#writing talk

[desired-misery]

HELL FUCKIN' YEAH!!! THAT'S THE GOOD SHIT!

Me when a character starts experiencing an agonizingly, Horrifically, painful transformation :

[the-one-who-lambs]

This is a super super gentle reminder not to put your favorite authors on a pedestal. We're real people living average lives and not trying to be influencers. We criticize ourselves enough and we don't want to be held to an invisible standard (we start to worry we fail to exceed our own selves) or compared to other writers (we are not competing) or tailor our craft to cater to a wider audience (the right people will find you).

[must-be-mr-boggins]

Question: what is the best fanfiction you’ve ever read? Can be any fandom and any site. I wanna know which fanfic genuinely changed the trajectory of your life.

(I’m in the middle of writing a proposal to the English department at my uni to let me design a course based around analyzing fanfiction as a legitimate literary genre, and I’d love to hear from everyone!)

[the-modern-typewriter]

How do you write something longer than a short story? I can write 50,000 words of short stories, but the moment I begin drafting out a novel it seems an insurmountable task!

The most important thing:

A lot of writers don't plot an entire novel in their head at the start. Some do, but many don't. Novel writing is a marathon not a sprint. If drafting the entire novel is insurmountable, then you can just not plan it out.

Focus on one foot after the other. 500 words. 1000 words. 2000 words. Hell, 100 words! Whatever! The point is that you chip away at the thing, you don't sit down and write the whole thing all in one go.

Structure tips:

Some short stories follow a similar structure as a novel, but many don't, so if you are used to short stories than it's worth having a quick look at how novels are actually structured.

If you haven't already looked at overall story structure, then having some idea of common story structure can help you with organising your thoughts and deciding where things loosely go. This is not something that you must rigidly stick to, but it can help you wrestle the overall shape of a novel in your head.

You could also try plotting each chapter almost as it's own short story, with a beginning, middle and end. E.g. the character has the overarching plot goals sure, but in each chapter there is an event, or conflict, or smaller goal of some sort. If doing that for a chapter is too much, you could also plan acts this way. This can help chunk the novel and make it more manageable, because you're not focused on the novel, you're focused on the chapter.

If you have no problem writing the words in volume, then the problem might be that you're not sure how to turn a short story/idea into a novel. I don't know you, so just guessing here, as it's a common thing to struggle with.

Themes/What is the story about?

If you know what you want to write about, consider a mind map with that idea in the centre. Your offshoots are everything that could serve that idea.

As you write, you will not use all of these, because some will make more sense than others. But having all of these possible events/ways that your story could manifest will help you decide what happens and help make sure it feels coherent to a larger idea.

Key ways to bulk a story

Unlike a short story, a novel requires a certain amount of meat to fill the word count. You need an idea you can sink your teeth into, not padding. Here are some ways to do this:

Dig deeper into your characters. What do they want? What do they need?

Add a subplot or subplots.

Add more characters than your short story.

Example of turning a short story to a novel

There are some different ways to achieve this. I'm going to walk you through how I would do it, in case this is helpful.

Here is an example, using my short story The Blue Key. It is a simple short story inspired by the Bluebeard myth. The idea as it is works for a short story. Obviously, this will include spoilers, so if you want to read the story, do so before continuing.

If I was going to make it into a novel I could/would:

Keep the same overall structure, but flesh out the characters and their relationship more.

For example, I could show them falling in love with each other through the flashbacks, or linger more on the protagonist getting used to her new home. The reader will explore this fantastically huge house with her and learn more about her at the same time. Maybe we explore her insecurities about comparing to his previous wife as he meets more of his friends/immerses herself in his world. We will see the strain more then as the key becomes more and more of an issue.

What is behind the door?

The Blue Key at the moment would not work entirely as a novel. The idea and especially the ending would need tweaking. However, we can continue to explore the same themes as in the short story and expand them.

Previous wife?/E.g. The classic Bluebeard ending

Gateway to a nightmare world?

Some monster/minotaur in the centre of the house that will be released if she opens the door?

A darker version of the husband? A part of him that he has locked away?

I could either have her open the door in the midpoint or at the beginning of the third act. Depending on what is behind the door, the last 25% of the story will play out differently. I'd also write the husband accordingly to drop hints etc. throughout the first half of the story.

Is the house haunted? This changes how the rest of the novel and the protagonist's exploration goes.

(So the non story-specific takeaway here is decide what your original short story was trying to say, and then think how you can expand that.)

Add a subplot/add characters

Possible subplots to explore our themes could include:

The mystery of what happened to the first wife/could include her POV to compare and contrast with the second wife. This could drill more into the idea of not knowing which genre you are in/the inevitability of the fairytale wife and their role.

Maybe the second wife hid letters around the house for the second wife to find.

Maybe the housekeeper or another character key in the husband's life does not like the new wife, a la Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier (one of my inspirations for The Blue Key). How does this impact the relationship between the couple? How does the protagonist overcome this? How does this tie into the story themes? E.g. if a housekeeper, does she also have a key?

What does the protagonist want to escape in herself that she can't to mirror or foil the key/room/her husband?

I hope this helps. A novel is a bit like a long game of 'and then what? What interests me here? What does a character do? Okay, what problem does that cause? How do they fix the problem? Does their attempt to fix the problem work? Does it cause another problem?

[youcouldmakealife]

(Still) Always in Tandem

Finish it first.

Then come back.

As I write this, there is a shitshow of such epic proportions unfolding (everyone reading this today knows exactly what I’m talking about, but everyone reading this in the future will likely cynically go ‘which one?’) that it feels a little self-indulgent, earnestly talking about my little world to my readers when shit of this level of seriousness is going down.

But I also know that right now, the last thing anyone wants is to think about any of this, and catharsis is so necessary right now. When everything in the world is heartbreaking, it’s kind of comforting to cry over a quiet little tragedy that’s unfolded over the past seven years.

Except Still Always in Tandem isn’t actually a tragedy. But Always in Tandem was — from the very beginning, we know that that one day Robbie will hate Georgie’s guts, and they’ll both agree Georgie deserves it. Every single moment of sweetness in that story is shadowed by the bitterness to come — every part of Robbie’s narrative is dripping with it, bitterness and the disgust he feels toward his past self for not having that knowledge at the time, for falling for Georgie’s facade (we will be getting back to this, believe me).

BAIT is, indisputably, a tragedy, but the tragedy lives at the centre of it, rather than at the end. Tragedy's both the end of one story and the beginning of the other — the tragic romance replaced by a tragedy of another sort, a revenge story where, as it always must happen, the protagonist has to realize it isn’t worth it, that seeking revenge is just a way of prolonging your own suffering, of poisoning yourself and waiting for someone else to die.

Well. Usually they do die at the end, but this isn’t that kind of story.

Robbie has that realization at the end of BAIT in Saul’s office, but it isn’t until almost a decade later that he’s finally ready to let go of the anger, not only towards Georgie, but to that past Robbie Lombardi, for not being able to put the pieces together, for thinking that Georgie could have possibly valued him, and the past Robbie who took him back despite everything.

And then there’s Georgie, a tragedy in action, doomed to watch himself throw away everything he loves. Doomed to regain them in Washington, but warped now, almost unrecognisable, and so fucking angry at him. Georgie, who is paying penance, and has been this entire time.

Georgie, who isn't quite himself though the majority of his own series. Who isn't quite anyone. Georgie, who is always reflecting who he’s speaking to, showing what he believes they would like to see, a never-ending series of practiced smiles and small performances. Georgie doesn’t let himself display the reality of himself even in the narrative — Georgie floats through it, describing things the same dreamy, distant, matter-of-fact tone, whether he’s describing his wedding or breaking his foot or winning the Stanley Cup.

And then Georgie falls in love again, and it grows hard, over the years, to reconcile how he feels when he’s with Tessa (and Toby, later), and the way the world feels to him the rest of the time.

Because it hurts, that transition, like putting a cold limb in hot water. But Georgie’s kind of used to stoically enduring things at this point, and he’s set to remain on a path that, even as the years change, has a trapped, repetitive feeling to it, every day blurring together, everything feeling the same.

The faces around him change, as do the topics of conversation, the kids get bigger, but at the centre, there’s always Georgie — desperately sad Georgie, putting on one of his dozens of smiles as he spends another day pretending he’s living the happily ever after, but believing gut deep, that he’s living out a tragedy.

But he isn’t, at least not anymore. He just refuses to leave the aftermath.

It took — a long time. This one took me a long time. I think because, for a long stretch of time in the middle, I didn’t have the distance I needed, didn't have the perspective to finish the story, at least not yet. I needed to get further from it to be able to see where I was going again. It took me about as long to write as it took them to stop holding onto past griefs with both hands.

I’ve had to look back at a lot of my life over the past few years, re-framing memories with a new perspective. It’s exhausting, and often heartbreaking, looking at your past mistakes with the knowledge you have now, knowledge that would have helped you then, knowing you can’t change any of it now.

But you can stop judging your past self for not having the perspective you do now, can preemptively forgive yourself for not having the perspective your future self will. And you can change your mind. Holy shit, not to get political again, but I think this has somehow become a radical message in the past few years: you’re allowed to look at a situation differently than you did before, you’re allowed to change your opinion once new facts come out. You’re allowed to change your mind. You’re allowed to change.

Robbie in Hartford isn’t the Robbie in Boston, wide-eyed and living the dream, the Robbie in Washington, a cheerfully sardonic guy popular in the locker room, then bitter and caustic, numb and removed. He’s come so far from his first session with Saul, toward the end of BAIT, during the part that usually comes after the curtain closes on a tragedy, the part where the healing starts.

Georgie in Hartford isn't the Georgie in Boston, wide-eyed and living the dream. But he is the same Georgie he was in Washington, taking what he feels he deserves, even though he knows it’s hurting both of them, and hating himself for it. The same Georgie who doesn’t stop punishing himself even after Robbie does. Who wouldn’t even consider it a punishment, just ‘what he deserves’.

Georgie, who has everything he ever wanted: has the career he wants, two brilliant kids, a loving family, a solid friendship, the talented team that he’s a leader of, and knows just how grateful he should be for all of that. Georgie, who remains frozen in place even as everything changes around him, almost petrified.

Georgie, who is so fucking ashamed that even the good moments in his story hurt, because he’s so quick to remind himself just how little he deserves them.

Georgie, who feels like he got away with something, even as he continues to punish himself.

And then Robbie comes to town and, just like in Boston, in Washington, Georgie wakes up.

So that’s where we are right now. On the cusp. And that's where I’ll leave them for just a little while.

It won’t be too long — I’ve already started writing bits and pieces of it when I’m supposed to be writing literally anything else. Just long enough that I can start the final part of the trilogy with a little perspective about the second.

[princessfbi]

Kisses + 16 + Bucktommy if it sparks joy 🫶

16. Kisses Meant To Distract The Other Person From Whatever They Were Intently     Doing + Bucktommy

“Evan.”

Grunt. That was about all Tommy had gotten out of his boyfriend in the last three hours. Grunts and shrugs and an occasional huh that Tommy never quite knew if they were directed at what he said or at the disaster that had taken over their living room.

Their living room. A place Tommy had once avoided at all costs because every time he sat in it, he felt too big in a too small space that was way too empty. Now it was their living room because the last of Evan’s boxes had finally been delivered and all of their things were mixed in a chaotic mess that did things to Tommy’s heart he was too embarrassed to think about.

“Baby.” Tommy tried again.

Another grunt. There were days Tommy couldn’t get Buck to shut up about whatever hyper fixation his beautiful brain had latched onto and it was one of Tommy’s proudest moments when he realized Evan saw him as the person he was most excited to share those with.

But all Tommy was getting were grunts.

Buck blew out a breath between his lips that was too heavy and too stressed to be classified as a sigh.

Okay. That was enough.

Tommy was not going to let laundry of all things break his boyfriend. They were supposed to be in the honeymoon stages of living together. Bumping into each other in the morning because they were getting used to the new life they were sharing. Dinners warmed in the oven when their shifts went over. Sex in the kitchen because they could!

The mistake had been when Tommy had left Evan to organize their closet. Tommy hadn’t wanted Evan to feel like he was fitting himself in Tommy’s space. He wanted Evan to make the space a space that belonged to both of them.

Tommy hadn’t thought anything of it when he heard the washer and dryer started. But then lunch had passed and dinner had been delivered and the grunting had started when he found Evan surrounded by piles of laundry in the living room.

Tommy crossed the distance between them and tangled his fingers in the wild curls on top of Evan’s head. He tugged lightly, tipping his head back, and smiled at the way Evan’s eyes crossed as he stared up at him. Tommy waited until those eyes focused on him.

“Hi,” Tommy said, “It’s time for dinner.”

Buck grunted. “I’ll be right there. I just—”

Tommy tugged on his curls again even as Evan tried to curl back over the pile of t-shirts. He knew he caught Evan by surprise by the kiss but those were some of Tommy’s favorite kisses. The ones where Evan inhaled before he relaxed beneath the weight of Tommy’s lips, melting against him. Tommy let go of his curls to cup the back of his neck, sweeping his thumb across the soft skin behind his ear.

Evan didn’t even notice when Tommy took the t-shirt from his hands.

“Sorry,” Evan mumbled against his lips. “I didn’t want to mix anything up but then—”

Tommy kissed the apology away, their noses nuzzling against one another as he shook his head.

“I told you,” Tommy said as he bent down, “What’s mine is yours.”

Evan exhaled, that sweet smile of his making an appearance as he pressed into Tommy’s hand.

“Besides,” Tommy mused. “The idea of you in my clothes is kind of hot.”

Buck’s eyes lit up. “Oh really?”

Tommy hummed. “Oh yeah.”

Thankfully a pile of socks cushioned his back as Evan tackled him.

[tobyfoxmademeascaly]

Update on fic writing: Alphinaud Angsting over his lizardly condition is very funny upon remembering that the horrible beastly shape he intends to never take again if he can help it is This Fucking Thing

[marigoldbaker]

it is so honest to god fucked up and despicable that in order to write a multiple chapter epic fic project with intimately intertwining plot threads and romances, i have to like sit down and write it

[ghostlightfic]

working with isat swears is so funny by the way because ill be sitting there like ok so i have stars and moderately stronger stars above but i need something More. and then ill just come up with some bullshit and nobody can stop me

[phneltwrites]

Writing tag game!

thank u @tencrimes for the tag 💚

1.How many works do you have on AO3?

159. haha

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

1359725 (ok actually an aside about this. im pretty consistent it's about 250k a year give or take)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Right now just YR and adjacent

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

all of these are mdzs fics for wangxian

Love is More Than Telling Me You Want It: my structural inequality, yin imbalance cultivation magnum opus. 99k because I deleted 300 words so it wouldn't hit over 100. It's the first omegaverse fic I wrote and that was a learning curve and nothing I ever write will be this popular again and that's fine. Also an amazing moment in being like i have communicated my intent!!! when a lovely commenter was like hey are you familiar with this feminist theory of the abject and i waslike MY DUDE I AM LITERALLY BUILDING ON THAT YESSSS. anyway nerd moment

Yeah I Know How You Like It: telepathy sex. yes i did write this sort of out of spite because so many people were like haha lan wangji horny jail and then i was lke have you CONSIDERED that the false dichotomy between honourable and shameful desire is what caused lwj to initially reject wwx and live in a state of internal conflict and internalised hatred and only when he was able to be like no i want him and i love him and i respect him and i want to do these things to him was he able to actually love wwx and be loved in return. also. it's hot.

your persuasions: yeah big dick fic with all the programming jokes

the earthquake in the room: toast fic! what a... experience posting this fic was. anyway uni au engineer/literature student romance

wild for your skin: cnc pwp. glad it found its people

5. Do you respond to comments?

Yes! Barring some unforeseen circumstance. I know a lot of people don't and there's no one right way but it's important to me to try, i write fic because we're all in the space together and commenting and responding to comments is how I stitch the fabric of fandom

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I don't think I write angsty endings as a rule... also trying to answer these I keep going through my ao3 like i wrote that??? i have no memory of this place

maybe my Eleanor/Tahani from The Good Place fic which ends with them together (yay) but the situation is that they are still struggling with the loss of Chidi's memories and his love and also that they haven't fixed the afterlife.

NO WAIT it's the John Wick fic I wrote about Helen because it ends with her deciding she'll help John Wick get out of the life (I made her chief Operator in this fic) but WE know as readers that she dies later.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

mmm maybe my yr post-s3 fluff fic where they picnic by the lake and are full of joy and happiness

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I get so much more love on my fic than anything else. And a lot of people who were brave and wrote their first comments which can be super intimidating.

9. Do you write smut?

yeah :) i like to write holistic life fic

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

yes! I also write fusions. My craziest crossover was a Princess Bride one where I took Inigo and Fezzik across a bunch of fandoms including Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries and Pacific Rim

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Had them reposted on wattpad but no one's claimed them to be theirs as far as i know

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! oh hm looks like there's no easy way to see which ones have translations...

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes, twice! One beach volleyball pwp (the one time the beach volleyball was literal and not a metaphor) and one Leverage fic. Both experiences were totally different because the pwp we wrote together on voice chat, so that was simultaneous writing and the Leverage fic was done async, by drafting sections and then rewriting them and reorganising them.

yes, that's right. smut written on voice chat.

14. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

My avatar/pacific rim fusion... I love that fic, love the worldbuilding, lost my fandom love right before the last chunk of plot and haven't gone back. I dream of it though. They were finally gonna drift together.

15. What are your writing strengths?

I think my writing strengths are extended metaphors, smut, and. yeah i guess that's the set. Wait. Worldbuilding. i dunno. i don't think i have strengths...

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

My sentences are really short and that can make the writing choppy.

I'm also working on my pacing I like a fic that clips along but right now my fic can feel like being strapped to the top of a high speed train and I'd like a bit more breathe in there, but I'm not really sure how

17. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

this is such an odd question like sure? if it's fun? ok actually i DO have thoughts on this if the characters are already speaking that language and then words are sprinkled in I think that breaks immersion but also. do what you want. I do that myself with pet names sometimes. like sure i studied some philosophy of translation stuff but fundamentally i don't care i am here to make macrame.

18. First fandom you wrote for?

Leverage! The first fic i wrote is up on ao3 "The Offside Trap Job"

19. Favorite fic you’ve written?

I think it's falling til 4 a.m. which is my 90s Seattle radio host/barista wangxian au. I had a really specific vibe of longing and disconnect that I wanted to capture and I think I did. Also I did a lot of 90s research and got told it felt right so that felt nice. idk it's a really personal one despite it not being about my life. But sometimes you're far from the people that used to be your people but you can listen to them talking and it's the thinnest of lifelines.

tagging @in-amor-veritas @grounded-parasocial @gulliblelemon @malinowaj @caramelpenguin @bigalockwood @enjoythesilentworld

[inseparabiles]

So in a twist of events that fails to surprise the nation, Caracalla really wants to exercise his right to be a prissy princess by getting hard topped by Praetorian Daddy.

There are so many horribly inappropriate historical jokes that could be made about this situation that I am nevertheless choosing to ignore as I continue to write this scene, which in every sense is the model for how statesbusiness should always be handled.

Twenty pounds to find out what Geta's thinking about all of this as he sits there silently on the side cradling his sprained ankle. Twenty pounds that I'm offering to him because he's not letting me know.

Either he wants to join or he wants to quietly slip over the balcony banister and roll down the Palatine hillside. There's no real variety of option to this situation.

[the-one-who-lambs]

Oh I am having an EVENING. I just got back to school, spent the last 2 days amazingly productive and prepping for finals, and an hour ago I tested positive for COVID.

So then I had to email my students over the Learning Management App (which doesn't keep the formatting of the email site) that class is going be asynchronous tomorrow. At the end of the email, I tried to copy and paste my usual signature. I pasted and hit send too quickly for me to realize it did not copy.

This is an excerpt from the next chapter of the fanfic I am writing.

[rangersoup]

What’s Up Wednesday

Thanks for tagging me @guardian-angle22! I absolutely love the idea posting what we’re up to! I think it’s a great way to get to know eachother better and keep up with what’s going on eachother’s lives!

Atm I’m at work (boooooooooooo! Lame!) getting ready to clear from a hospital. And also mentally preparing myself for bad weather tonight 😬 possible severe thunderstorms/maybe tornadoes and a fuck ton of rain 🙄

But other more fun stuff I’ve got going on! I’m starting to make headway on Turn and Burn (the Carlos horse girl fic)! AND! AND! AND! I have F I N A L L Y put the pieces together for the Soup Coma fic I’ve been planning! IVE CONNECTED THE DOTS GUYS!!!! They came to me in a vision while I was driving the wee woo wagon 😌

And other exciting news, I picked up the lease on a new horse that I think will be super fun to ride and do stuff with. And I think he’ll also be a little bit of project, and I think me having him will be good for both of us. They always say, you should always be learning from your horse and your horse should always be learning from you. I think we’ve got a lot to learn from eachother, so it’ll be fun. He’s gonna teach me patience cause good lord is he a dork… but he’s also an absolutely beautiful mover!

And yes that’s me on him.

Tagging: @lemonlyman-dotcom @tellmegoodbye @futures-tense @my-beloved-lakes @neversleepuntilfive @hail-hawk-eye @emsprovisions @thisbuildinghasfeelings !! Tell me what’s up with yall! And also OPEN TAG!

[the-modern-typewriter]

You know, I think one of the [many] reasons I struggle with writing smut is my general leaning towards gender neutral pronouns / trying to leave a character's physical description as vague as possible.

I might need to start committing to what body parts they have next time.

[youcouldmakealife]

Fic snippet, Fiona&Holden(/James); from the series that never was

So one of my favourite things is when characters twist out of my grasp and announce themselves to be something different than I initially thought they were. I absolutely love it. The moments I'm aware that I am not in control of the story are some of the very best ones as a writer, because I don't know what's coming, and that's exciting.

But it's also annoying as hell. Because everything I've written that comes next? Yeah, it's not canon anymore. Of all my series, Cards on the Table had the most material already written before I started to post the series, some of it occurring significantly later in the narrative, because Holden came easy, but James was proving recalcitrant, so I wrote a lot of scenes, mostly dialogue (dialogue almost always comes first for me), trying to get my finger on his pulse.

And not a bit of it is canon anymore, even though it's still the same Holden, and mostly the same James (I think the biggest pivot point was when I realized that at his core, James isn't driven by anger, as I originally thought. It looks like that on the surface, especially at the beginning of the series, but it's not anger, it's irritability from being constantly fucking overstimulated and exhausted. He's Fed Up. And okay, yes, angry, but that is a Holden Chase specific trigger he's responding to, not his general state of being.)

ANYWAY.

This scene was jossed a long time ago, but I held onto it, because some scenes you're just fond of. And I'm sharing it for the same reason.

I meant to post this after the 'Fiona knows' reveal but it completely slipped my brain until now.

This is completely AU, thanks to James pulling a Bryce on me, but in another universe, just slightly different, Fiona still makes sure her knowing is a mic drop moment.

(Context for the scene, he has told her he's been fucking a teammate, because he's the same as he was from the start, and so is his brain-to-mouth filter, but he hasn't identified who)

(Forgive me, this preamble is longer than the fic snippet)

“How long did we go out, exactly?” Holden asks.

Fiona’s quiet. “Uh,” she says. “Let me see, it was right before prom—“

Holden winces. She forgives, but she does not forget.

“Six months?” Fiona says. “Give or take?”

“Okay,” Holden says. Still his longest relationship, then. He’s got time.

“Share with the class?” Fiona says.

“Can’t,” Holden says.

“Oh, it’s mystery man,” Fiona says flatly.

“Sorry,” Holden says. He really would tell her if he could.

“Minnesotan Mystery Man,” Fiona says.

“Yeah, I—“ Holden says. “Wait, what?”

“Captain of the Whalers Mystery Man,” Fiona says.

They actually only have one Minnesotan, as far as Holden’s aware, so she made her point the first time, but he does appreciate the commitment to the bit.

“How’d you know?” Holden says.

“Babe,” Fiona says. “You are not a subtle person.”

“I think I’m very subtle,” Holden says, but he can’t even finish the sentence without laughing at himself.

“And you stopped complaining about Erickson right around the time you started fucking a teammate,” Fiona says.

“I still complain about him,” Holden protests. “Have you known this whole time?”

“Pretty much,” Fiona says.

“Well,” Holden says. “Fuck.”