#why write when i can outline

[vacantgodling]

i wish i could talk to people about this outline ugh

[total-drama-brainrot]

TD World Tour Alenoah AU... Where Noah is immune to Alejandro's fake charm... Instead, Noah gets charmed by the true Alejandro's quirks and dorky interests like dinosaurs and puppets... How would Alejandro feel about Noah only liking Alejandro, when Alejandro is being himself?... Especially since Alejandro's family shuns him for being himself? 🦕🦖🦕

Now you're speaking my language.

One of the most common running themes in all/near enough all Alenoah central AUs is having Noah be the first person to see past Alejandro's persona and actually appreciate the person he is, or at the very least prefer the real Alejandro to his mask of perfection. It's one of the draws of the ship itself; the idea that Noah, being the blunt person that he is, can and will wage a war of attrition against the walls Alejandro has built up around himself- not just to keep others out, but also to repress the more authentic aspects of himself to himself- in order to reveal the person beneath.

I touched on this a little bit in a previous post concerning this AU, but Alejandro and Noah both see glimpses of the other that they try so valiantly to hide- in Noah's case, Alejandro sees hints of the scheming mindset he's pretty much supressed under layers of apathy and sloth (as Noah's laziness is one of his biggest character foils, alongside his snarky attitude), and in Alejandro's case he reveals tid bits of information about the Real Alejandro, not the persona he's usually portraying himself as, which is enough to humanise him in Noah's eyes.

They both become People Of Interest in each other's eyes, because they're both puzzles to be solved. Alejandro's curious and competitive to a fault so he'd dedicate himself to unravelling the layers behind Noah's stony exterior, as he'd see Noah's continued distance as a challenge. That's a given. But the topic at hand here is Noah's interest in Alejandro.

Because Noah's not exactly competitive, so why would he be so interested in unveiling the real Alejandro? That's simple; Noah values authenticity. Look at his friendship group, it consists of people who are unapologetically themselves. Noah is also unapologetically himself, in all of his sarcastic glory. So of course he's see flickers of the real, authentic Alejandro and his natural inquisitiveness would be piqued- a novelty for him, as Noah's staunch apathy generally tends to override any semblance of curiosity.

So Noah goes out of his way to make notes of the small interests Alejandro offhandedly mentions at one point or another, like palaeontology or puppetry or even his fifteen-step skincare routine- things that Alejandro shows genuine excitement or passion over that shines through the cracks of his perfect persona. He sees the dorky giddiness Alejandro experiences when Noah lets him ramble on about how Jurassic Park was incredibly inaccurate from a scientific standpoint but monumental for people's interest in palaeontology (or something along those lines, I don't know I'm not a dinosaur nerd) and suddenly the annoyingly flirtatious faker he's spent the better half of his time on the jet is A Whole Ass Person with interests and passions and a sense of depth he's been so bereft of until now. Suddenly Alejandro's more than just the antagonist of the show Noah's working on, he's an interesting person that the bookworm finds himself wanting to know more about. And, perhaps, he finds himself growing genuinely fond of the person behind the mask.

And he uses those notes to prompt Alejandro into sharing more of himself, the real authentic Alejandro, in the privacy of their interactions.

At first, Alejandro's fairly oblivious to what Noah's doing, since he's so caught up in his own enjoyment of Noah's company plans to essentially do the same to Noah that he barely notices his own tricks being used against him.

Of course, he's also just elated at being able to infodump to someone who isn't outright penalising him for doing so; not that I think Alejandro is even aware that what he's doing is infodumping, nor the fact that he's so obviously autistic, because his family is a particular brand of awful that would never let him get a proper diagnoses and in all likelihood forced him to mask/supress his symptoms.

It isn't until Alejandro realises that he's shared a lot of information about himself that he (as a Burromuerto) is expected to keep close to his chest, and he sees the glimmers of satisfaction in Noah's intelligent eyes, that the archvillain catches on to the fact that he's been played. But the thing that really catches him off-guard isn't the trickery, it's the fact that Noah's done nothing with the uncharacteristic displays of vulnerability.

Alejandro can't understand why Noah hasn't taken advantage of his "weakness" yet. Inevitably leading to him confronting the assistant, as Alejandro isn't the type to "let sleeping dogs lie" so to speak, and he's still very much so in the one-track mindset of winning the competition- thus he assumes that any show of vulnerability can and will lead to his untimely elimination. But when he practically demands that Noah reveal what he's been planning, why he's been sneakily collecting information on him, all Noah can do is shrug his shoulders and say;

"I guess I just like seeing the real you. That's all."

And Alejandro doesn't know how to respond to that. No one's ever wanted the real him, he's always had to play the role of the perfect son, the perfect brother. He doesn't understand.

And like most people when they're faced with a foreign concept they have no basis of behaviour for, he lashes out.

[writeouswriter]

I think the best love story is the one that’s not trying to be a love story, it just is

[mashamorevvna]

hi babe im here to ask about “it would not be i any longer (it would be we, it would be us)” i love this so much, can you talk about the decision to make this a second person pov?

(grouping these two asks together @anderstrevelyan and thank you so much for asking about my babygirl my silly little rabbit minthara de winter 🥹🥹🥹)

the first kernel of inspiration came in december and the idea was to explore the destabilized alliance of the dead three's chosen through the pov of an outsider, and specifically to try and explore the reason why orin, who before then seemingly never wanted a sidekick (she killed her butler right as he presented himself to her!), post-durge assasination felt the (emotional?) need to have someone brainwashed to worship her.

as for the second-person pov it was a mix-mash of thinking about the way rebecca uses the first person to de-personalize mrs de winter (in juxtaposition to rebecca, who for obvious reasons, is always talked about in the third person but who is still a more 'tangible' presence); and the way the fifth season by n.k. jemisin (i mention the first book bc later the reason for the 2nd pov gets reframed a little bit) uses the 2nd pov to depict this woman's fragmented post-trauma experience and dissociation. mostly bc in my experience 2nd pov is the closest thing you can use to achieve a dissociated state just by playing with form alone, and specifically in the context of bg3 it seemed plausible that a person not insulated from the absolute thanks to the artifact would 'remember' that mind-control as an out-of-body experience.

an added-layer to the 2nd pov that i enjoyed was the durge-piloting-minthara angle. so essentially a tadpole-mind link being created between the two due minthara's traumatic tadpoling and proximity. and durge 'narrating' the whole experience for you (minthara). but idk if this makes as much sense as the rest <3 but it was a lot of fun to me as an added bonus. this also inspired by 2nd pov use in the stone sky by n.k. jemisin

[six-demon-bag]

microdosing posting fic by announcing random writing shit on here and hoping no one sees it

[dallonwrites]

did not write as much as i liked today but i made the playlist for the nanowrimo 2023 project that has a specific order to reflect the tones of the story and that's the closest i get to outlining before a draft so

[homosexual-fanfiction]

hmm... i dont want to lock myself in to super long chapters but the need to swap around the chapter breaks to up the drama is so strong

[hawnks]

in all ways except physically, i am here

[savage-rhi]

🌚

[iwantyoursexmp3]

pantsing has to be my least fave writing term ever WHY is that the popular term for "writing without an outline". it literally tells you NOTHING about what that kind of writing process entails !!! no wonder some writers and self proclaimed teachers of writing have such an obtuse take on "plotting" vs "pantsing"

[mechawaka]

helloooo i hope you're doing well!! i just got back into gaming recently with fe3h and i've been so addicted! i came across your fanfic "daughter of divinity" and you write so eloquently--the descriptions are so vivid and the story is written so beautifully, i feel like i personally know all of the characters!! i know fe3h came out some time ago now and i wanted to ask if you will be finishing the fanfic 🥺 im dying to know what happens (and the felileth kiss!!) thank u and have a wonderful day!

oh hello! first of all welcome to fire emblem hell :D

yes, i will be finishing DoD! fair warning it may take a while, but i've made a solemn vow to finish it!!

thank you for reading and being so kind, it's really encouraging that people still enjoy it after all this time c:

in the interim, might i suggest Ribelle's artwork? she's still keeping all us hungry felileths well fed

[ethereal-maia]

writing is sooo fun you get to be so so merciless with the characters you have

[amethysttribble]

It continues to stress me out when I’m reminded that like... /a lot/ of people don’t outline their stories. Like, of course, everyone’s creative process is different and no one is better than the other

but also- on an emotional level- I’m just like... guys T_T outline good and fun

[aria0fgold]

Whoooaaaa! Life gotten bit hectic again but like not events but more like just me. Was feeling melancholic??? like, bit down in the dumps lately but I’m feeling better now! :D And then I had my wisdom tooth removed yesterday! Ngl tho I didn’t realize it was my wisdom tooth up until the dentist said it cuz I always referred to it as the tooth at the very end. For smth called a wisdom tooth, it sure dont grow out wisely.

Been practicing writing again too! But more like, practicing planning. I at first wanted to continue a lil personal story about my OC, Alec and while expanding more on smth I realized a lot of loopholes everywhere in his overall story and ngl, doing a self-test style where I create questions for me to answer helped a lot in finding those loopholes.

Cuz like, I’m the type of writer that goes with the flow and worry bout things later which is honestly not that good as planning goes. I’ve tried like other ways of outlining that I’ve searched up but nothing worked out and now I finally found one that does! So I’m thinking of doing that same technique with my fics too cuz there’s a lot I need to connect with everything and it can also help me with figuring out where to go next!

[mourntheantagonist]

daydreaming about the fic: 😁

outlining the fic: 😃

actually writing the fic: 😕

[cheswirls]

sits down to write fic and writes 3k of notes for it instead, spends two separate hrs in the middle of it dwelling on pointless things, there were 8k notes prev so i def added almost half that amnt, have not written a single thing even tho i set down at 8p to write a scene and made a conscious decision to do this instead of starting laundry between 8 and 9 (laundromat closes at ten), it is three am currently,,,,,,