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Sylvia Cooper - Chapter 4

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Daydreaming about my book:

Writing my book:

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Writing progress be like well I have a vague concept, the aesthetic, and two random scenes... No I didn't write them but I did imagine them so that counts.

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the urge to write is like a cat meowing for dear life for someone to open the goddamn door, who then shows utter disinterest in said open door

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how to go from daydream to draft:

begin by daydreaming as you normally do, or just after you've finished doing so. write down every thought you have. one after another. do not reread. do not stop for spelling mistakes. just dump out every thought. this is called stream of consciousness writing. you can do this for every scene you need a first draft for.

struggling to draft the scene? try to daydream about it. start thinking about how it would look, feel, what the characters would say, act it out in your head and then write out the stream of your thoughts as they arrive.

by now you have a few scene dumps. you may be tempted to go back and edit. do not do this expect for obvious spelling mistakes. do not read closely and start thinking "i need to rework this sentence." that is for later. now you're in the zone. draft more scenes. or work out what the next scene needs to be, scaffold it with a few comments. this will be the inspiration for your next deliberate thought stream that you will write out. repeat this process until you have the whole draft.

now that you have a draft or part of a draft you get to do this very fun thing called revise until you're happy. sweep through your draft with specific goals each time. one sweep to fix spelling/grammar. another for character voice. another for plot. repeat until you're happy with it.

leave it alone. just leave it for a bit. at least a few hours or days or even weeks. forget it exists. this will allow you come back with fresh eyes. then you can do your revisions with an eagle eye. now you may realize you need to add/remove scenes. you know how to get the first version down. close your eyes and daydream at your desk if that's what takes!

remember that fiction writing is persuasive writing. you are trying to persuade the reader to care about what happens next, the character's, the world, the feelings. as you're revising, consider whether you are persuaded. is the feeling/thoughts you wanted to provoke being felt by you when you read it? when working with beta readers, be sure to communicate what you're trying to convey so they can tell you if you've been successful or not.

this got a bit beyond getting the first draft done. hope you found it helpful.

bonus tip: check the spellings of names and places and other nouns that are not typically used, like the name of a magic tool!

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Sylvia Cooper - Chapter 3: Winding Down

Set years after the events of Honour Among Thieves, the next generation of the Cooper Gang works to uncover a worldwide conspiracy... and make some cash along the way.

The van pulled into the garage beneath a seemingly abandoned house on the west side of Paris. The headlights turned off just as a police cruiser drove past, causing Sylvia’s heart to skip a beat. The shutter closed over the entrance, hiding the gang away from prying eyes.

“I’d say that was a job well done, ladies,” she said as she got out. “Got a bit hairy at the end, but hey ho.”

“That was far too close, as usual,” Lily sighed as she exited the back. “I’m going upstairs to de-stress.”

“You do that,” said Sylvia. “Brooke and I’ll give the van a once-over.”

She started walking around the vehicle, looking at it closely. It was a sizeable van painted a dark mahogany, with the gang’s bronze winking raccoon symbol emblazoned on both sides. Blue hotrod flames burned from the engine grill along the bottom of each side of the body. Uncle Murray insisted on them, having said they’d make the van too hot to catch. He hadn’t been wrong so far.

She hopped onto the roof and checked the spoiler before adjusting the foglights at the front. She saw Brooke was leaning into the engine compartment. 

“How’re we looking?” she asked.

“A few dents,” Brooke answered, shutting the hood. “No real damage. Can buff it out easy.”

“Lovely,” said the raccoon before she hopped onto the floor. “I’ll go see how Lily’s doing.”

With that, she left the garage and walked upstairs to the hideout proper. It was an old, dimly lit place with the fleur-de-lis wallpaper peeling off the walls and the furniture being old and worn. The place seemed to be muggy no matter how much dusting went on. She was quite sure her bed was older than she was. Across the couch was a wall-mounted TV, which was easily one of the newest things this old place had seen in a long time. By the far wall was a large computer setup with multiple monitors, which Lily was sitting and typing away at. Uncle Bentley had gone to the trouble of giving the gang a state-of-the-art system, and Lily figured the least she could do was put it to good use. On an empty space on the floor was a large gym mat covered in weights and dumbbells, with a punching bag hanging from the ceiling. Uncle Murray had given Brooke his old workout gear, and she was certainly keeping herself busy with them. The many patches on the bag were proof of that.

If the rooftops were Sylvia’s home, the safehouse was her home away from home. After all, her dad’s gang used this very place in their hay day.

“How’s the hacking going?” she asked, lowering her hood.

“Whoever de Griffe’s contacts are, they’re smart,” said Lily, not taking her eyes off the monitors. “These names and accounts are all varied, but the amounts of cash being sent out and time gaps between them are all consistent.”

“Can you get anything from that?”

“Not on its own, but there’s bound to be a slip-up in here somewhere. All I need to find is one little crack.”

“Right, well, good luck with your crack.”

Lily glowered, imagining the grin on her friend’s face. “Not funny.”

Sylvia snickered and flopped onto the couch, sending a small cloud of dust into the air which prompted her to prop open the window behind it. Through it, she could see a large building with a pretty gaudy peacock façade dominating the front. Her dad told her it was once a nightclub that belonged to Dimitri Lousteau, a literal lounge lizard and a friend of the family. Back then, he was an art forger who used the nightclub as a front for his money counterfeiting operation, and Sylvia’s parents indirectly worked together to have him arrested and the nightclub shut down. A year or so after, Dimitri not only made up with her dad, but even joined his gang as their frogman for the Cooper Vault Job. After her dad retired, Dimitri took to treasure hunting in undersea wrecks for a living, and even used his funds to have his old nightclub converted into a superstore for his Greasy Sweet clothing line. By the sheer foot traffic Sylvia saw in and out of the place during the day, it seemed Dimitri knew a bit more about fashion than her dad might think.

She nestled down across the couch and fished her smartphone from her pouch. She had her mask’s Binocucom for communication and taking photos, but she needed something she could check social media and play games on during long stakeouts. She started by doing the former, and she smirked when she saw the local news was already abuzz about the police chase through town.

“Looks like we’re making headlines again,” she said as Brooke clumped up from the garage.

“Van’s ready to go,” the polar bear said curtly.

“Nice one, big girl,” said the raccoon. She scrolled through her social media timeline, until a post made her eyes bug out.

Looks like the #CooperGang robbed a bank. They sure know how to make a statement 🤔

Beneath the text was a photo of the front of Chat D’or Bank , with the neon sign having been changed to the gang’s winking raccoon face.

“Oh, no way!” she laughed, hopping back up and showing Brooke her phone. “Look at that!”

Brooke peered over, and the smallest smirk crossed her face. “Cool.”

The raccoon rushed over to Lily and pushed her phone into her face. “Was that you?!”

Lily peered over and grinned. “Thought it would send de Griffe a little message. Give him an idea of who he tried messing with.”

Sylvia’s tail wiggled giddily. “Oh, I can’t wait for him to see this!”

“You’ll have to, at least until I can find something in these bank statements,” said the rabbit. “This might take me a while.”

“Sounds like you need some brain food,” said Sylvia. “How’s pizza sound?”

Lily raised her eyebrow. “Pizza is brain food?”

“Helps you think, doesn’t it? Besides, I think we should celebrate a job well done.”

“I want tuna on mine,” said Brooke as she flopped down on the couch.

Lily rolled her eyes. “I’ll have a three cheese then. I put a back door into one of de Griffe’s bank accounts, so it’ll be his treat.”

“Alright!” Sylvia cheered. “Pizza party!”

---

A few hours passed, and the gang was digging into some well-earned pizza with the TV on. A late night news block was reporting on the bank heist, to Sylvia’s delight.

“While the Cooper Gang is an elusive, decades-old criminal group despite garishly advertising their presence,” the reporter said, “many experts have pointed out that their most high profile targets have been public figures revealed to have connections to, or have even been the cause of local criminal activity. Time will tell how this will affect the bank’s owner, entrepreneur and socialite Julien de Griffe, and his rumoured interest in the world of politics.”

“I forgot about that,” said Lily, one of her ears perked up as she kept her eyes on her monitors. “Apparently he wants to become Prime Minister.”

“The leader of a country having a shady background?” Sylvia gasped, sarcasm dripping from her mouth along with melted cheese. “Heaven forbid!”

“A crime lord becoming Prime Minister of France will mean trouble for all of us,” said Brooke.

“Well, once his dirty laundry gets out, we won’t have to worry about that.”

“We have to make sure it is dirty laundry first,” Lily pointed out. “The connections to the black market will be easy for him to cover.”

Sylvia peered over at the rabbit. “Any chance for an update, by the way?”

Lily flexed her fingers and rolled her wrists. “I’ve been at this for hours, and still nothing. Whoever’s masking de Griffe’s tracks, they’re good .”

“They’ve got nothing on you, Lil,” the raccoon assured her. “You’ll find something.”

Sylvia certainly hoped it would lead to a huge conspiracy for her to unravel. Then she’d feel like she’ll be worthy.

---

Julien de Griffe stared at the photo of his bank on his phone screen, and the winking raccoon face dominating the front. It was mocking him, and using his place of public business to do it. It took all his willpower to avoid crushing the phone in his grip.

He sat back in the leather seat and lifted a wine bottle from the ice bucket to pour a glass. His private jet was racing through the sky back to Paris, and he was bracing himself for the headache that was the paparazzi.

But first, he had a call to make.

He tapped on his phone to initiate a group call, and had it broadcast to the jet’s sound system. The room was completely soundproofed, so he had no need to worry about spies in the cockpit.

“Associates,” he began, “no doubt you have seen the news.”

“I know I did,” one voice said. “The Cooper Gang’s onto you, boss.”

“The symbol isn’t just a taunt,” said another voice, “it’s a warning . They’re making their move.”

“Yes, and sooner than I expected,” said de Griffe. “They will start targeting all of you to weaken me.”

“Relax, boss,” the first voice said. “They might’ve got our transaction details, but it’ll take them years to figure out my hidden encryptions. They’re not gonna touch us.”

“Still, we oughta be prepared,” a third voice advised. “If them Coopers’re as wily as they say, they’ll find their way to us before we know it.”

“My thoughts exactly,” agreed a fourth voice. “I will reinforce my defences. I suggest you all do the same.”

“I suggest you all take this quite seriously,” said de Griffe, his upper lip curling. “Remember, once my goal has been realised, I will have the power to fulfil my agreements to you all. But if I go down, I can just as easily take all of you with me.”

“No need for the threats, boss,” the first voice said. “You know we got your back.”

“Just reminding you of where you all stand,” said de Griffe before taking a sip of wine. “I will be back in Paris momentarily, and I will have a lot of cleaning up to do. I suggest the four of you make this as easy on us all as possible.”

“Gotcha, boss.”

“Worry not, Mr. de Griffe.”

“Ten-four.”

“Affirmative.”

The call ended, and de Griffe took another, larger swig from his glass.

Your parents could not stop me, Cooper, and I will make sure you are just as successful.

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When your characters just start revealing lore you didn't know about them, as you're writing them

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The Feral Writer lol

Writers Corner

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Some really odd observations about editing a whole ass novel.

Some things to keep in mind, I'm clocking about a chapter a week right now (out of 21 total- this number will flex as I edit, it already has)

You will still forget what happened in chapter 1 even if you read it only 3 weeks ago

It is very helpful to keep notes of what was changed in a chapter: e.g. I took out content but its referenced later, so I need to address this going forward. Vice versa - I added stuff, that may need to be removed from other places moving forward

Unlike with writing it is a very good idea to edit when you're in the mood to pick your WIP apart TO THE BONE LIKE A CROW ON A CORPSE ~ahem~

Sometimes I wonder why the FUCK I added that scene

Keep all extracted scenes in a seperate file listed by chapter so they can be re-consumed by the novel elsewhere (or for gratuitous one shots)

Screaming at an open WIP file doesn't get the job done but IS cathartic.

Scrivener is now apart of my soul thank you @inkovert

Formatting text is horse-shit no matter what app you're using

And that's all folks!!

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being a writer is so embarassing. i'm sitting on my bed, bopping to my music, kicking my feet, imagining scenarios. and i'm looking at internet pages about asbestos.

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"Can't wait to see where you take this story" well I can't wait to see where this story takes me either

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We're fanfic writers, we spend hours researching an incredibly niche topic we know nothing about so that we can have one sentence be factually correct

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Sylvia Cooper - Chapter 2: Sibling Rivalry

Set years after the events of Honour Among Thieves, the next generation of the Cooper Gang works to uncover a worldwide conspiracy... and make some cash along the way.

---

Inspector Spencer Cooper had his glare fixed on Sylvia. How many times had he crossed paths with his twin sister like this?

“As I expected,” he said, “only one person would be stupid enough to break into Julien de Griffe's bank.”

“You know me so well,” chirped Sylvia. “Though, I think you'd be interested in what we found in there. Could get you a promotion,” she added in a sing-song lilt.

“I'll take what you've found after I bring you in,” said Spencer.

“You'd arrest your own sister?” gasped Sylvia in mock horror. She stumbled back, clutching her chest. “Oh! Oh, there it goes. You've broken my heart, dear brother. My heart is shattered.”

“That will never be funny,” Spencer deadpanned, lowering his pistols.

Sylvia immediately dropped the act and looked at him with an unamused frown. “You used to have a sense of humour.”

“And you used to be less annoying.”

“Okay, that actually did hurt a little.”

Spencer sighed. “Look, can you just make this easy for me for once? I’ll see about getting you a reduced sentence.”

“I can’t let a cop catch me, bro,” said Sylvia with a shrug. “Cooper law.”

“Cooper law doesn’t outrank actual law.”

Sylvia rolled her eyes and opened her mouth to retort, before peering over her brother’s shoulder. “Oh, hey Dad.”

Spencer blinked and turned around, seeing no one behind him. “Dad? I don’t see–” he started, turning back around and seeing Sylvia sprinting across the rooftop. He snarled and gave chase.

Sylvia hopped onto the telephone wire and raced across it with a cheerful laugh. “When are you gonna stop falling for that?”

Her ears pricked up at the familiar sound of wailing sirens, and peering down to street level showed her a squad of police cruisers skidding to a halt in front of the bank.

“We’ve got cops closing in, Lil,” she warned into her earpiece. “Better change the rendezvous point.”

“Already hiding the van from their satellite,” said Lily. “I’ve had it pick up Brooke, so I’ll give you the new coordinates once the coast is clear.”

Sylvia looked over her shoulder and saw Spencer sprinting across the wire after her with just as much grace as her, and his firing shock bolts from his pistols caused her to jump up and swing below the cable to dodge them.

“Take your time,” she panted. “My brother wants to play Cops and Robbers.”

The two vaulted and sprinted across the rooftops. Sylvia raced across wires and leapt over alleys, her brother easily keeping in step close behind as he fired at her.

“Those rounds better be set to ‘stun’!” she yelled over her shoulder.

“They are, for now,” warned Spencer.

“Sylvia, we can’t get a safe rendezvous point!” yelped Lily in the raccoon’s ear. “The autodrive’s doing all it can, but we can’t shake these cops!” 

She peered down to the street and saw her gang’s van race along the road with police cars tearing after it.

“I’m heading toward the river,” she puffed. “Have the van head there!”

“Roger,” said Lily. “I’ve set a blip on the van so you can see us coming.”

Sylvia noticed a bronze arrow moving quickly along the streets below, projected via her Binocucom. “I see it. On my way.”

She sprinted and jumped, vaulting over generators and fences. Spencer stayed in pace behind her, holstering one of his pistols to use a free hand to keep up. They only stopped when they reached a rooftop where the gap was too wide to jump over thanks to the roads below. Sylvia turned to face her brother, who had her cornered between his pistols and a steep drop.

“It’s over, Sylvia,” he panted. “You’re coming with me.”

Sylvia raised her hands. The bronze blip was speeding her way. “Yeah, nah.”

“You’ve got nowhere else to run, and no other options.”

“A Cooper’s always got options. That means you too, bro. Why not sell that badge and join the fun good guys?”

“Because I want to arrest criminals, not be one.”

“de Griffe is a criminal! We’ve got proof! What do you think we were robbing his bank for?”

Her ears twitched as a thwap-thwap-thwap grew louder and louder above her, and she yelped and pulled her hood over her head when a spotlight beamed down on her.

“A helicopter?” she yelled over the noise. “A bit much, don’t you think?!”

“With you, there’s no such thing,” Spencer shouted back.

“Stay where you are!” a voice demanded through a megaphone. “You are under arrest!”

Sylvia furrowed her brow and twitched her finger. A small ball shot into her grip from her sleeve.

“Think fast!”

She threw the ball down at her feet, and a cloud of smoke exploded around her. While she was covered, she grabbed her cane and pointed it toward the helicopter. She pressed a button, and the hook shot out and gripped onto the skid, bound by a strong cable. She leaped off the edge of the roof and swung over the road. She watched the blip get closer, and pushed a button to release and retract the hook. She rolled backward in the air, clipping the cane to her belt and grabbing the sides of her coattails, spreading them out and straightening herself to start gliding. She looked over her shoulder and saw the helicopter’s spotlight desperately searching the rooftops near where she ‘vanished.’

Suckers.

She saw the bronze van swerve through traffic as it sped toward her, a small fleet of cop cars wailing their sirens behind it. Once close enough, she exited her glide and grabbed the spoiler with her cane. She pulled herself forward and, activated her shoes’ magnet soles, perched herself on the van’s roof as it continued its escape. She knocked the sunroof and slipped inside once it was open, landing in the back with Lily and her computer setup.

“How’re we looking?” Sylvia asked.

“Do you need to ask?” Lily scowled.

“Just making conversation.” She squeezed into the empty driver’s seat next to Brooke and disengaged the autodrive. “I think we’re gonna need a Burned Bridge to get away from these cops.”

“They haven’t found my backdoor into the city’s bridge controls,” Lily confirmed. “I’ll get us in.”

The three squinted when a bright spotlight shot down around the van.

“Chopper,” Brooke piped up, staring at the rear-view mirror.

“They wised up faster than usual,” Sylvia commented. “Lil, any chance you can get it off our tail?”

“Just keep the cars guessing,” said the rabbit as she frantically typed at her computer in the back. “I’ll take care of the helicopter.”

“Gotcha.” The van’s engine roared as Sylvia pressed down hard on the accelerator. She made a hard turn, nearly causing the rabbit and her equipment to topple over.

“Can you keep it steady?!”

“Can you let Brooke put a seatbelt back there?”

Horns blared as the van swerved and weaved through traffic, with the cops just inches behind them. The helicopter easily kept its pursuit.

“We'll never shake these cops as long as that chopper's on us,” Sylvia lamented.

“I'm working on it!” squeaked Lily.

“Hey, no pressure or anything.”

The spotlight suddenly fizzled out, leaving the van in relative darkness once more.

“Spotlight’s offline, camera's blinded,” Lily reported, “aaaaand nav system glitched out. They'll have no choice but to land.”

Indeed, the helicopter made a sudden swerve and disappeared over the rooftops.

“Nice one!” Sylvia grinned.

“Now for the cars,” Brooke reminded her, seeing the many cop cars in the mirror.

“Oh, that'll be a snap when we get to the river.”

The polar bear looked again. “We have another problem.”

Sylvia looked for herself and saw a new car speed ahead of the cruisers. A sleek red sports car, sporting its own flashing siren on the roof and a rather angry-looking grey fox in the driver's seat.

“Okay, yeah, that might be a problem.”

The van continued to speed through the streets, trying to outmanoeuvre the gang’s pursuers. While the quick twists and turns through traffic and narrow alleys were enough to lose the cops, Spender was following his sister on wheels just as well as he did on foot.

“Uncle Murray just had to give him driving lessons too,” Sylvia groaned.

She pulled out of an alley onto a main road, swerving around a bus that turned quick enough to block most of the street like a sudden blockade.

“That won’t stop him,” said Brooke.

“It’ll slow him down,” Sylvia replied. “Lil, you got the bridges ready?”

“Waiting on your go,” Lily confirmed.

The van turned onto a road with a straight shot toward one of the drawbridges linking one side of the Seine to the other. A smirk covered the raccoon’s muzzle as she eyed a button on the dash.

“Now!”

She slammed her fist onto the button and the gang was pushed back in their seats as the van suddenly picked up even more speed. Sparks of blue flame spat from the exhaust pipe. As it raced toward the bridge, she watched as it started to part upward from the middle.

“Hold onto your butts, ladies!”

The van ascended the parted bridge and shot into the air. While Sylvia and Lily screamed – Sylvia because she could only see rooftops, Lily because a van shouldn’t be any amount of height off the ground – Brooke disengaged the nitro and pushed another button, causing a large parachute to open from a compartment on the front half of the van’s roof. The sudden resistance caused the van to slow down and safely tilt back, landing on its back wheels on the road before folding itself back into the compartment.

Sylvia slowed the van down to a legal speed and looked between Brooke and Lily.

“That’s never going to get boring,” she said, panting.

“Or stop giving me heart palpitations,” Lily remarked, clutching her chest as she checked her equipment. “I propose we head to the safehouse A.S.A.P.”

“Agreed,” said Brooke.

Sylvia swallowed, her own heart slowing down as the adrenaline drained itself from her system. “Yeah, a drawbridge jump usually means the end of the night. Besides, we need to look through that data we got from de Griffe.”

With that, she planned an indirect route to the gang’s safehouse.

---

Spencer had stopped his car in front of the raised drawbridge, and after a good five minutes of staring, he still couldn’t believe what he’d just witnessed.

“And I thought Uncle Murray was an insane driver.”

When the shock wore off, he slumped back in his seat and ran a hand down his face. She’d gotten away again . She was embarrassing him, and he couldn’t help but start to think that it may have been intentional. For as long as he could remember, he and Sylvia had never seen eye-to-eye when it came to justice.

“Blast it, Sylvia,” he sighed. “Why are you doing this to us?”

His ear twitched when he felt his phone vibrating in his pocket. He lifted it out and saw he had received a text from an unknown number. He knew enough about cybercrime to know that just reading a text message was safe, so with his head tilted quizzically, he opened it.

Got u an early birthday present :D

What followed was a download link for a ZIP file, followed by another text.

Told u we had dirt on de griffe :P ur smart enuff 2 figure it out.

Tell ur boss u dug it up while lookin 4 me. Might make u captain ;)

The message was finished off with an image drawn in ASCII. A stylised raccoon face, like what his father used during his questionable career, with its expression changed to a cheeky wink. The same winking raccoon Sylvia used as her calling card.

Spencer couldn’t help but feel his frustration start to drain. Sylvia was rash, stubborn, annoying and a criminal, but she was still his sister. This little tip was her way of showing she cared.

Which was why he needed to apprehend her as soon as possible.

He grabbed the radio from the dash. “All units, begin a citywide sweep for the Cooper Gang van,” he ordered. “Alert me the second it’s detected.”

With the report put out, he turned the car and started to weave through traffic.

He needed to get back to the office and look through that ZIP file.

[jonnowrites]

AO3 Comments are SO SO SOOOOOOO important because you can only leave Kudos ONCE. You add to the hit count ONCE (every 24 hours).

So whenever someone updates their fic, the ONLY way an author knows who their regular readers are is if they comment on each chapter. And we WANT to know who's still reading.

Believe it or not, some of us think about the name that pops up constantly in the comments and go "omg I can't wait to see what they think of THIS SPECIFIC SCENE cuz I KNOW they'll say something about it!!!"