stories or Patrochilles or Hadesgame or the Iliad or anything else tangentially related to those topics any time, so my ask box is always open <3

[yellingaboutmasseffect]

Writer Tag Game!

I was tagged by @stormikins

No pressure tags:  @angstyastro @zet-sway @spookyvalentine

Do you write in order?

Definitely not which is why  my mass effect series, Memento Vivere, took so long to start publishing. The stuff that inspired me to get started was usually in mass effect 2 which is the middle of the story and not great for posting in order. I also try to write things down the moment I get inspiration for it so I can come back to it later which has been really handy to have those notes later.

Do you start with something in particular?

I will start with the most inspiring bits first and worrying about filling in the gaps later. That helps me write more than forcing myself to worry about things that I don’t enjoy as much like the title or summary.

How fully formed does your writing come out first try?

Pretty well formed. I used to be a perfectionist until I realized how much that was truly holding me back, especially when I thought that first draft had to be the only draft. Even so a finished draft will at least be as close to how I want it to look before publishing, just in need of edits, word choice revision, and some polishing.

How many drafts do you go through?

One technically? Or at least it feels like one to me. I open up the document and I write. When that draft is done, I edit it a few times before I go to publish it. Then I usually go through on AO3 to spot what I missed during edits.

Tell me about your process:

I will usually start with that core inspiration and write out that scene as long as that inspiration has me. As I add on to it, I will start doing a rough outline and write notes or a couple sentence about what will happen in certain scenes about where I want that scene to be. Then I bounce around to where inspiration takes me and then try to connect those scenes together which is usually easier as writing the other scenes helped fill in the gaps.

[ursafootprints]

6, 7, 10, 15 c;

Thank you for playing, these questions were super fun to think on and answer 💖💖💖

6. what’s the hardest part of the writing process for you?

Transitions/flow! Historically I have mostly written one-shots or fics like Naturally where yes, it's multichap, but it revolves around only a few scenes where the chapter breaks themselves double as scene breaks, so for YNYD and some of my lengthier WIPs it's been difficult to translate my bulletpoints-in-an-outline into something that feels cohesive and organic. This was my major struggle with the most recent chapter of YNYD, because the main thing that chapter was For was exploring the development of Tony and Peter's intimate life, and I had a hard time beating it into a shape that felt cohesive instead of like a collection of random gently-escalating makeout/smut scenes.

For one-shots, though, it's just Doing The Damn Thing, since one-shots are usually pretty fully-formed in my head and I don't have to worry about actual ideas or flow. I've gotten much better at giving myself permission to just write a sloppy rough draft and clean it up in the aftermath since I started using 4thewords (SUPER fun, but it is a subscription,) but getting stuck on not being able to immediately come up with The Exact Wording I'm Going To Use In The Final Draft was my biggest struggle prior to that. (Genuinely, until I started using 4thewords my "editing" for my chapters was 95% just fixing typos, because I just straight-up wouldn't write a line down until I had it absolutely perfect in my head, haha. Now I have to edit a lot more, but it's still more efficient than THAT!)

7. how does receiving or not receiving feedback/support impact you?

Hmm! This is a really interesting question– on the scale of “writing for engagement” to “writing for myself” I’m definitely much moreso on the “writing for myself” side of things and I’m influenced very little by “is this what other people in fandom want to read” when it comes to deciding what fic ideas I’m actually going to pick up and follow through on. I have noooo idea if this is something common for writers or if this is an ADHD thing or if this is a just-me thing, but for me, the urge to write something is driven by “I have this idea and I just have to see what it looks like fully-formed,” and if I don’t write out those ideas then I’ll sit there and imagine and reimagine and reimagine the same scenes over and over and over again until I finally actually write them and get them out of my head. (This has been a great motivation for YNYD, because there are still scenes to come that are in this stage for me, so I’m stuck in imagine-reimagine mode with them until I actually get there!) So even if something is unlikely to get engagement, I’ll still write it, because I’ve got to get it out of my head For Me.

But! Of course I LOVE engagement, I love my readers, I find comments incredibly motivating and particularly when people get into genuine analysis of what the characters are going through or relationship dynamics or what the themes of the work are– that really excites me and often inspires me to go and make new notes on my outlines/behind the scenes documents or open up my docs to finally make myself edit That Bitch Of A Scene etc. etc. And then… as much as I am more of a write-for-myself type, it is hard to say, like… idk, would I have written 100k+ words of YNYD if I was getting zero engagement? I don’t know! I’ve never been put in that position– Starker fandom is by far the most active fandom I’ve ever written for, but I’ve always gotten at least some engagement on my writing even for smaller fandoms where a Highly Successful fic means that you get 4 comments instead of, like, 40. I do think I still would have written it due to the aforementioned “gotta get these scenes out of my head” thing, but maybe more slowly/not making it as much of a priority, idk.

I will say that because Starker fandom is so much more active/enthusiastic than other fandoms I’ve been in, the initial reception to my fics was a little overwhelming (though wonderful, obviously!!) to where I did backslide a little bit into like, “oh no, what if people don’t like that I did [XYZ] in this chapter” and was feeling more pressure about my writing, until eventually things evened out and I was able to get back in my zen place of focusing on how I felt about the fic/chapter/whatever instead of thinking about audience reception. (And to be clear, I’m DELIGHTED to be a part of such a wonderful, supportive community– it was just a big adjustment coming from fandoms where having a runaway smash-hit fic meant getting a fourth of the engagement, haha.)

10. how has writing positively impacted your mental health or overall mood?

It’s been soooo nice. I wrote consistently as a preteen/early teen, which I loved and was wonderful and I had so many positive experiences in fandom back then, but then for about a decade starting in my midteens my primary fandom outlet became text-based RP and I stopped reading/writing much fic at the time! And that was also wonderful and I made so many long-term friendships during that time, but eventually my energy for RP kind of dwindled, I found myself coming back to writing, and it’s been a blast. Having a source of regular creative engagement (that doesn’t rely on others the way RP does) has been so lovely and has given me so much energy during times that were otherwise pretty stressful.

15. how do you think your writing has improved over time?

Oooh, this is such a tough question. Both because the tone in my recent works and my only-semi-recent works are so different– like, I don’t know if I’ve actually gotten better at conveying mood and depth of emotion, or if I just didn’t have as much opportunity to do that for my fluffier, more romcomesque fandoms– and because I don’t… ffffocus on the technical skills of writing, much?

Obviously I have improved at writing since I wrote my first fic at the tender age of 8, but I don’t really edit with an eye towards overuse of words, avoiding “””bad””” words like ‘very’ or whatever, efficiency/redundancy, balance of sensory vs environmental vs emotional detail, varying sentence length to improve rhythm, blah blah all that stuff you’re “supposed” to do if improving your writing skill is your goal, because for me it’s really not!

I want to tell my stories how I want to tell them, with the exact amount of effort that I want to expend towards that, and not a single drop more, haha. My goal when I’m writing is to convey the emotion/dynamic I’m trying to express as thoroughly and accurately as possible, so all of my editing is geared towards that vs the more technical aspects of writing– so yes, obviously achieving that goal often means modifying for awkward phrasing or changing up the pacing or varying sentence structure, but I’m not approaching every scene with the Goal of having perfect phrasing and perfect pacing and perfect sentence structure, if that makes sense? I don’t hunt for things that are off; I just highlight the spots that immediately feel iffy as I’m writing them, and I come back to them later to tidy up. And honestly, I feel like a major trademark of my style is the deliberate use of run-ons and embedded clauses and sentences that are Way Too Fucking Long in a way that I’m sure any editor-minded readers would LOVE to get their hands on and tear apart and shuffle around and rearrange and make more cohesive/coherent, but I like writing that way!

To be clear, I think it’s awesome and incredible when people approach fic-writing with the intention to actually improve their writing itself, but that’s just really not how I approach it. I don’t have a goal of being professionally published someday, and I don’t want to dig into the guts of my fics to think about what flaws they have and how I could have made them better by honing XYZ skill– that’s not fun to me, and to me fic is for fun! It’s about making myself sad or happy or angry or horny over my blorbos, so when I edit or I’m happy/unhappy with a scene it’s alllll about how well I feel like I’ve accomplished that goal, so it’s really hard for me to judge improvement in my writing based on any other metric. Sometimes I nail it, sometimes it feels off, and that has been the case for as long as I have been writing, haha.

[mejomonster]

I am trying to build a writimg habit. And Im fascinated to realize I seem to write quite well soon after I wake up, after breakfast and coffee

Its not... ideal. Since I need to stop writing at X time to start work or other daily obligations. So i cant write until the inspiration/motivation wanes, which in a good writimg sessiom might be 4 hours and 10,000 words. In the mornings, Ive pretty much got to stop at 30 minutes to 1 hour, or 1000-2000 words. Because thats all the time I have in the morning, on ideal days. So idk... still testing out if I could set up a afternoon after work before dinner habit instead, as afternoon to evening I can make time to write for 4-6 hours if I end up really into what Im writing.

Anyway. Im not a morning person at all so im kind of surprised I focus faster in the morning.

The other change I made thats helping, as far as making a habit. Is i am giving myself permission to write "anything, however few words come out, on any in progress story, including just story notes instead of a scene." Thats taken the pressure off as now I feel if i only have time for 100 words or inspiration for 100 words I will still START writing, ill give myself permission to write if i only have 5-10 minutes free if Ive got inspiration. And its been working fairly well? Half of the outcome has just been story outline notes, but thats more to rely on later. And the other half has been "later scene drafts" so while theyre rough and a lot of just dialogue and bare bones desxription, theyll make later chapters much less work. The only downside to this is by not focusing on ONE specific story, I may be makimg things somewhat harder for myself by jumping around? Idk. Result is MANY WIPS none finished. But progress on multiple wips so?

Also fun facts. This year Ive written at least 146,000 words. About 46,000 was fanfiction (which damn Im suprised by), some are wips so only maybe 30,000 of those words were posted on ao3. So the bigger news, for me personally? Is Ive wrote about 100,000 words of ORIGINAL FICTION THIS YEAR WOOH! That is a huge accomplishment to me as before this year, the most Ive ever finished was 1 short story of original fiction or drawn 1 chapter of a comic story. And the breakdown: 2 of my stories have about 30k written and are 1/5 done (which makes sense to me as I usually have been able to write 30k fanfics in the past and as long as theyre that short I generally complete writing them easily, and I apparently favor 5 arc story structure lol), 1 story has about 25k written, and 1 story has about 15k. So decent progress made on all.

[ormspryde]

May I get 9 and 19 for the writers asks?

Absolutely!

9. what's your writing process like?

The amount of words I put out in a day can vary wildly, from a few hundred words to up to 3000 if I'm really motivated. However, the process is pretty similar in all cases.

For my current 'big thing', Seer of the Dead, I started by writing a very loose outline. I scrapped the majority of it partway through, but it was a jumping off point, and my second outline is much more secure. Either way, it was a jumping off point, and I have found outlines to be absolutely essential.

When I go to write, I try to think if there's a scene or maybe even a side story that jumps out at me. Like many other AuDHD people I know, I have difficult getting started; and working up something specific, even if it's going to be heavily edited later, helps to 'break the seal' on the day's writing, so to speak. If nothing appeals, sometimes I'll read through and do some editing, and that also helps get me started.

Editing for me happens in two or more passes - usually at least three, but up to five if I'm feeling insecure about my writing that day. The first pass or couple of passes, dealing with the roughest of rough drafts, I'll go through and look for consistency mistakes, places where I could stand to add more detail (I suck at describing stuff tbh, so I try to add more description at this point). Sometimes I'll find a place where the transition between one paragraph and another seems abrupt and write more to put there, or a good place to put some foreshadowing. Basically anywhere the story needs something more. Sometimes I'll find something that needs to be cut during this part; usually I like to take that and save it in my notes folder.

The last few passes, I use to check for spelling or grammatical errors. That's not to say that I don't correct those if I see them, they're just not my focus until I get to the end of this process. A lot of the time, my very last read through is just to satisfy myself that the writing's as good as I can make it and to appease the anxiety demons before I send my baby out into the cold, cruel world.

19. If you could write an ideal fic, what would it include?

You know, it's really hard to say. Right now, I think Seer of the Dead is the closest I could get to an ideal fic for me; I'm getting a ton of very enjoyable practice with description, worldbuilding, giving characters backstories, and just generally writing something that's a bit lengthier and heftier in plot than the 1k-2k character exploration fics that I've been writing since I started writing fanfiction in college over twenty years ago. (I'm old, yes) Tbh I wish I'd realized the power of outlines decades ago, but I'm realizing it now.

As well as being great practice, I'm enjoying a lot of self-indulgent moments with this fic; putting in references to things that please me, still writing those character explorations but putting them in the middle of actual plot...it's really really great. Not too long ago I wrote up a 3000 word chapter that included great detail of one of the characters going to an open-air market in Zaphias and I enjoyed the hell out of it too.

So there's that; something that allows me to improve my craft AND be self-indulgent.

[spideypoolbigbang]

2022 FAQ

For those over 18, feel free to join the Spideypool server through this link. Please make sure to introduce yourself and state that you are a participant in the SPBB, as well as what type (writer, artist, beta) so that we may assign you the correct roles. This will grant you access to the SPBB room, where you can chat about your work with other participants. 

What is a Big Bang?

A Big Bang is a type of challenge wherein writers have a set amount of time to write a story that fulfills a minimum word length requirement. This story is then claimed by an artist, who will create art for the story. 

Writers and artists work together as a team. They share a posting date and create a masterpost of both the story and art that is promoted by the challenge blog. This is a collaborative effort, NOT a commission. Though writers can suggest scenes they wish to have drawn, ultimately it is the artists who choose an aspect of the story they would like to draw. The artist should also respect what the writer suggests and take their notes into consideration. Communication is key to a fun and friendly experience.

Artists can claim up to two stories and can work with multiple writers. However, writers will be matched with only one artist. If an artist drops out after claims, we will arrange for a pinch-hitter (someone who will create art for the story at the last minute). 

This is a fun event and a collaborative effort that will hopefully create more Spideypool content for the fandom and foster closer fandom friendships. 

How do I sign up as a writer/artist?

Sign-up forms are linked on the blog during the sign-up period. If you are signing up as a Writer, please be aware that this year you will be required to submit a 50% completed draft with a complete story outline, claims summary, and visual components at sign-up. 

Summaries included in the sign-up form will be used to give Artists an idea of what each story will be about prior to Art Claims. They are not an official AO3 summary. We encourage the Claims summary to be detailed and spoilery. 

Visual components will be a simple list of what color palette/aesthetics/mood the story might provoke and/or maybe places/scenes that stand out in the story. Example: Fic has lots of cloudy days, grey colors, sometimes in forests. Hectic blood rituals. Moonlit nights. Wade fights a lot of ninjas. Peter likes to cosplay Steampunk. They are used to help artists better narrow down what they would like to draw. 

More information and examples of both the Summaries and Visual Components will be available on the tumblr blog when sign-ups are announced. If you have trouble finding the post or have issues/questions about sign-ups, let the mods know either through an ask or by emailing us at spideypoolbb@gmail.com

Why do I have to have a 50% complete draft at sign-ups? Isn’t the whole point to write the fic during the event?

In the past, we haven’t required a draft to be ready or half-ready at sign-ups because sign-ups were a full two months before Claims. To shift the emphasis of the event from individual work to teams working together, sign-ups have been moved to directly before claims. We wanted people to have partners for as much of the process as feasibly possible and also to alleviate some of the pressure for writers scrambling to complete a draft in time for Claims. A lot of writers (the Mods are guilty of this, too!) sign up for an event with an idea, but nothing written down, and then struggle to get their draft to the completion mark required for claims in time. There have been more than a few writers upset come Claims time that they weren't able to finish enough of their drafts to qualify before the Claims deadline. We want to take the buyer’s remorse aspect out of the sign-up and Claims process. If you have a rough draft that's at least half finished, great! All you'll need is to outline the rest of the story and write your summary and visual components to be ready for Claims. If your draft isn't there yet when sign-ups close, no worries! Keep plugging away at that draft for next year without the guilt of having to drop out early.

I missed sign-ups. Can I still register?

Unfortunately, only writers and artists signed up within the given timeframe can participate in the event. If you missed it, please follow the blog for updates, as this is a yearly event, and you will have an opportunity to join the event the following year.

Can I sign up as an Artist, a Writer, and a Beta Reader?

Firstly, we applaud anyone willing to undertake such a heavy workload! We do not recommend this route because editing can be just as time-consuming as writing and drawing. However, we do allow those registering as only a Writer or only an Artist to register as a Beta as well. You must fill out both the writer form and the beta form. 

I’ve joined the Discord Server; what do the roles mean?

We have a dedicated room on the Isn’t It Bromantic Spideypool server for our over-18 participants to use during the event. We assign roles based on what people sign up for so that other participants know what role(s) you are participating as. Unlike in past years, 2022 marks a change to how the room(s) will function on the server. 

Because claims will be happening so shortly after writer sign-ups, we have chosen to do away with separate rooms for the event, and will only be using one room for everyone. There will be Threads (break-out rooms) available, should participants wish to talk individually about their stories or art, etc, without interrupting general conversation, but there will be no separation of participants this year. This way everyone in the event will be able to see and participate in conversation about the works being made. We hope this change will foster a closer community of creators.

Anyone who wishes to sign up for the event as an artist will not be given their event-specific server roles until after the claims process has been completed, but you are welcome to join the server early to participate in other fun Spideypool chats during the short wait!

Will you email me reminders? What if I need more time? 

We will send out email reminders several days before official deadlines. Reminders will be emailed for all check-ins, claims, and posting dates. Please consider adding the dates posted on the schedule into your calendar to keep track. We will grant extensions on a case-by-case basis. This is a low-stress event, and we understand that life gets hectic. If you feel like you need more time, let the mods know as soon as possible before the deadline.

I’ve never participated in an event before. Can I sign up?

Yes! Everyone is welcome to participate as long as you are above the age of 14. However, we do ask that you are fully aware of the responsibilities that come with signing up. So make sure you read the rules carefully!

Will we be assigned a prompt? 

We do not assign prompts. You can write what you want, as long as the main pairing is Spideypool. We never want a Writer to feel like they can’t write their heart’s desire, but if you’re worried about there being a struggle to match your story to an Artist, we encourage you to focus on story ideas with a broad appeal that would lend itself well to art. You may work from a prompt, but you cannot reveal what prompt you’re writing from until after claims and it cannot be a prompt you have discussed writing publicly in the past. This is to keep the anonymity of your fic during the claims process. 

When can I start writing?

You should already be working! What are you doing here? Finish reading the FAQ, then get back to work! Remember, you will need a 50% completed rough draft, with the rest of the story outlined at sign-up! 

I want to talk about my fic, but I’m afraid of revealing too much. What is considered information I can reveal?

The most important thing is that no identifiable details of your fic are made public before claims have been completed. This is to prevent the possibility of an artist seeing it and connecting that detail to you. We want to make sure the claims are absolutely anonymous so there is no bias while picking the stories. All stories will be chosen by artists based on summaries and visual components only. 

If you need group feedback and are 18 or older, the Isn’t It Bromantic Spideypool Discord has a designated section for the SPBB event, where participants can speak freely about their creations. Once you’ve signed up as a writer, you can ask a mod on the server to give you the SPBB-writer role to gain access to the room. If you are planning to sign up as an artist as well, you’ll have to wait for this role until after claims, sorry! Writers may discuss their works freely and receive feedback/brainstorm ideas. This means that writers may not share details of their story in any other chat until after Claims. 

Event announcements are also posted within the SPBB-specific room, as well as on the tumblr blog and via email. Event rules apply to the server, as it is a public forum, so please do not discuss details in the main rooms until after Claims.

If you are under 18, or otherwise cannot/are not interested in joining the server, discussing details with your beta or another individual (who is not participating in the event as an artist) in a private one-on-one chat is allowed. 

Here are a few examples of what information is allowed and what is not:

“I’m almost done with writing my SPBB fic!” ← This is okay because it reveals no specific details about your story that an artist could recognize. 

“I’m almost done with my Princess Bride AU fic for the SPBB!” ← This is not okay because it is a specific detail. 

“I’m writing a story involving an alien invasion, but I kind of want to write this royal au as well. Which one should I pick?” ← This is not okay. Even if you didn’t mention the SPBB, you’re using one of these stories for the SPBB, and it might be recognized based on these descriptions. 

“Is there anyone not drawing for the SPBB who could help me bounce plot details (In private chat) for this idea I have?” ← This is okay because you will be taking discussion to a one-on-one private chat. 

Can I use any version of Spider-Man and Deadpool for my fic/art?

Yes. We understand that there are many versions of these characters, whether it be the actors or the comics. We ask that teams respect each other’s preferences. As long as appropriate warnings are given in the story and the art, teams are free to create what they please, and that includes underage Peter or Tom Holland!Spidey/Ryan Reynolds!Deadpool. Or Spider-Man Noir/Sumo!Wade Wilson, if that’s your thing. Go wild! Please note that we do not tolerate shaming or harassment of any kind. Leaving negative comments or complaints or otherwise being disrespectful to or about another participant’s creative choices because a piece depicts an iteration of Spider-Man or Deadpool that you do not approve of will result in disqualification from this round and a possible ban for the next round, as well. Be respectful and mature when communicating. If you have a problem with the iteration of the characters your partner is using, please contact the mods for mediation.

Can I write other pairings, such as Spider-Man/Mary Jane or Deadpool/Cable?

You can, but keep in mind that the fic has to be majority Spideypool and endgame Spider-Man/Deadpool. Poly ships such as Peter/Wade/Vanessa or Spider-Man/Deadpool/Daredevil are also permitted, as long as they are not the main focus of the story and are not the final pairing. We love polyships, but that’s not the goal of this specific event. If your preference is to write polyships, we encourage you to seek out a polyship big bang event. 

When am I assigned an artist/writer?

You will be assigned a partner during Art Claims. It will be an anonymous claiming process, wherein the artist chooses a story they would like to create art for. Instructions will be sent out by email before claims. You cannot pick your own partner. 

Are we assigned beta-readers? What is a beta-reader? Do I have to use one?

A beta-reader is an editor who will go over your work. They mostly look for grammatical and structural errors. We require all participants to have at least one beta-reader look over their work. It is good etiquette to thank your beta-reader and also credit them for their help in the author’s note of your story once it is posted. 

You will not be assigned a beta-reader. However, we will have a list of volunteer beta-readers prepared, and a list of their contact information and preferences will be sent out through email to all the writers. You don’t have to work with the SPBB betas if you already have a beta to work with, but if you cannot find a beta, you will be able to contact any beta on the list we send out. 

Be aware that they will have refusal rights if your story goes against their stated preferences (i.e. If they state that they aren’t comfortable with Tom!Spidey fics and your fic is set during Infinity War, they can refuse to beta for you, etc.). It is your job to read up on what they offer and to contact them. Make sure to do so as soon as possible to ensure a beta is available to work with you. You will be asked to name your beta on the final check-in form, so it’s a good idea to secure one earlier rather than later. They will  need time to beta your work, and you’ll need time to edit before posting day, which is why we want to make sure you have found a beta ahead of time. 

Artists are also encouraged to work with an art beta, which can be found in the Discord SPBB chat. Basically, the best people who can give you feedback are your fellow artists participating in the SPBB. 

What is a Check-In? 

When we say “check-in”, it is usually done through a form sent out via email a week before the check-in is due. Check-ins let the mods know that you’re on track and show us any progress you have made. 

I have an idea for a piece of artwork, but it’s a little unconventional…does it count?

We accept all art materials and styles as part of the event. Traditional, digital, sculpture, etc. If you’re not sure how your idea would work, please reach out to the mods to discuss in more detail. 

I prefer to wait to read the finished draft before starting my art; is that okay?

It’s important to remember that the event is a collaborative process, and both writer and artist participants are expected to be working on their projects throughout the event in order to meet their required check-ins. This means that you should begin working on your artwork as soon as you have received and read the draft of your writer’s story after Claims. If you feel inspired to make art for parts of the story which haven’t yet been written—bearing in mind the draft you receive will be 50% complete with an outline of the remaining plot—you should still begin work on this: you can have detailed discussions with your writer in order to form your ideas, or base it off the parts of the story written so far and the outline. Your writer has their own deadlines to work towards, and should not feel pressured to write particular scenes for you to illustrate or finish the work ahead of final check-in if they feel unable to do so. Remember, “WIP” exists for a reason! 

If I sign up as an Artist, how can I be sure that I don’t accidentally claim a story that contains content I’m uncomfortable reading?

When the Writers submit their summaries and visual components for preview day, we ask them to include as spoilery a summary as possible so that there aren’t any surprises for their potential Artist later. We require tagging for all major AO3 warnings (Graphic Depictions of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, and Underage), and encourage including any other potentially triggering or squicky tags as well. We will be asking Artists for any particular tags or story elements they want tagged during claims on the Artist sign-up form so that the Writers will know to include those tags in their previews during Claims. Our main goal in hosting this event is to make sure that everyone is having fun and enjoying what they do, and making sure that all participants are comfortable with their partners and the work they are creating together is a top priority.

What is Preview Day?

Preview day is a few days before the actual Claims. Artists will be sent an email with a link to a gallery of stories available to claim. Each story will be assigned a number, and previews will include Rating, Summary, Warnings/Tags, Visual Components and Expected Final Word Count. Artists then have a few days to read over all the summaries and pick their top 5. In consideration of the Writers participating, Artists should not share their top choices on public forums.

What is Claim Day, and how do I claim the fic I want to  make art for?

Claim Day is the official day when Artists will be sent a form to submit their top choices for stories to draw for. The email will be sent out at a specific time and date detailed in the Previews email. Because claims are assigned on a first come, first serve basis, it is important for artists to fill out the form as soon as possible to best assure that they receive one of their top choices. We have done our best to pick a time that will work for a wide variety of time zones, but as the Mods are based in the UK and the USA, we had to choose a release time that best fits our own schedules as well. Be aware that this might mean that you have to set an alarm for the middle of the night depending on where you live to make sure you have the best chance at getting your top pick. We know that may not be convenient, but it’s the best way to make the claims process fair. Asking a friend to fill out your form is also an option if you will not be available at that specific time. 

How are teams matched on Claims Day?

Teams are matched in a process that is first come, first served, meaning that the first Artist to choose a story is the person who gets that story. The Mods set the Google form to populate a Google spreadsheet. We usually wait about an hour after the form has been made live to begin the matching process to give Artists time to fill out their claims. The spreadsheet populates by time submitted, so that all the Artist claims are in order of when that person filled out the form. We go down the line, highlighting the story number that Artist claimed first. If an Artist’s first choice has already been claimed by a previous Artist, we go to their second choice. If that second choice has already been claimed, we go to their third, etc. (hence why we ask Artists to choose up to 5 stories as options). The process looks something like this:

If all of an Artist’s top 5 choices have previously been chosen by another Artist, we quickly update the previews gallery we send out, hiding the stories that have already been chosen, and ask the Artist to select a new Top 5 from the updated list. 

If at the end of the day not all of the stories have been claimed, we update the previews gallery with the remaining stories, and the next day, we send out a Claims Round Two email to all the Artists. At that time, any Artist who wishes to can claim a second story. On the rare occasion that not all the stories have been claimed in Round Two, we hold a Third Round that is open to any Artist who wishes to claim a story, even if they did not sign up during the sign-up period. 

Once every story has been paired with an Artist, the Mods prepare final introduction emails and send them all out at once.

I haven’t heard from my partner in a while; what do I do?

When you sign up for this challenge, you are agreeing to communicate with your partner through emails or other methods determined by you and your partner(s). Some teams might communicate only a few times, and some might communicate regularly. This year we are asking Teams to (at minimum) make contact with each other at each Writer and Artist Check-in to exchange progress and make sure everything is on track. to communicate at least once a month to exchange progress and make sure everything is on track. It is up to the team members to check in with each other. It is critical that you respond promptly to your partners and check your messages, even if it’s just to say you’re busy and will respond later. 

Team members are required to make contact with each other within 48hrs of the Team Intro emails being sent out so that drafts can be exchanged and you can begin working together as soon as possible. 

At all other times, if you send a message to your partner(s) and do not receive a response within 2-3 days, please contact a mod so that we can attempt to reach out separately. PLEASE DO NOT WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE TO LET US KNOW YOU HAVEN’T HEARD FROM YOUR TEAMMATE. If a participant does not respond to their partner(s) or a mod within 7 days, they will be added to a probation list. If this happens repeatedly, that participant will be disqualified from next year’s event. Ghosting your teammate will also lead to disqualification. We take communication between teammates seriously, and we hope our participants do as well.

What if I need to drop out?

There is no penalty for dropping out before claims. However, we ask that you let us know as soon as possible so we can remove you from the mailing list. 

If you have gone through claims and need to drop, contact us immediately at spideypoolbb@gmail.com, so we can arrange for a pinch-hitter for your teammate. You must also let your partner know you will be dropping out. Please note that dropping out after claims (for anything less than an emergency situation) will disqualify you for the next round of SPBB.

In the event that an artist drops out of the challenge before posting, we will arrange for a pinch-hitter for the writer. If a writer drops, artists can still post their art on their assigned posting date. Do not announce that you are dropping out through social media before telling your partner. We do not want your partner finding out that way. Instead, let the necessary people know through private chats or emails. 

If there is an emergency, get in touch with us as soon as possible, and we will work with you the best we can.  We understand that a fandom event might not be your first priority in an emergency, and that’s fine, but you must tell the mods that this is the case when you are able to do so. We are not psychic, and do not know your reason for leaving the event if you don’t tell us. As always, Communication Is Key.

What’s a pinch-hitter and how can I become one?

In the case of an artist dropping out of the event, leaving a writer without an artist, a pinch-hitter is asked to sweep in, often with only a few weeks notice, to create art for that writer’s story. Artists will also be asked during sign-ups if they’d like to register as a pinch hitter. If a pinch-hitter should be necessary, we will contact the Artists who agreed to be pinch-hitters first. Should none of them be available to assist with the story in need, we will then post an open request for an artist.

Am I allowed to write timestamps, epilogues, or sequels for this fic? What about additional art?

You may write as many timestamps, epilogues, or sequels to your fic as you like, however these can only be posted after the event is complete and the final Masterlist has been posted by the mods. 

Additional art can be posted after the Masterlist of Writers and Artists has been posted by the mods and the current round is over. If someone creates fanart for your story as a gift, you may include it in the notes of your story, but the original fanart created by your partner must remain in your masterpost and linked or embedded in the AO3 story as well. 

Commissioning art for a story or asking a friend to create additional art for you because you dislike the art you received is not allowed. This is a collaborative event and to do so is disrespectful to your Artist’s efforts. If you wish to commission art or have someone else create art for your story, you may not include that art within the story itself until one year after the posting date. The original art created by your partner must remain linked directly in the story.

What if I’m co-writing? Do we sign up together or separately? Do we get two Artists?

If you plan to co-write, both of you must register separately. There will be a place in the sign-up form for you to name a co-writer, but each co-writer must submit their own form with contact information, etc. during the sign-up period. You cannot add a co-writer after writer registration closes. Co-writing is essentially working together to create one story. As per the rules, each story, even if you’re co-writing, will only receive one Artist. This also does not mean you can demand more art from your Artist. They only need to fulfill the minimum requirement and can choose to create more art if they have the time and desire to do so. 

Can I have multiple writing partners? 

Yes. While we prefer that teams stick to one or two Writers and an Artist for schedule coordination and easier communication, we have no problem with a team of three or more Writers submitting a story together. As with co-writers, you will still only be paired with one Artist, and all writers in your group must sign up for the event separately. 

To make communication and scheduling easier for everyone, we would also ask that your team choose a point person to respond to communication, coordinate schedules, and submit check-ins and posts when applicable. While we have no problem with large writing groups working together, trying to chase down three or more individuals for one story is a bit more challenging than we, as mods, are equipped to deal with. All participants will still receive relevant emails and reminders, but if we only have to look for one email instead of three or more in response, that will make our jobs significantly less challenging. 

What is the Promo Period? Do I need anything special for it?

The Promo Period will be a month where (depending on how many teams we have), each team will be creating what is essentially a teaser for your team’s story and art. These posts may be used by the teams to promote their upcoming work on whichever social media platforms they wish, but as the original post will be submitted to the SPBB blog, you may reblog it from the SPBB blog. We will post a promo for a new team every day during the Promo Period, in posting schedule order. This is why we ask that each Artist create a banner for the story they are creating art for. More details on what is needed from both artists and writers will be sent out a week or two before the actual promotional period. 

How do I post, and when do I post? What if I’ve never posted on AO3/Tumblr/etc before? 

We will be sending out emails to the teams with details walking you through the process of posting and will be on hand to offer support and answer any questions. Make sure to contact the Mod Team at least a few days prior to posting for a walkthrough if you aren’t sure of the process. If you do not have an AO3 account currently and are in need of an invite code, please contact the mod team immediately (AO3 invites can take anywhere from a few hours to a month+ to go through AO3’s approval system, so please make sure to let us know you will be needing one ASAP, as in do it now, today. Don’t wait.), and we will try to accommodate you.

One team will post per day during the posting period until we run out of teams. Both Writer and Artist must post your works within your given day. We will send out emails asking which days your team can and cannot post, and will be creating a posting schedule from that information. Make sure to discuss availability with your partner. 

If I don’t want to be associated with my story after the first year, can I delete it from AO3? 

Yes, but we encourage you to orphan the work, rather than deleting it if you choose to remove your affiliation with the story past the one-year date.

[Credit to the kind mods of DCBB (DeanCas Big Bang) who gave us permission to use their FAQ as reference.]

Rules | Schedule | FAQ | Wiki

[brigittttoo]

94 78 58

(For the fanfic writer's ask game)

94. Do you prefer dialogue or description? -- ohoho, I think we all know the answer to this is definitely description. In real life I'm not a very talkative person, with a lot of social anxiety, and so often when I have to come up with dialogue for a fic I end up writing it in a lot of stops and starts. The most generous thing I can do for myself in making an outline or a rough is to draft out the gist of a major dialogue part and follow that when I actually write the scene, although sometimes even that doesn't go as planned. I've written dialogue based off my outline notes before and ended up completely switching who says what.

Description is also nice because I like making sure that worlds that characters exist in (even if the world is as small as a single room for a scene) feel real, and have substance, and have histories that don't all have to be told explicitly but can often just be inferred from a good description. This is going to sound insane but one of the major reasons why I was never as much into DC as Marvel was because Gotham and Metropolis felt so utterly fake; like it was semi-obvious (to a Canadian,,) what cities they were meant to be approximating but I never understood why they couldn't just be set in actual New York (or actual, uh,, New Jersey? is that where Gotham is supposed to be?) Anyways kudos to those few fics of DC media I've read where I am not so completely caught up in the fact that these are like movie set towns that have big plywood facades in front of a painted backdrop.

78. How do you choose where to end a chapter? -- Well I've only written two works that have multiple chapters, and both of these were planned out somewhat carefully. For Slow Waters, it turned out to be much of a classic three-act kind of thing, most likely because it was following the Pacific Rim movie, which (although I've never consciously kept track of this) was probably following its own three-act thing. And so----hold on I've just realised the fic is actually four chapters and an epilogue, so like. don't believe anything I say about writing, jeez wtf

I guess the real answer is "wherever I want to" but in general it feels motivating to end a chapter on the set-up for a new action, or solution, or new direction, so that one can end the whole story with the satisfying conclusion.

For The World Offers Itself I at least had decided very early on that the story should be structured by the different terrains that codywan travel through, but even then I found myself staggering the journey so that the chapter at least ends in the biome it's titled after, even if they don't quite start there.

58. What is the last thing that a fic made you google when you were writing it? -- The question I cannot answer although I so desperately wish to!!!! (to respect the rules of codywan remix challenge.) The spoiler-free version is that usually I google a lot of words, and use trusty thesaurus dot com for even more words.

The most non-spoilery google search I can provide is something that I looked up last night that isn't actually in the fic but that I was wondering because of thoughts around the fic, and it's the wikipedia page for Nicknames, of all things, particularly the interesting fact that the Vikings (the fic is Not about vikings) sometimes treated the giving and receiving of nicknames with such formal ceremony that it included an exchange of gifts, and was called "nafnfestr", or "name-fastening". So that's neat :)

[weaverofthreads]

On the process of writing a novel...

Ok, so this began as a DM to a very dear friend who had said they were super excited to work on a novel of theirs that they'd abandoned for years, but they felt a bit lost when looking at the project again. They had "too many characters, too many intrigues" and they didn't "know how to create order" for all their ideas. They didn't know "what to keep, what to remove, what to change" and wanted to know if I had any tips.  

I began to reply in messages and then realised I needed to make a whole post out of it, so here it is! All 3k words of it. This is for you, darling! I hope it helps.

Things I found extremely helpful when planning my novel for NaNoWriMo this year, after also taking some time off from it.  

Most of this comes from Alicia Lidwina’s Four-Part article on her NaNoWriMo prep process, and setting up a writer’s notebook, for 2018. You can find the link to the first part here and I highly recommend you check out the whole series of articles for a more in-depth read. 

Content of this ‘essay’: 

Preparation, Groundwork, and Materials

Project 'Stats' & Overview  

Mood, Moodboards, and Key Imagery

Things to Consider, and Important Bullet Points

Get to Know Your Characters  

Chronological Order

Tangential and Preceding Events

Basic Premise, Plot Definition, Sub Plot Ideas  

List of Locations

Scenes

Chapter Outline

NaNo Plan

Additional Notes and Tips for Writing

Ok. Let's begin.  

First of all, I'm not saying that this is the only way to write or organise a novel. It can be tackled in as many ways as there are writers in the universe. This is just the method I used to get my ideas crystallised and organised. 

Preparation, Groundwork, and Materials.  

Take your preparation seriously. I bought a cheap but still nice A4 sketchbook with blank paper for maybe £2 at the local hobby store, and used it solely for the purposes of being my Novel Notebook. It doesn’t have to be a pretty, perfect, Aesthetic(TM) journal at all. Its function is to act as a route-guide through the process.  

I bought a cute sticker from Etsy and used it as the front cover design so that I liked the book and that it felt a little bit special, without being too intimidating to put a mark in. Then I left the very first page blank, and opened it to the first double page. On the left, I wrote ‘Contents’ and then moved on to the right and wrote ‘Project Stats and Overview’.  

I used a pen that was comfortable to write with, which for me was important. I’m a very tactile person, and having nice paper and pens (not necessarily fancy), made the process feel good.

Project Stats and Overview

This is the bare bones of the book, and includes details such as:

Project Working Title: (in my case it’s Weaver of Threads)

Targeted Wordcount: (to give yourself an idea of the scope, but it’s not necessary. For me it’s 50-100k)

Genre: (for me, fantasy)

Series: (will it be one book or more? For me, probably more than one, and at least two).  

Inspiration: (here you can jot down all sorts of things which inspire your world and your writing, and it can be anything. In my case, I began with “density and lore, and feeling of being grounded in a real world from LOTR and Tolkien.” And I went on to include other writers and novels in the fantasy genre, as well as elements from our own world, such as Mongolian herding communities and way of life, the history of the Persian Empire, and Renaissance Florence!).  

Project Timeline: Give yourself a structure, and be realistic. If you know you’re a slow writer who’s prone to distractions, be generous, but if you’re someone who responds well to short deadlines, tighten the time frame up a bit. I said “November 2020 - November 2021 for the whole manuscript” because I know I’m a procrastinator who gets dejected if they shoot past intense deadlines….

Editing Deadline: December 2021-January 2022. I know I can edit fairly quickly, so I made this one much shorter.  

Main Requirements Prior to Starting: What do you need to get sorted before you can get going? It could be purchasing a laptop or figuring out a magic system. In my case, it was the latter.  

What Happens in your novel?: This is not ‘what do your characters do?’, but what, in one sentence, actually happens in the book. For Fellowship of the Ring, you could say ‘a diverse group of people assemble and set off together with the goal of destroying the Ring’. LOADS more stuff actually takes place, obviously, but that’s probably the key thing that happens in that book. So, write the same thing for yours. I’m not going to tell you what happens in mine, because that would spoil it :).  

That took up the first A4 page of my writer’s notebook, and after that, I moved on to Mood and Key Imagery. 

Mood, Moodboards, and Key Imagery

On the left hand side of the page, I wrote down the words and concepts that sprang to mind when I thought of the novel itself. These were in no particular order or placement — just a random cloud of ideas in a rough column on the left hand side of the page — and they included: history, mystery, love, friendship, betrayal, nostalgic, homesick, sense of belonging, sense of place, searching, closeness, secrets… etc. etc.

Then on the right hand side, I wrote down five key words that I wanted to associate with the novel. These would form the ‘visual aesthetic’ in the background of my mind, and could be very easily expressed with a moodboard.

This same process (writing down words and creating a moodboard) could be achieved on a website like Pinterest. Take your time with it, find the right visual clues that really match the essence of your story, and create a final mood board with a limited number of panels that will be your novel’s ‘true north’ when it comes to feelings. If you're artistically inclined too, you could draw sketches of things relevant to your world too.  

While this stage is really important for solidifying the feeling and mood of the novel, don’t get stuck here and spend forever procrastinating on Pinterest or whatever. Once you’ve crystallised that ambiance, it’s time to move on. It’s also perfectly fine to come back to this at a later stage if you find yourself running out of inspiration or drifting a bit. Daydreaming, drawing, mood-board-ing are all great ways to work on your novel on days when you don’t feel like writing.

Things to Consider:

Alicia Lidwina asked herself some questions which helped me get past the ‘block’ that I’d created when thinking about the novel, and those were:

What scares me about this story? (in my case it was the scope of it - it was easy for me to get lost in over-thinking tiny details and get too overwhelmed to handle the big picture)

What will readers take away from it? (in my case, I hoped that it was a sense of friendship, people from desperate cultures finding common ground, and a sense of being grounded in a real, tangible world.

What is its selling point? (essentially, why would an agent/publisher choose yours over the next one in the pile?). Don’t be bashful about this. This is your notebook, so if you’re proud of a feature or aspect of the story, write it down. In my case, there is no ‘Big Bad come to destroy the world’, no Chosen One who is the only one who can stop it. There is an antagonist, but it’s on a personal scale, and that’s the selling point. It’s about two people going on a personal journey to uncover a lost piece of knowledge that’s arguably not all that world-changing on its own, but which means the world to them.  

What will be the three biggest issues in writing the first draft? Identify the three biggest roadblocks, and then take a bulldozer to them. For me, it was time management, getting mentally stuck, and the sheer darned effort of it becoming overwhelming!

Important Bullet Points  

These are five key facts about your novel, distilled from the sections above. They include: What’s at the heart of the story? How long is the story? What’s the narrative focus of the story? What are the maximum number of main characters? And the maximum number of supporting characters (this obviously doesn’t mean you can’t have other, less important characters too!)?  

Relationship between the two main characters is forefront

50-100k words

The novel’s focus is on the characters’ main goal (had to be more vague here so I didn't give it away)

2 main characters

3 supporting characters  

If you find you’ve got too many main characters (not necessarily a bad thing to have a lot of characters - look at A Song of Ice and Fire after all!), then figure out whose story you want to tell here. You can always write another story with other characters in a connected novel, or a sequel. You don’t have to tell everything all at the same time.  

Speaking of characters… 

…Get to Know Your Main Characters:  

Here you can write character sheets for each of your main characters and cast. There are hundreds of these templates available on the internet, asking questions like ‘how would your character react to [insert event]?’ etc. to get to know your character. If this isn’t your thing (it isn’t mine) then at least write down some useful information about them. Rough height and weight, hair, eye and skin colour, general temperament, and any other defining physical or mental traits. 

Next came the Chronological Order

This does not have to represent the final order of the novel’s structure, nor the order in which you write the manuscript, but you need to know what happened within the timeline, and when, in order to be really clear when you’re telling the story. You can write the manuscript out of order, and you can tell the story with flashbacks or in a different order, but you need to have the underlying chronology securely in place so that your writing makes sense and so that you don’t confuse yourself or the readers in the process.  

Preceding and Tangential Events

These don’t need to be in the novel itself, but it may be important to define the sequence of events that also led up to the moment where we pick up your story, and what is happening elsewhere so that you can be sure of these too. In my case, I defined the events that concerned one of the supporting characters’ lives so that I knew how and why they were at the point they are in the story. It relates directly to - and heavily influences - the events of the novel, so I needed to have this person’s history nailed down as well, even though I don't tell it all explicitly in the book (because that would be unnecessary and a bit dull).  

Basic Premise, Plot Definition, and Sub-Plot Ideas (plus writing a synopsis)

Alicia Lidwina defined the story premise helpfully with the following formula:

Story Premise = Main Character + Desire + Obstacle

Pick a different colour for each of these components, and write a short paragraph to explain them in the context of the novel. Alicia Lidwina used the following:

[Main Character] “Harry, an orphan who didn’t know that he’s a wizard, [Desire] got invited into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and wanted to live his school life to its fullest, [Obstacle] but a certain Dark Lord who killed his parents is trying to rise into powers again and kill him in revenge.

Do this for your novel, and keep it really short.  

Plot Definition: This is even shorter than that! It’s a single sentence!! It’s most closely tied to the desire of the character, and lies at the heart of the story. It’s most likely a distilled version of the ‘what happens in the story’ from the Project Stats page, so check that to see what you wrote there.  

Sub Plot Ideas  

Five bullet points (no more) for things that are happening concurrently and which are related in some way to the main story. For me, Kae and Tomas are doing their research, so that’s the main theme, but beneath that there are a few other related incidents.

Writing a Synopsis - developed out of the points in this section, and includes:

Who the main character is

What the stakes are (the story premise is your guideline)

What the main plot line is

How the MC resolves the problem in the main plot line

How the book ends.

List of Locations  

Start with the main ones and add to it as you go on. Write a little bit of information about them so that you have something to refer back to. I also drew a big old map which I found very helpful and also really fun to do.

List of Scenes

It’s very important to map out every single scene that happens in the novel. Use your timeline to help with this, but remember a scene is not necessarily a chapter. You can have more than one scene within a chapter, but try not to have too many.  

I used small post-it notes (sticky notes) and wrote down things like “M joins K’s clan at the fire and K learns about magic” and “K studies at Citadel, intro to Citadel, magic, and characters” as separate scenes. Once you’ve written down everything that is going to happen (this will take some time! Get a drink and some snacks ready, and go slow), you can stick them into your notebook in the order you’d like to tell the story. Some chapters may have just one scene, while others may have two or three. I didn’t have more than two in any of my chapters, and actually ended up splitting some scenes that I’d made too vague in this section into more chapters. It doesn’t have to be set in stone, but it will form a road map.  

Additions and Notes:  

I left a section of the Scene Outline bit of the notebook blank for things to add in as I went along. I haven’t used it yet, but I might.  

Chapter Outline

I arranged the scenes into the chapters already by sticking them in order, but you could do a chapter outline separately after this. It’s up to you. 

NaNoWriMo plan:  

I did this back in October, and wrote down the main goal for nanoprep, which was to finish the background info. Breaking that down further, I listed - magic (how does it work exactly), geography, and politics. 

After that, it was just a case of writing the 1667 words a day. *spoilers, I got distracted and didn’t do NaNo this year* . What I should have done, was break it up into chunks and write down my goals so that I had something tangible to use as a road map, and I will be doing that now for the novel as I take it up again outside of NaNo. Having check boxes and manageable goals really works for me. Find what will work for you, and if it turns out not to, adapt!

Some final pointers and tips:

Set regular goals for yourself. Whether you work by saying ‘I’ll write 1000 words a day’ or ‘I’ll write something every day’, make a structure for yourself. If you slip and miss a day, week, or month (I didn’t meet NaNo this year because I chose to work on another project instead *slaps forehead*), don’t beat yourself up. Writing is a craft and it takes a long time and a lot of discipline to master a craft.  

Your first draft does not have to be good. At all. Your first draft is just words on paper. A first draft is the block of marble taken from the quarry, and subsequent edits and reworking is the process of carving the sculpture itself. The editing that is done by the publisher or the professional you employ to edit it for you later, is the final polishing. Don’t be demoralised if the block of marble seems very rough when it first lands in your studio. That’s ok!  

Take regular breaks. Writing is hard work, and most people can’t concentrate on something successfully for longer than 55 min's, and if you’re doing that, you’re already doing really well. Personally, I’m at 15-20 on a good day. Write in little sprints of ten minutes or so, and then get up and stretch, look out the window, maybe leave the room, come back in with a fresh approach.  

Stretch your hands, and wear wrist braces when you work. Seriously. I gave myself tendinitis on my first major project, and couldn’t use either hand properly for weeks. The ones I have are these, and they allow me to work safely for much longer.  

Keep hydrated. Have a bottle of water on the desk in front of you between your arms as you type and sip it, otherwise you’ll forget. 2 litres a day is usually recommended, but know your body and drink accordingly.  

Treat yourself. Whether that’s something as simple as a decadent hot chocolate after your first chapter/chunk/sprint is done, or a new notebook or a pen or that sticker set you wanted on Etsy or literally anything nice, reward yourself for the hard work you’ve put in, with tangible things you can look at or experience and say ‘I have that because I did the work’. It’ll help with your sense of achievement, especially if the project is a long one.  

Join a local writer’s group for feedback. With the current Covid-19 chaos, this is probably not possible right now, but getting constructive feedback on your work from someone who hasn’t been cocooned in the project in the way you are, but who respects you as a writer and wants to help you grow, will be invaluable. It’s too easy to exist in a little isolated bubble and think you’re doing ok, when in reality you could be creating bad habits which will be difficult to break later. By these, I mean things like ‘filler words’ you don’t realise you use, or other pit-falls it’s easy to tumble into when you can’t see the wood for the trees…It’s intimidating, and it might take some courage to work up and do, but I promise it’ll help you grow. You don’t have to do what the people suggest, but it’s great to get outside opinions all the same.

Submit work to writing competitions. This will help with showing agents and publishers later down the line that you’re not only committed, but hopefully talented, and will help you to push yourself. Use the world of your novel for the setting, and get to know it by writing short stories on the competition’s theme set there.  

Read. Read the writers you admire, and read them ‘actively’ - figure out exactly what it is about ‘that’ sentence that made you shiver, and use the same techniques in your own work (don’t plagiarise, obviously, but if it was alliteration that made the sentence work so well, use it yourself! Perhaps it was the metre of the line? Great, now you know a rhythm that will drive a sentence forward or slow it down etc.)

Enjoy it. If you’re not enjoying what you’re doing, it’ll show in the work. Take a step back if you start floundering, and ‘interview’ yourself about why it’s not fun any more. Refer back to the sections in the notebook that helped to clarify the plot/process, and see if you’ve wandered away from them. Make yourself answer questions like: ‘What is the main reason I don’t want to do this?’ ‘What is the character’s motivation?’ ‘Should I scrap this section?’ (don’t delete it, but cut and paste it into another ‘scraps’ document, and then start afresh from the last place you were happy with. Nothing is wasted - it all goes into building the world and getting to know the characters, even if it doesn’t get explicitly told in the finished product, so don’t be afraid to do that last bit).  

Good luck!

I hope you found this helpful, and if you have any questions or things you’d like to add to this, please feel free to send me an ask here on Tumblr.

If you’re a new writer hoping to get an agent or publisher, you might also find this post on ‘talking to a published author’ helpful or interesting.

If you would like to keep up to date with my own novel’s progress, you can follow me here on Tumblr, as well as on my writing Instagram @rnpeacock

[icarusbuck]

12-20 for the asks <3

12. do you ever have trouble focusing on writing? how do you get around that?

hi. i'm griffin. i haven't posted anything fic-wise since may. YES i have trouble focusing on writing,

once i actually get down to it i'm there, i'm in it. it's the getting there that's hard. i have a note on my phone that is just... all these lightbulb-esque, hare-brained ideas i've had for tkt over the months. i wish i had a method for getting around it but i literally have to trick my brain into doing it atm <3

13. talk about a writing experience that has pleasantly surprised you.

truly can't believe i'm like 60k published into a fic. i think before this my longest fic was around 40? and tkt will probably end up between 85-100k, when i only ever planned it to be around 50.

14. what’s your worst writing habit?

oh i get into the editing loop So Easily. i have a solid chunk outlined but not Written and every time i think about picking up where i left off i feel the urgent desire to edit the previous 15 chapters first. i have them in a separate folder so they are out of sight out of mind.

15. where do you share your writing?

ao3, mostly. if it's short i sometimes only share it here. plenty of times i have ideas i don't wanna write but i outline them in dms or a small server.

16. where is your favorite place to write?

genuinely, from my bed. my computer is uncomfortable to write at and idk why, so if i'm just outlining and don't need to edit? i write from my phone.

17. what is your favorite line you’ve ever written?

well. that's hard for two reasons. one, i've written a lot. two, i don't remember half the shit i've written. <3 honest answer is probably the dialogue i came up with for [redacted].

18. what is your most and least favorite part of writing?

obsessing over writing a scene in a way that it translates exactly the way i pictured it. my 'outlines' are more akin to a rough draft, where i just put down exactly what is playing out in my head. it's usually messy and/or plain, and goes through three total stages before i post it. if i could somehow knock out one of those middle stages, i'd be golden...

19. what are some books or authors that influenced your style the most?

hmmm. considering i didn't get back into reading until recently, i don't know? probably a bunch of fanfic writers, people whose style i tried and sometimes failed to emulate but wound up finding my own voice. it also deeply depends on what i'm writing.

i don't think i've ever written anything as detailed as i write for king's tide, and that's because i'm pretty sure most of the people reading it have zero sailing experience (me neither, tbf, but i've done bucketloads of research. i know if i'm introducing a new concept i should do it in eddie's pov, so a more experienced character can explain it (usually buck lmao).

compared to like... random oneshots, the pov is usually about which one will have more impact. or which character i want the viewer to 'see', which i also do in king's tide where i can. for example, the scene where buck has a spear laid across his shoulders with his arms hanging from it? that was purely me thinking about buck in that pose and saying to myself, 'yes. i can make that happen.'

20. what is your favorite trope to write?

hmmm. i don't know if i've written enough things to have one tbfh. i kinda just write what i like. does alternate universe count? i almost can't watch a movie or tv show without saying 'ok how can i make this about 911'

send me asks about fanfic

[botwstoriesandsuch]

Whats your method for transcribing music from BotW? And, while I'm at it, whats your method for composing?

oh?? Oh??? OH??? Questions about music? Questions about composing for Kip?? You know not what waters you have just unleashed. 

Ok so for the first question, I just transcribe based on the internet, and just by listening to the soundtrack by ear. I kinda just stitch together the melody based on sheet music on musescore, and covers on youtube, and I just kinda see how those versions are composed and then based on that I craft how I want the music to sound on my own version. 

I have this decade old Yamaha DGX640 keyboard that only has five song slots so the most I can(know how to) do is record one two-handed harmony and use my phone to record me playing the melody on top of that. But it’s kinda tedious and the botw songs are usually easy enough to play with just two hands anyhow so I really only use that method when I wanna be fancy. I have a habit of just using left to play arpeggios and by then the music usually sounds full enough. (cough cough that Rito Village one cough cough) So yeah it’s basically a method of studying the basic material online and then making up and crafting whatever stuff sounds nice around it

As for the original comps, well they’re all usually based on some botw concept (as I’m guessing most of the ones you’ve all seen are just the oc themes lol) so I do one of two methods. The first method is I take the key signature of a botw melody that is related to the thing I’m composing for, then I fuck around on a keyboard until I have a melody I think sounds cool. USUALLY I make it on a typical build to coda/climax thing, but the example I’m using is an exception (cause it was my first draft and all I did was repeat the first half with additional harmony)

Ok so I take the key signature, I craft my original part of the music, and then based on the “story” I want to tell, I fuse in a bit of the botw bits within “lows” of the song. So in Zimiri’s Theme for example, I had this certain segment of Kass’ Theme that I liked, so I started based on that key signature. Then I just completely forget about botw while I compose the parts for my character. So Zimiri is a Sheikah poet for the royal family, and also a bard, so I made his theme in 3 to give it that waltz feel. The Eflat key has that...idk the technical term, but it just has that vibe of kindness and serenity and wisdom which is what I’m going for in his character. Now, Zimiri also has a crush on Zelda, but he knows that’s unrequited and he’s mostly ok with that, but that doesn’t stop him from at least dreaming of some unreality where he could dance with her under the stars (uh fic spoilers I guesss). Hence, his main melody, (0:10) the half note Eflat to D to Bflat, is of the same beat pattern of Zelda’s lullaby. And then, uh character arc spoilers! The story I’ve constructed for Zimiri is basically this idea that he comes to understand this battle between what he wants and what he knows he needs to do. He has a harmless crush on Zelda, but he knows he needs to respect her and do what he can as her friend during these rough times. [I mention Zelda a lot but I swear that’s only like 7% of his character] He recognizes that Adello and Revali and a bit of Link, they all want to [REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED] but he tries to push them to be more [REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED], even if that isn’t always successful. He’s mostly a static character, that recognizes what other people want, but wants to help them be better through what they need, which is an ironic trait since it’s a bit contradictory to his whimsical and almost naive cinnamon bun personality as a bard. But that’s like his main thing, you see like, he wants nothing more than to be the hero of the story and to wield a sword and save everyone, and while its OK to dream that, he still is content and fills his role as support, as the “harmony,” the background to the melody if you will. So THAT is why, the song is crafted where it’s grounded into his main melody, those three notes, the halfnote Eflat, to D to Bflat, and while the song ascends and seems to dance in the stars and the harmony (wink wink parallels) rises and becomes more prominent over the course of the song, it ultimately always Always comes back down to those three main notes. It’s like a dream that will eventually fade back into reality. The whole song is an ascension to those higher, magical notes in the “stars,” that comes back down to the essentials of Zimiri, those three main notes, that as said before, are similar to Zelda’s Lullaby, but is purposefully, a full descension in the scale, it doesn’t rise. 

Ok and then Finally, finally finally finally, we come back to that botw aspect. Like all of that, is just the original stuff and the thought that goes into where the notes go and how the stuff moves and plays out, it’s basically like planning a fic outline or something. But anyhow, this idea that I’ve been crafting for Zimiri’s theme, this concept that he understands that even though he might not be the one to save the world or see the fantastical end to the story, this whole ascension and descending thing, with the higher parts being a the stars that aren’t yet in your reach or the dreams that are not yet reality and all that sap? Right so now that’s when we can put a bit of Kass’ Theme into those higher parts. 0:33 and 1:07 are just bits of Kass’ Theme slowed down, specifically, the parts in Kass’ Final Song the time and sacrifice aspects of the legend. “Now resurrected after 10,000 years//Her appointed knight//Gives his life//Shields her figure and pays the price.” You could probably hear the “10,000 year” part most prominently. So one, the botw aspect serves to the themes that I’m going for in this character, and two, it serves as that connection between Zimiri and his eventually successor, a successor who would live out to see a dream that he couldn’t wooAAAoooh parallels. And even still, the segment that I’ve drawn out of Kass’ Theme still descends (seamlessly I might add, if to toot the horn a bit) into Zimiri’s core 3 note theme. So while I’ve written the piece to pick up at those whimsical parts, and to foreshadow and encompass the journey I have planned for this character, I’ve ultimately grounded the music itself to a specific scene that I have written, (and not yet posted I need to finish some other things) where Zimiri playing music to himself under the stars, the melody on his lute serving only to keep the sky company. 

OH RIGHT and I said I had a second method for composing stuff didn’t I ahaha...this post it already way too long and full of uneditted rambling so maybe I’ll gush about that some other time :p