#I also ended up deleting the doc and forgetting I even wrote it until a few days ago

[tallyhoot]

I wrote an 1000 ish word essay on uhh how the toh ost makes the watching experience so much better

and I was gonna submit it for a grade but I didn’t finish it in time lmao

[duckprintspress]

How to Edit an Over-Length Story Down to a Specific Word Count

One of the most wonderful things about writing as a hobby is that you never have to worry about the length of your story. You can be as self-indulgent as you want, make your prose the royalist of purples, include every single side story and extra thought that strikes your fancy. It’s your story, with no limits, and you can proceed with it as you wish.

When transitioning from casual writing to a more professional writing milieu, this changes. If you want to publish, odds are, you’ll need to write to a word count. If a flash fiction serial says, “1,000 words or less,” your story can’t be 1,025 and still qualify. If a website says, “we accept novellas ranging from 20,000 to 40,000 words,” your story will need to fall into that window. Even when you consider novel-length works, stories are expected to be a certain word count to fit neatly into specific genres - romance is usually around 80,000 words, young adult usually 50,000 to 80,000, debut novels usually have to be 100,000 words or less regardless of genre, etc. If you self-publish or work with a small press, you may be able to get away with breaking these “rules,” but it’s still worthwhile to learn to read your own writing critically with length in mind and learn to recognize what you do and do not need to make your story work - and then, if length isn’t an issue in your publishing setting, you can always decide after figuring out what’s non-essential to just keep everything anyway.

If you’re writing for fun? You literally never have to worry about your word count (well, except for sometimes in specific challenges that have minimum and/or maximum word counts), and as such, this post is probably not for you.

But, if you’re used to writing in the “throw in everything and the kitchen sink” way that’s common in fandom fanfiction circles, and you’re trying to transition only to be suddenly confronted with the reality that you’ve written 6,000 words for a short story project with a maximum word count of 5,000...well, we at Duck Prints Press have been there, we are in fact there right now, as we finish our stories for our upcoming anthology Add Magic to Taste and many of us wrote first drafts that were well over the maximum word count.

So, based on our experiences, here are our suggestions on approaches to help your story shorter...without losing the story you wanted to tell!

Cut weasel words (we wrote a whole post to help you learn how to do that!) such as unnecessary adverbs and adjectives, the “was ~ing” sentence structure, redundant time words such as “a moment later,” and many others.

When reviewing dialog, keep an eye out for “uh,” “er,” “I mean,” “well,” and other casual extra words. A small amount of that kind of language usage can make dialog more realistic, but a little goes a long way, and often a fair number of words can be removed by cutting these words, without negatively impacting your story at all.

Active voice almost always uses fewer words than passive voice, so try to use active voice more (but don’t forget that passive voice is important for varying up your sentence structures and keeping your story interesting, so don’t only write in active voice!).

Look for places where you can replace phrases with single words that mean the same thing. You can often save a lot of words by switching out phrases like “come back” for “return” and seeking out other places where one word can do the work of many.

Cut sentences that add atmosphere but don't forward the plot or grow your characters. (Obviously, use your judgement. Don't cut ALL the flavor, but start by going - I’ve got two sentences that are mostly flavor text - which adds more? And then delete the other, or combine them into one shorter sentence.)

Remove superfluous dialog tags. If it’s clear who’s talking, especially if it’s a conversation between only two people, you can cut all the he saids, she saids.

Look for places where you've written repetitively - at the most basic level, “ ‘hahaha,’ he laughed,” is an example, but repetition is often more subtle, like instances where you give information in once sentence, and then rephrase part or all of that sentence in the next one - it’s better to poke at the two sentences until you think of an effective, and more concise, way to make them into only one sentence. This also goes for scenes - if you’ve got two scenes that tend towards accomplishing the same plot-related goal, consider combining them into one scene.

Have a reason for every sentence, and even every sentence clause (as in, every comma insertion, every part of the sentence, every em dashed inclusion, that kind of thing). Ask yourself - what function does this serve? Have I met that function somewhere else? If it serves no function, or if it’s duplicative, consider cutting it. Or, the answer may be “none,” and you may choose to save it anyway - because it adds flavor, or is very in character for your PoV person, or any of a number of reasons. But if you’re saving it, make sure you’ve done so intentionally. It's important to be aware of what you're trying to do with your words, or else how can you recognize what to cut, and what not to cut?

Likewise, have a reason for every scene. They should all move the story along - whatever the story is, it doesn’t have to be “the end of the world,” your story can be simple and straightforward and sequential...but if you’re working to a word count, your scenes should still forward the story toward that end point. If the scene doesn’t contribute...you may not need them, or you may be able to fold it in with another scene, as suggested in item 6.

Review the worldbuilding you’ve included, and consider what you’re trying to accomplish with your story. A bit of worldbuilding outside of the bare essentials makes a story feel fleshed out, but again, a little can go a long way. If you’ve got lots of “fun” worldbuilding bits that don’t actually forward your plot and aren’t relevant to your characters, cut them. You can always put them as extras in your blog later, but they’ll just make your story clunky if you have a lot of them.

Beware of info-dumps. Often finding a more natural way to integrate that information - showing instead of telling in bits throughout the story - can help reduce word count.

Alternatively - if you over-show, and never tell, this will vastly increase your word count, so consider if there are any places in your story where you can gloss over the details in favor of a shorter more “tell-y” description. You don’t need to go into a minute description of every smile and laugh - sometimes it’s fine to just say, “she was happy” or “she frowned” without going into a long description of their reaction that makes the reader infer that they were happy. (Anyone who unconditionally says “show, don’t tell,” is giving you bad writing advice. It’s much more important to learn to recognize when showing is more appropriate, and when telling is more appropriate, because no story will function as a cohesive whole if it’s all one or all the other.)

If you’ve got long paragraphs, they’re often prime places to look for entire sentences to cut. Read them critically and consider what’s actually helping your story instead of just adding word count chonk.

Try reading some or all of the dialog out loud; if it gets boring, repetitive, or unnecessary, end your scene wherever you start to lose interest, and cut the dialog that came after. If necessary, add a sentence or two of description at the end to make sure the transition is abrupt, but honestly, you often won’t even need to do so - scenes that end at the final punchy point in a discussion often work very well.

Create a specific goal for a scene or chapter. Maybe it’s revealing a specific piece of information, or having a character discover a specific thing, or having a specific unexpected event occur, but, whatever it is, make sure you can say, “this scene/chapter is supposed to accomplish this.” Once you know what you’re trying to do, check if the scene met that goal, make any necessary changes to ensure it does, and cut things that don’t help the scene meet that goal.

Building on the previous one, you can do the same thing, but for your entire story. Starting from the beginning, re-outline the story scene-by-scene and/or chapter-by-chapter, picking out what the main “beats” and most important themes are, and then re-read your draft and make sure you’re hitting those clearly. Consider cutting out the pieces of your story that don’t contribute to those, and definitely cut the pieces that distract from those key moments (unless, of course, the distraction is the point.)

Re-read a section you think could be cut and see if any sentences snag your attention. Poke at that bit until you figure out why - often, it’s because the sentence is unnecessary, poorly worded, unclear, or otherwise superfluous. You can often rewrite the sentence to be clearer, or cut the sentence completely without negatively impacting your work.

Be prepared to cut your darlings; even if you love a sentence or dialog exchange or paragraph, if you are working to a strict word count and it doesn't add anything, it may have to go, and that's okay...even though yes, it will hurt, always, no matter how experienced a writer you are. (Tip? Save your original draft, and/or make a new word doc where you safely tuck your darlings in for the future. Second tip? If you really, really love it...find a way to save it, but understand that to do so, you’ll have to cut something else. It’s often wise to pick one or two favorites and sacrifice the rest to save the best ones. We are not saying “always cut your darlings.” That is terrible writing advice. Don’t always cut your darlings. Writing, and reading your own writing, should bring you joy, even when you’re doing it professionally.)

If you’re having trouble recognizing what in your own work CAN be cut, try implementing the above strategies in different places - cut things, and then re-read, and see how it works, and if it works at all. Sometimes, you’ll realize...you didn’t need any of what you cut. Other times, you’ll realize...it no longer feels like the story you were trying to tell. Fiddle with it until you figure out what you need for it to still feel like your story, and practice that kind of cutting until you get better at recognizing what can and can’t go without having to do as much tweaking.

Lastly...along the lines of the previous...understand that sometimes, cutting your story down to a certain word count will just be impossible. Some stories simply can’t be made very short, and others simply can’t be told at length. If you’re really struggling, it’s important to consider that your story just...isn’t going to work at that word count. And that’s okay. Go back to the drawing board, and try again - you’ll also get better at learning what stories you can tell, in your style, using your own writing voice, at different word counts. It’s not something you’ll just know how to do - that kind of estimating is a skill, just like all other writing abilities.

As with all our writing advice - there’s no one way to tackle cutting stories for length, and also, which of these strategies is most appropriate will depend on what kind of story you’re writing, how much over-length it is, what your target market is, your characters, and your personal writing style. Try different ones, and see which work for you - the most important aspect is to learn to read your own writing critically enough that you are able to recognize what you can cut, and then from that standpoint, use your expertise to decide what you should cut, which is definitely not always the same thing. Lots of details can be cut - but a story with all of the flavor and individuality removed should never be your goal.

Contributions to this post were made by @unforth, @jhoomwrites, @alecjmarsh, @shealynn88, @foxymoley, @willablythe, and @owlishintergalactic, and their input has been used with their knowledge and explicit permission. Thanks, everyone, for helping us consider different ways to shorten stories!

[mosswillow]

Synonyms - Honeymoon head canon.

Each Avenger takes their reader on a honeymoon. They go to an island owned by Tony. Depending on the reader they stay for shorter or longer amounts of time - Anywhere from two weeks to three months. It’s been a while since I wrote these so there will likely be mistakes in the timeline. Also, I wrote this all out a month or two ago when I said I was going to. I’m not sure if I deleted it or maybe it’s lost in a random doc somewhere but I can’t find the original one I wrote. Anyway, that’s why It’s taken a few days to finally get it posted. Sorry for the wait (On this and everything. I’m trying. it’s just been hard lately to get time to write)

The island.

It’s small with a swimming pool, hot tub and a wooded area. This is poorly done but here’s kinda how I picture it. The house is very big and nice, lots of white decor. Most of the walls are filled with windows. There are huge garage style window/doors that open out to the ocean and pool. It’s stocked with everything they could need.

Steve

The first few days he tries to act like it’s a normal honeymoon but she refuses to pretend she’s there of her own volition. His temper eventually erupts and he punishes her. They spend one month on the island together.

Tony

It’s like a game of chess, way less violent and more head games. The reader is really smart about when she fights and when she gives in. It takes almost three months before she’s broken down enough to come back to the tower.

Natasha

This reader caves super quick, they’re only gone for a few weeks. She cries on and off for the first few days. Nat gives her plenty of orgasms (and lots of gaslighting) and by the end of the first week the reader starts to forget why she was even upset.

Sam

It takes two months before she gives in. The reader and Sam have a lot of fights where they’re yelling at each other. The reader throws something at Sam and breaks a window. Sam is so angry, he grabs the back of her neck and pushes her to the bed then punishes her. His eyes are completely dark and she starts to really fear him at that point. It doesn’t take long after that for her to give in.

Thor

She sneaks out of the bedroom and tries to swim away.  It’s unlikely that she would make it to land, even with super strength but she doesn’t care. Thor goes after her and finds her. There’s lots of fighting and punching but Thor always wins and she ends up under him. It takes the longest for her to give in, over three months.

Bucky

Bucky acts like he’s doing her a favor. He takes her to a cabin instead of the island to feel better about what he’s doing. He still fucks her without consent and manipulates her into the relationship though. They spend one month there together before coming back.

Loki

They don’t have a honeymoon. He takes her around with him and includes her in his life. He makes her crave his body and enjoy life with him.

Peter

Peter keeps her in his room until he’s confident she won’t try to leave then brings her to the island for the honeymoon. She’s already accepted her place by the time they arrive at the island. Their time there is filled with breakfasts at the beach and sex. They stay for three weeks.

[galacticlamps]

im sorry im sorry im sorry i know it’s been well over a year but i accidentally thought about Short Trips: Deleted Scenes (again) and it’s killing me (again) so i think im just gonna go ahead and post all these stupid thoughts that have been plaguing me about it since i first heard it & maybe that’ll help clear up some space in my head for like, real life things.

Spoilers I guess? It’s like a year and a half old but also high key the most recent 2nd doctor content i believe we’ve gotten which is like, the only negative thing I can say about it

The TLDR version is this:

I literally cant believe how sweet it is? Painful, but sweet. Like. I don’t honestly know what’s more likely - did they set out to write Jamie a nice little straight love interest and just fail miserably at it by constantly likening her to the Doctor AND paralleling the Doctor’s perspective with her ex’s AND putting Jamie’s relationships with both of them in direct tension with each other while constantly letting his with the Doctor win out?

OR - did they do a very 1960s thing and say hey we’re gonna write what’s essentially a story about how much Jamie and the Doctor love each other and release it on Valentine’s Day thinly disguised as a one-off romance with a french lady?

Now, as a general rule, my attitude toward questions like that is usually “don’t know, don’t care, doesn’t matter” - and while I 100% stand by that, I also have to admit that this particular audio seems to pay enough attention to detail that I’d kind of think I was selling it short if I assumed too many of these things were just meaningless coincidences, you know?

Anyway, that’s the most coherent/overarching thought. And here’s a disorganized list of things I absolutely cannot get over about it (they don’t form any kind of argument, mind, they just all happen to live rent free in my head):

- Celine is first taken in by Jamie being an idiot (specifically him claiming not to speak French, in perfect French); likewise, her entrance in the scene where they actually kiss is marked with a little anecdote about her hat getting stuck on a doornail and her scolding it as she attempts to fix her un-tameable appearance, and the narration says Celine “would often clown for Jamie like this” - all of which, while undeniably adorable, don’t exactly strike me as entirely original traits to have been assigned to Jamie’s love-interest (but also Celine is so cool and her perspective on film/media/time is an excellent addition to the long list of dr who characters)

- When they’re in the present, describing Jamie’s relationship with Celine in 1908, they call him her “companion” and highlight his going nearly everywhere with her, which earns a laugh from the 4th doctor (and me as well, though probably for slightly different reasons - but like, is that really all it takes to have a fling with someone in 60′s era who? bc if so...)

- Celine’s ex-fiance is still in love with her and is jealously watching when she kisses Jamie ... and then the Doctor appears beside him, evidently doing the exact. same. thing. They have the following conversation:

“You know, it’s not prudent to spy on people. But then, people in pain can’t be expected to act prudently.”

“Pain, monsieur? You mistake me.”

“Ah, do I? Good, because I rather thought you’d lost something.”

“What would you know about loss monsieur?”

- I’m sorry doc but who do you think you are, saying stuff like that and smiling sadly at the floor to boot? I 100% had to pause it here the first time I listened, just to not throw my laptop across the room. 

- Then when I recovered continued, the Doctor closes the door so they can’t watch anymore and explains “Possessing things comes so terribly easily to some men that losing them can feel cruel, intolerably cruel. In my experience, only the very best of men cannot be tempted to answer that cruelty with more - I do sincerely hope that you are the best of men.” (guess who gets described as the best of men by the end of the audio?)

- Jamie and the Doctor apparently develop a habit of walking along the river in Paris in silence

- During one such walk, Jamie suggests Celine come with them since she already figured out about the Tardis - and when the Doctor’s worried by this, he says he only allowed Jamie & Celine to grow closer “because of Victoria.” Jamie takes offense at the ‘allowing it’ comment and also refuses to admit he knows what the Doctor means about Victoria, which leads the Doctor to say that he knows how fond Jamie was of her - he was too, of course, but with him, “it was different, wasn’t it?” Jamie only says maybe that’s true and maybe that’s not, but his voice catches until he changes the subject

- Jamie doesn’t see Celine for days both times that she’s recovering from the shock and depression of her work being destroyed. In contrast, when the Doctor’s not well, Jamie’s "afraid” and “guilty” and hardly seems to leave his side at all, if his being there “rushing to embrace him” the second he wakes up - after a period Jamie describes as “at least a week” - is anything to go by, anyway. so either bf writers need to learn how to write a committed straight relationship or admit that’s not what they ever intended in the first place

- Oh yeah, and the Doctor spends that week "asleep” in Jamie’s bedroom - no, there’s no explanation as to if that’s where he was when he first collapsed or if it’s where Jamie decided to take him bc why would they feel the need to explain him being there? why was it even relevant to tell us it was Jamie’s room in the first place?

- The Doctor somehow manages to control the Tardis enough to take Celine on one trip to an alien planet and then return to the correct time & place for her to use the footage she recorded there in her new film - and while the audio doesn’t do very much to explain how that was possible, it does treat this as A Pretty Big Deal, and immediately afterward the Doctor has to spend a week communing with his past self (and/or the Tardis?) debating how likely it is that the Time Lords could use this to trace him. When he decides it’s not worth the risk and they have to stop the film from ever being shown to the public, Jamie asks why he agreed to it in the first place, and all he can say is “Because, Jamie, you asked me to!” earning awkward stares from the crowd.

- Oh, but, lest we forget, that little outburst is also immediately followed by him putting his arm around Jamie’s shoulders, and, shockingly, apparently beginning to actually explain the truth about the danger from the Time Lords - until they’re interrupted, of course idk why exactly but the idea of a 60s dr wanting to come clean with a companion but not being allowed to bc the show demands the war games be something of a reveal hurts me in a very good way

- The mental image of “the Doctor and Jamie, resplendent in borrowed evening wear”

- The audio admitting that Jamie’s not very good at subterfuge, and the Doctor asking if he’s going to be alright with them having to steal the film back from Celine - and Jamie’s little “Aye, Doctor” as he feels a ‘glass arrow piercing his chest’ glad to see bf is reading all my letters about exactly how i feel any time something sad happens to james robert mccrimmon

- The Doctor’s anxious to get out of there for obvious reasons, but he hangs around bc Jamie wants to see Celine again - which doesn’t happen, because of her aforementioned shock & depression, but she does leave Jamie a note that ends “you and that Doctor of yours - look after him Jamie, he loves you dearly, as do I.” yeah, if you didn’t want people to draw a parallel there, you could’ve picked, like, any other wording in the world.

- In case you weren’t fully convinced I’ve been reading too much into this whole audio already, consider this: Celine dies in Long Island in 1968, three days before her birthday - 1968 is when this story would’ve taken place in the show’s history (between Fury & Wheel), and dying three days before/after a birthday in America seems a bit... well I had some deja vu from it, anyway

- Four of all people being the one to bring back the film - I know he does it bc Sarah Jane makes him, but personally, I often feel like despite the length of his run, 4 is the Doctor with which we might’ve gotten the fewest glimpses into his interiority, so the fact that it’s him and not one of the more overtly sentimental Doctors makes it feel like it carries even more weight somehow, to me anyway. I think I wrote a post saying roughly the same thing about 4 & Fate of Krelos/Return to Telos but maybe I only did that inside my own head lol. Still, I’m all for any opportunities for Jamie to be one of the few characters to draw some noticeable emotion out of Four, but in fairness I haven’t touched too much of his EU stuff to really be able to compare the frequency with which this happens with other past companions

- Is Four referring to Two or Jamie when he says he got the film from “an old family friend”? Two did the actual stealing, but he probably means Jamie’s involvement - either way, it’s an interesting way of describing old companions - or selves?

- When Jemima goes to call Jamie a thief, Four is “roused” to defend him: “he really was the very best of men” again, any time four freely shows he cares about someone, im over the moon about it

- Oh ha ha, there’s an audio called “Deleted Scenes” featuring the Doctor who’s most affected by junked episodes. And at the end of it, a character who’s spent her life researching and lecturing about a lost film gets to watch it be ‘rediscovered’ after it’s gone unseen for decades. I feel marginally less stupid for reading into the other details of a story like this when it ends up deciding to be to be clever & slightly meta like that

But yeah

all in all, it’s kind of amazing to me that this genuinely reads like they sat down and said okay boys it’s valentines day, let’s write an audio where jamie kisses a girl, since that hasn’t happened except as a plot device in one story in 1967 - but then when they got down to business they accidentally(?) wrote a story all about how important his bond with the Doctor is and how easily that can be compared to a legitimate love interest (even if the love interest in question is a one off character & the extent of the relationship appears to be like one kiss & then having Jamie spend most of his time around the Doctor instead)

I realize there’s something slightly illogical about writing the words “shipping aside” after a post like this but seriously - no matter how many categories you’re able to see two & jamie’s relationship fitting into, this is 40 minutes of big finish just hitting you over the head with how powerful/special/important that relationship is, and with them being two of my favorite characters, i really haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since

[ais-n]

hi!!! firstly i just want to say i LOVE ICOS with my whole being. i read it for the first time in high school abt 5 years ago and read it again over quarantine last summer and it drew me in and wrapped me up wholly, i couldn’t put it down. i love the story and characters so much.

i also love writing very much and have always written small stories, fan fiction etc., the past couple weeks i’ve felt inspired to write fiction of my own, a novel of sorts with my own original plot and characters, and i wanted to ask you for some advice/ words of wisdom.

how did you plan out the characters you wrote? or did you more just let them write themselves? and did you plan out chapter by chapter how the plot would unfold before writing, or again let it happen as you wrote it? i’ve found it easier for me personally to let things happen as i write, and that the characters do things and say things i never planned for, was wondering if you felt the same or if you were more organized lol.

also what platform did you use to write on?

sorry for the long post, i hope you’re doing well.

Aww thank you, that's so sweet! I'm glad you like it :)

Side note, before I forget to mention - I just made a subreddit for my writing/stuff which will include ICoS things... I'll be adding more info on there this weekend hopefully, and I'm sure I'll do another post over here too but the link if you want it is https://www.reddit.com/r/aisylum/ It may be a place to find some other stuff in the future if you think of anything. I was thinking of doing an AMA or Q&A type thing over there too. Obviously, always feel free to ask here too <3 I love either place. Just wanted to mention while I'm thinking of it :)

I'm so happy you've been inspired to write - good luck and great job! I think that sounds absolutely awesome and I bet your story will be fantastic :)

We kind of did a bit of a hybrid.... I really wish I had the original bulletpoint list for what the book was originally going to be, but "Sonny" and I had opposite ways of looking at things. "He" would delete things as we went, and I would squirrel it all away until later lol So "he" deleted a bunch of bulletpoints/early info as we went because neither of us actually expected anything to come of any of it, so I also wasn't super anal about keeping track of things way early on. I might still have some documents buried somewhere with info but offhand I don't know where.

Anyway so I kind of am more like you in the way you write, but I will sometimes make the effort to try to plan a bit, especially if there's a cowriter. For ICoS for example, we had a rough outline planned of what was going to be the story, we started writing, we let the characters/plot/etc go where it needed to go, that meant things we hadn't planned from the start came in. The original story was basically mostly Evenfall, then skip Afterimage and Interludes for the most part but not entirely, and then we didn't really have a hugely detailed end initially from what I recall but we knew generally what was going to happen, so some of the stuff from later Fade would probably have been in the bullets. But when we got to the end of Evenfall, whatever was our next bulletpoint just did not feel right; we knew all the other stuff that starts Afterimage would happen instead.

For my long ongoing LGBTQ+ fantasy series I'm working on, the first book is finished but I'm editing it to change/add some significant stuff. I have a whole bunch of info on that which I've compiled over the years, so to an extent I have a general idea of plot things that will go down in the rewrite and also in the future into the other books, but a lot of details and even bigger points are left untouched. I prefer to let the characters/story/world/plot go where it wants to go, and I just have general points that I know make sense or have to happen eventually, and I look for how to fit them in as organically as possible to the way the story is going. If that makes sense. I will occasionally try to really work out exact storyline bullets but I get so bored so quickly that I never finish.

Because I like world-building and character development, I actually find it more fun and more useful for my organizational skills (any that exist, anyway, lol) to be aimed more toward that. Rather than focusing on the story and what the plot will be and what character will say what in which chapter, I prefer to dig into the past of the characters, dig into the world, the magic system or whatever is relevant, and have that info all squirreled away somewhere if needed. That way, as I'm going forward with writing the characters/story more organically, if things are going around what I initially thought the plot would be, this gives me something to then pull from for inspiration on how to incorporate this new plot/etc into the world more seamlessly, and make it feel more at home. And if you have all that info on characters, it also makes it easier to throw in things that flesh the character out more, and that can all lead toward character development in the future.

Boyd, for example - when we first had the valentine thing come up, it was just going to be a thing that happened that showed their miscommunication and how fucked the Agency was. But then it didn't make sense to me for it to just be a thing mentioned once and never again. So then that added to Boyd's story; now he was a valentine, so if it made sense or it was relevant, that was a thing that could or should come up. As the story progressed and the world grew, and with that the Agency and other factors were more fleshed out, it became more and more relevant. Then, by the time Fade came around, it was fully integrated into Boyd's story because by that point it would be weirder if it weren't - and because it made total sense in the characters' perspectives and the different organizations' perspectives and the story as a whole for the things to happen the way they did. But all of that, of course, then informs Boyd's mental health, physical health, and overall stability. Which then affects how he interacts with the world and other characters, which then affects the plot to an extent because of the choices he would make that may be different now, in the context of these life experiences, compared to prior to those life experiences. If the valentine thing never happened in Evenfall, a lot of Fade would be different. When we had that coming up in Evenfall, we didn't know another book was coming at all, let alone 3, let alone that it would end up having such a significant impact on the story and character development. But that's just kind of an example of building on things as you go, which is what I tend to do, personally.

As for the program - in the beginning we just used Word I think, and talked on AIM or something. It's been so long I don't totally remember. But for most of it we used Google Docs because that made it easy to share and write/edit at the same time.

Also, haha never be sorry for long posts - as you can see, I will almost always go longer ^_~

Hope you're doing well too! Thanks for your interest :)

[ifmywishescametrue]

fic writer meme

tagged by @ad1thi (thank you!)

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

81 works!

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

552,552 in total

3. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

falling like the stars, like dominos, your ivy grows, baby kiss it better, and pancakes and stuffed bears

4. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I try my best! I almost always respond if it's something that I can say 'thank you' to (i.e 'this was great' or 'loved this'), but I do occasionally forget and feel bad about that. For other types of comments, my anxiety usually wins out and I feel like I'm being awkward when I do respond, but also feel kind of guilty for not responding. I just hope people know I really appreciate nice comments of any kind even if I didn't respond!

5. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

I don't really write angsty endings lol. I don't usually like reading them, and I have a tendency to write things I would like to read myself. I think the closest it would get is on until the sun comes up, but even that was sort of hopeful (at least I think so haha)

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

basically all of them! especially my long fics, because I almost always give them a really happy epilogue. lots of proposals or weddings or kids

7. Do you write crossovers? If so what’s the craziest one you’ve written?

nope!

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

oh, of course. i've gotten my fair share of those anonymous commenters that just send hate for the sake of it because they don't like the ship and didn't actually read the fic, and i've also gotten a few where someone decided they didn't like a choice i made and really thought i should know.

9. Do you write smut? If so what kind?

yep! I don't know how to describe what kind lol. it's fairly tame, i guess?

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

i don't believe so

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

yes! a couple in Russian and one in Vietnamese

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

no, but i think i'd be open to it

13. What’s your all time favorite ship?

stevetony and buckytony are tied for me. both are fun to write and to read!

14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

i don't think there's anything i'm currently working on that i won't come back to eventually, but there are a few one shots in progress that i tend to forget even exist until i happen to see them in my google docs

15. What are your writing strengths?

i'd say dialogue. it's definitely the easiest thing when i'm writing and i don't have to overthink it

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

sometimes i straight up forget to add the more visual details. when i'm picturing scenes, i can see them very clearly in my head without trying and sometimes i forget while i'm writing that other people aren't seeing it with me. i have to remind myself a lot to go back and add things like what rooms/settings look like and how characters look.

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

i think i've only done it once? it's not something that really occurs to me to do it, but if i had an idea that involved other languages i'd definitely give it a go and try my best to get it right

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

one direction, back in my wattpad days. those have since been deleted lol

19. What’s a fandom/ship you haven’t written for yet but want to?

i don't think there's any currently

20. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

i'm very emotionally attached to take it from me for some reason. i just really love those versions of bucky and tony

[origami10]

Ajin ch 86 thoughts

Okay, it’s been a little bit! Thoughts and spoilers under the cut! (Warning, this is very long)

Writing this in a word doc because a) I don’t want to risk going on tumblr and b) I don’t want to risk the post getting deleted in the middle  [note from the end: this ended up being four pages long in a Word document, so I’m sorry]

Ahhhh, last time buying the digital magazine ><    Until... if... Sakurai starts publishing something new...

It seems kind of unfair not to have Ajin be the cover feature if it’s ending DX I guess they’re just starting with a new series, though. Is that how that works? (It has a main character with white hair so I might be interested...) It’s at the beginning of the mag.

Okay, yeah, pages 111-175.  Aggghhhh I’ve always put off reading the end of series, but I think this is the first one I’ve been up to date with when it actually ended. Promised Neverland was close.

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

ooh completely new characters...?????? whoops overshot the starting page by a few ughhhh it’s definitely the last one... I mean we knew that, but still..... OMG NO IT’S IZUMI AND TANAKA ISN’T IT??    jeez woah  I can’t wait to hear other readers’ reactions    [edit: yes this was about clover, and she recorded her reaction, which was beautiful ;u;] also omg they’re at least appearing together

omg Sakurai’s author’s note: “It’s very cold, isn’t it. Everyone, I hope you don’t catch a cold.”       YOU’RE NOT EVEN GOING TO ACKNOWLEDGE IT’S ENDING?

okay, so at least some time skip Tanaka: New identity, who dis Ooh, Izumi called Tanaka “anta” – the rude/familiar version of ‘you’, rather than the polite one. Honestly I don’t remember but it’s probably what she called him previously. And then turns around and called him anata the next page X’D  Okay, I’m glad that not being consistent is okay in Japanese, I always worry/wonder about that ooooh so Tanaka doesn’t have a new identity YET. I wonder how long it’s been?? omg Tosaki prepared it??    Was he thinking that far ahead? Or is he not dead....   ???  okay so he made it ahead of time     oh, and Izumi was the one who asked him for it??? Oh wow, Izumi has yet another change of identity. I wonder if she’s back to (omggg I forget D: her original name... Tainaka [hah]) Also another great shot emphasizing their height difference X’) lmaoooo I always love when there manages to be some humor oh, they’re only about three years apart! I wonder if that helps pin down the timeline at all??

Aw, Izumi still respects Tosaki lmao  “I’m going home.” “You really have places to be?”  Oh I guess that wasn’t quite it- she really was wondering if he was had a living location... so he has been kinda on the run ><    [Sakurai. Sakurai, happy ending. There is, right? Right?]

Oh dude I really didn’t think we’d get any resolution on that ship and like, idk if this counts as resolution but it sure looks like it does right now okay I’m really sorry but part of me is like ///we’re using so many of the remaining pages on this///  although oh I guess it’s only been 10 pages... it feels like so many since the chapters have been so short lately...

heyyyyy  I mean we kinda knew the U.S. ajin would be back or else what was the point of introducing them Ogura not being dead at the end of the series is extremely impressive (also hopefully Kai :prayer hands:  as in I think he survived) so Ogura didn’t tell them he was coming back huh ... with the crew??? :eyes emoji: lmao AND they thought he was dead, I’m cackling oh okay so they had heard he wasn’t dead the close up of Jim’s face reminds of Kai somehow I guess this manga isn’t so long (and the U.S. ajin left enough of an impression) that at least we’re not like WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE “I’ll kill you!!” “Go ahead!!”  HA Winnn I think the people in this series need to get their idea of ‘fun’ checked I don’t really understand what he says in the bubble after that... I’ll have to check the English did he like, metaphorically die because he’s out of FKs? I’m not up on my cigarette brands enough to know if that’s an FK or not... I think it’s what the brand turned into...? oh no what’s this omg    is it gonna be Kai? Are they all gonna be in there? Kotobuki??   also this is already super sad that not everyone got out of jail free... unless they did and I’ll see... but also it’s realistic so all for the best I guess?  i have no idea OH HA I thought it was the juvenile detention center but it’s Takahashi !  o_o not entirely sure I understand what Takahashi says to the guard either at least everyone’s having... fun??? KAI KAI KAI    gahhhh this looks exactly like how ch 69 started and agh they’re both in juvie but ahhhhh they’re together??         I’m already scared to read and actually find out –o- oh wait they have dates to get out!  and they said plural ‘we’ “That was fast”  I feel like that panel represents what this chapter means to me somehow lmao they just want them to be not their problem anymore... that really wraps it up nicely, hilariously, and realistically I’m glad I’m not translating this because there are really a couple lines where I don’t completely understand them “something happened that day”  um, yeah WOW I did NOT think we were going to get an answer to whether Kai was an ajin now or not, but I feel like that definitively answers that question?????     also that’s terribly funny HE DOESN’T EVEN KNOW KEI REVIVED HIM??       -punches a wall-  Kai’s whole personality is  ‘I don’t really remember that happening’  >_____________________________> Kei... gave Kai a reason to live... because he almost died...?      I still kinda have faith in this wrapping up well but GOD Kai is not a character to invest all your emotion into, laughs cryingly Kotobuki: “You literally never make any sense, man.” oh no “ano natsu” GAH

I just realized that this almost certainly means Kai and Kou never met. There isn’t enough keysmashing in the world to express my desire to throw my laptop at a wall right now

In no way shape or form did I ever expect to get closure on Akiyama, even on him getting out of the barrel

Manabe definitely stole whatever it is he’s holding but it was probably some kind of personal effects...?  [my powers of prediction suck most of the time] he really looks beat up now ;u; Izukyū-Shimoda... Win, that’s not where you traveled, is it?  Maybe I saw it on the Sunday NHK travel program... but it’s also the end of the train line and has ferries going out into the ocean islands.  Is he getting away, or going home.......? or to Hirasawa or something...?

well that was an extremely abrupt shift are they really shooting Satou up into space they’re not using him as a test subject are they that sounds like an even more awful idea than I ever could have come up with okay... oh jeez can we please please not have Satou be Captain America you just KNOW he’s going to make trouble again, ,, , , ,!!

oh jeez Eriko! I didn’t expect to see her but it’s nice! it’s really sinking in that that’s all the closure we’re going to get on Kai isn’t it Eriko tsundere as if that needed confirmed okay cool, so she’s out of the hospital (for now)

It does seem appropriate? Likely? That Kei didn’t go home. WE BETTER SEE KOU THIS CHAPTER oh, it’s fall   (or winter? Izumi said it was cold...) oh phew

Sakurai said RIP KeiKai shippers I guess....  but they still influenced each other so that’s still shippable even though they’re not together?  sigh not everything is so straightforward and I guess it’s good it reflects that

Kei looks happy enough was Kei working a blue collar job with Kou or something? That’s 100% unexpected Kou adorable omg what is his new name gonna be Also ;-; so they’ve giving ajin rights but everyone’s still staying undercover...? or Kou isn’t I guess, that’s sweet oh wow we admit Tosaki’s great     I guess last chapter’s statement that they found his remains must have settled whether he’s alive or not ‘iroiro atta na’  YOU THINK    also pretty sure that’s Kai’s line from the drama CD what’s with that Kei face??? OMG PERF       also that is scarily close to what I wrote in a fic, but also pretty much to be expected crap I guess at least Tanaka and Izumi are with each other? KAI’S MOON JACKET   WITH THE SMILIE       we really messed up characterizing Kai as the sun haha he’s out he’s out he’s out is he going to meet someone literally zooming out on everyone (like at the end of last chapter too) is kinda messing with me Like they’re still around and doing stuff but we aren’t (don’t get to) watch them anymore Kou saying ‘let’s all meet again’... my heart is warm ;0; LMAO

we can at least rest assured that everyone stayed in character

I can’t I can’t I can’t  [note, this was when I thought Kei saying ‘nah’ was the last page]

O MM FRICKING GODDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

omg Sakurai you’ve done it again bwahahaah a coworker hit him and is like ‘oh cool fine nevermind’ this is WAY more hilarious than I was expecting for this chapter How do I always forget that Ajin has so much comedy not remembering what page number the chapter ends on is nice

Tankobon releases May 7th in Japan Elizaaaaaa Kei’s got a Shion coat

alright uh well I guess that’s good, in a way, we still get to imagine whatever we want

Finishing it hasn’t sunk in yet, I’ve have to get back to you on that one.

[fakeoldmanfucker]

Fic Writer Review

Thanks for the tag @karasmoak01!

1. how many works do you have on AO3?

20! I was kind of surprised at that number, but yeah!

2. what’s your total AO3 word count?

73,622 (It used to be more, but I deleted some fics.)

3. how many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

Technically 19, but a few of those are repeats in the interest of accessibility. Without the repeats there’s:

The Old Guard

Fall Out Boy

Agents of SHIELD

House MD

18th Century CE RPF 

Brokeback Mountain

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Anastasia

Doctor Who

Shadow and Bone

Bones

4. what are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Nostalgia - The Old Guard

Roads Go Ever On - House MD

on this bridge between starshine and clay - Shadow and Bones

Memories - The Old Guard

Shipwrecked Shore - 18th Century CE RPF (it’s a historical lams fic)

5. do you respond to comments, why or why not?

Yes! Or, I try to, but sometimes I forget to. But I truly appreciate Every Single Comment anyone’s ever left on any of my fics, even if it’s a singular smiley face. It’s all appreciated, and I feel like I should show my readers respect for bothering to comment in the first place, since not very many people do.

6. what’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

I wrote an alternate scene to the ending of The Old Guard, with Andy/Quynh and Andy/Booker (both very sad interpretations of course) themes. It’s...very much not happy. I think it’s a decent character study though! It’s called “of the night-wind and darkling plain” if you want to check it out.

7. do you write crossovers? if so what is the craziest one you’ve written?

No, they’re not really my thing. Until recently, AUs weren’t either. But I’ve changed my tune on that, so maybe crossovers will follow.

8. have you ever received hate on a fic?

Thankfully I can say no. Honestly I don’t think my fics receive enough traction to garner hate, but I’m thankful for it regardless. 

9. do you write smut? if so what kind?

Nope! And I don’t really want to.

10. have you ever had a fic stolen?

If I have, I know nothing about it.

11. have you ever had a fic translated?

No, but someone’s asked me if they could before. I don’t think they went through with it though.

12. have you ever co-written a fic before?

No, but it feels like I have! @bookjoyworm is such an invaluable beta and I wouldn’t be able to post anything without her, truly.

13. what’s your all time favorite ship?

I absolutely can’t choose. FitzSimmons is so wholesome. Zack/Booth/Brennan has the best dynamic. Kaysanova is just pure enduring love, the kind I hope I’ll end up having. Hannigram is toxic but so intriguing. I really can’t choose.

14. what’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

I don’t want to specify Anything because there’s a possibility I won’t finish any of my WIPs and I don’t like to dwell on it. Someone needs to lock me in a room and turn off my internet access except for being able to get on google docs. Only then...

15. what are your writing strengths?

I think I’ve gotten a lot better at dialogue, so much so that it’s one of my favorite things to write now. I also really like using extended metaphors and finding ways to slip recurring motifs in.

16. what are your writing weaknesses?

Introspection is pretty difficult for me, at least explicit introspection. I’m a lot better at alluding to and dancing around a character’s thoughts, allowing implications to be drawn. Which can be a good stylistic thing, but not so great for trying to hammer home a really important, bold thing with insubstantial shadows.

17. what are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I wouldn’t do it myself because I’m only fluent in English (and a smidge of Latin, which doesn’t really come up a lot). But I’m all for culture/language diversity in fic. One of my favorite things to see. (And if a character needs to have a conversation in another language, I’ll try to find a native/fluent speaker to check it.)

18. what was the first fandom you wrote for?

I’m Fairly certain it was a 200-ish word fic for Narnia. The fate of the Pevensies has torn me up for years.

19. what’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

...neither of these I’ve actually finished, but I’m really proud of “summer love on a gurney with a squeaky wheel” and “ somewhere between a hangman's knot and three mouths to feed.” Also the aforementioned “of the night-wind and darkling plain,” which I have finished, on account of it being a one-shot.

no pressure tags: @bookjoyworm @setting-in-a-honeymoon @bisexualpercabeth @greensaplinggrace

[ahiddenpath]

My Favorite Writing Stuff

One of the best things about writing is that all you need is a pen and paper!  But we all have our favorite tools and luxuries, and I thought it might be fun to talk about mine below the cut.  Lotsa pics, long post.

Word Processors

Scrivener

The single writing item I use most is my word processor, Scrivener, by Literature and Latte.  At some point waaaaaay back in 2012, I found myself writing Growing Up with You in Microsoft Word...  And having to wait ten seconds for the screen to adjust and load new text as I scrolled.  It was just too danged long for the program to handle.  Just reading my manuscript was a nightmare, let alone copying and pasting to move text, shuffle paragraphs, etc.  Making a new doc for each chapter quickly became a clunky chore.

THEN I FOUND SCRIVENER, AND IT’S THE BEST.

Scrivener is... not very user friendly; there’s definitely a learning curve.  But it was immediately so much better for writing long fiction than Word that I bought a book on the program and read it from cover to cover, which...  I don’t think I’ve ever done before.  That’s how much of a game changer this was.

The feature I rely on most is the binder.

This is the binder for Four Years, which currently has...  Forty-eight chapters.  I corralled the chapters into two folders, one for the first year of college (1), and one for the second (2).  

If I click folder 1, all of the chapters appear, each snug in their own folder.  Once the Scrivener file loads, there is no further loading time.  Each folder can be moved by clicking and dragging, as can each text file inside each folder.  FREEDOM!

This feature alone was worth the price of the program.  They offer a free trial, so please check it out if you’re interested!

Portable Word Processors

I’ve mentioned these before, but I have two portable gadgets that allow me to write on the go, distraction free.

Alpha Smart Neo 2

This might look like the baby of a toddler’s toy computer and a keyboard, but it’s actually my baby.

Just kidding!  Sort of!  The Alpha Smart Neo 2 is a portable word processor that boots up in a second, is powered by three AA batteries for eons, and weighs about 2 pounds.  They are no longer in production (which is a crime), but there are oodles available on Ebay for about $20-30.  

(I used to own and talk about my Alpha Smart 3000.  The Alpha Smart Neo 2 is the latest model before the company shut down, and the keyboard is nicer; it’s quieter and easier on the fingers).

I honestly can’t say enough about this device.  I rarely draft on a computer anymore; it’s just too easy to find yourself surfing the web, falling down a research vortex, or even reading your manuscript instead of writing.  Alpha Smarts can remember what you wrote until you delete it.  That’s it.  That’s all they do.  It’s beautiful.

I write about 800 words/hr on a computer.  I write about 1,500 words/hr on an Alpha Smart.  Distractions are so, so real.

When you’re ready to port your writing from your Alpha Smart to your word processor, all you have to do is connect a printer cable to your Alpha Smart, then plug the usb end into your computer.  Open your word processor, turn on your Alpha Smart, select the file you want to transfer, and hit send.  If you forget any of this, it’s written on the back of the Alpha Smart.

I know that no one should blame their success or failure on their tools, but...  I wouldn’t be able to write nearly as much without my Alpha Smart.  And if you ever do writing meet ups, you’ll be the only person who isn’t fighting for a power outlet!  It also fits easily into a tote bag or backpack.

Oh, Alpha Smart Neo 2.  My partner and friend!

Freewrite

The Freewrite by Astrohaus is... um.  Well, it’s a lot like the Alpha Smart Neo 2, except that it’s waaaay more expensive, much harder to use, and has terrible firmware.

There are cool things about it, for sure!  For one, it has this weird...  Pseudo typewriter feel.  It’s much larger and heavier than an Alpha Smart, and I’m not sure that I actually consider it portable...  But the thick, angled base practically functions as a lap desk.  It’s comfortable to use and has a nice mechanical keyboard.

It has wifi capability, so you can send drafts directly to your dropbox/cloud/email, no cords or transfers needed.  The screen is an e-ink scree, like a Kindle Paperwhite, easy on the eyes and readable in the sun.  It’s also backlit, which is the one major win over the Alpha Smart.

I bought mine used off ebay for a fraction of the list price (this thing is NOT worth $600 on any planet, goodness gracious mercy dang!  I paid about $180), and, um...  I still don’t know if it was worth it, not when I can buy an Alpha Smart Neo 2 for $30 tops.  I mean, I like the e-ink and the backlit screen, but...  There’s a lag between typing and the words populating on the screen.  There are no arrows to fix a typo.  I had to send 10 emails back and forth to tech support to get it updated and working.  It was not broken, and I understood all the directions...  It’s just god awful firmware.  I also lost a draft because it wipes your device if you open their Sprinter program while using your Freewrite.  

I still use it, though!  The tactile sensation is really nice, the keys make a satisfying clickety clackety, the E-ink screen is lovely, I adore the option to write in a not-that-well-lit room, and the wifi transfer is faster than my Alpha Smart’s wired method.  But I still can’t recommend it as long as Alpha Smart Neo 2s are available, not unless you’re some combination of the following: a writing nut who writes so gosh dang much that these toys are worth it, someone who is big on tactile sensation, someone who likes hipster stuff, or someone who would love an Alpha Smart but can’t read the electronic screen well.  If this is you, make sure you also have a strong grasp on how to talk to and understand tech support, because you will need them.

Just never ever EVER open Sprinter...

Notebooks

Leuchtturm1917, hard cover, A5, dotted

MAY I INTRODUCE YOU TO MY LOVE, THE LEUCHTTURM NOTEBOOK.

WHERE DO I EVEN START.

The Leuchtturm is...  Just the best.  The hard cover takes abuse well, stickers hold onto it nicely, it has two ribbon bookmarks and an elastic closure, there’s a folder attached to the back inside cover...  The dot version is unobtrusive and encourages smaller writing, which helps the notebook last.  And it is available in a rainbow of colors!

The paper is lovely, the pages are numbered, and IT HAS AN INDEX.

I’m a scientist, and working in a Leuchtturm is just like working in a fancy, expensive lab notebook.  The set up is done already, man.  You just gotta jot down what pages contain what.  IT’S SO ORGANIZED, with almost zero effort!  Mi amor.

Sure, I could make an index page and number all of my pages manually...  But I’ve met myself.  I won’t do it.  When you combine all of these lovely features, you have one unbeatable notebook.

Plus, they’re easy to obtain in the states!  I order them off Amazon or buy them at my local Barnes & Nobles.

Midori MD Notebook, A5, grid

The Midori has even nicer quality paper than the Leuchtturm, but the cover can’t take abuse, and it lacks the nice features.  I truly appreciate the paper quality, but the other features bring me back to my Leuchtturms every time.

It’s a Japanese item and is more difficult to import to the states.  You can get them off Amazon, though!

Pens

I use Uni-ball Signo 207 gel pens.  They write comfortably, and using them feels satisfying.  They should be available in most Walmart/Target type stores, at least in the states!  

It should be noted that I’m just not a pen buff.  I tried fountain pens, and it was more trouble than it was worth for me.

Folios/Traveler’s Notebooks

Okay, so you found the perfect notebook!  Wanna make it SUPER DUPER FANCY PANTS?!  Well, you could try a traveler’s notebook.  

I only learned what a traveler’s notebook is about a year ago, so if you’re also in the dark...  It’s a leather cover that holds notebooks inside with elastic.  I own these chic sparrows, one for my Midori notebook (or whatever notebook I’m using at the time), and one for my journal.

My full name is etched into them, so please pardon my censorship XD

The chic sparrow traveler’s notebooks are so elegant and decadent and...  I won’t lie, I literally move one or both around the house with me, just so I can look at them.  

The one on the left is a Mr. Darcy deluxe, size A5, in the Wickham color.  The one on the right is an Enchanted Woods deluxe, size A5, in the Elderwood color.

They have lots of pockets on the inside, a pen loop, and elastics to hold multiple notebooks.  This one is strung with a Midori notebook.  I also have a smaller B6 one that I use as a wallet!  It holds a small notebook, so I can write down those ideas that always happen when I’m out and don’t have paper.  The pockets hold IDs, credit cards, and cash.

It’s just this... magical, opulent item.  While it’s likely the least practical thing on this list, it’s very special to me.

Lap Desks

I HAVE A HARRY POTTER RAVENCLAW STORAGE DESK FROM POTTERY BARN AND I FEEL LIKE A WITCH WHEN I USE IT.

Oh dear, I took a terrible picture, it looks so lovely in person.  

The top can slide in both directions, revealing enough storage for several A5 notebooks, pens, and more.  It’s a great way to cart your stuff into your favorite cozy nook for a writing session.  Plus, you’ll feel like a Hogwarts student!  It’s available in all four house designs, plus a Hogwarts crest version.

Pottery Barn puts these on sale occasionally.  I’d aim for 25% off before buying.

My Writing Bag

I decked out a tote bag in writing pins to carry my Alpha Smart, thesaurus, a notebook, and pens.  You can use any bag, as long as it accommodates what you need!  Here are my fave sources for writing-related pins:

Literary Emporium, who makes my favorite pin, “Still I Rise,” a Maya Angelou quote.  They have the most gorgeous pins.

When life gives you lemons, read them, advice for the ages

And fandom:

Digivice pin

My beloved Sailor Moon pin, the loveliest pin I’ve ever seen (not shown because it lives on my Sailor Moon jacket!).  All of the inner senshi are available!

THAT’S ALL, THAT WAS SO MUCH.  Please let me know if you try any of these out!

[sugaxjpg]

care to share what is your step-to-step writing process? thanx! love u

Sure thing! I’m kinda horrible when it comes to explaining my writing process, but I’ll try my best. I organized this into bullet points because I think that is better to understand, and I also added a few examples on some past works. Sorry if this got a bit long, but I wanted to be as precise as possible.

Planning: This goes from getting a general idea of the plot, to brainstorming scenes, and building the characters. More importantly, I figure out how to take my story from point A to point B, and what I’m trying to accomplish. Often I start out by coming up with a title, and then constructing a story around that theme. I don’t really write this part down, I just let my mind run free, since I discovered that it’s better than putting out every single detail I think of, since that can be a bit overwhelming.

For instance, for Fireflies, I thought about the title, then I combined it with this old idea of Punk!Taehyung that I had in my drafts. It actually catalyzed my plot, and it made me come up with the final scene, which I had been struggling for some time.

On that, one thing that I find very helpful is sometimes combining two or more plots/ideas. Makes your stories more original too.

Outlining: Okay, this is the part that my friends can’t really understand when I tell them, so I’ll try to be as clear as I possibly can. My outline is done by dialogues: as I’m picturing the scenes, I write solely the character’s sentences, and then I come back later to fill them up with ambient descriptions and characterization. This is basically the “skeleton” of my story. It’s very raw, but it works for me, and it helps me ruminate on the same parts of the plot again and again, without it being exhausting.

I write everything out of order, and I often start with the ending, then I come to back to the beginning (usually I call it the “pre-cut” scene, which is the part you see before the “read more”), then the middle scenes are all scattered around my doc, until I find a way to connect them. If you see sudden switches of pacing during my story, like, even from one paragraph to the subsequent one,  it’s because of that.

Sometimes I have random ideas of metaphors, and I throw it in the middle of my doc, with like a huge ass space between scenes so I know that it should be added somewhere else lmao

Writing: As I said before, I go down, often out of order, just filling in the dialogues, and connecting the scenes. This is the part in which I change the order of scenes, or delete some altogether, because I notice that my brainstorm was too filled with unnecessary aspects. I basically read the outline over and over and, as I’m picturing the scenes, my brain just starts constructing the atmosphere.

Devotion is the clearest example of this: there was no other description besides lines upon lines of dialogues (which I wrote in a fucking marathon of ideas) and then, once I came back to fill it in, I just started with the scenes that I was the most inspired to write. I believe it was the final one, then the “dungeon” one, then the murder one. Finally, I wrote the first scene, and went down my doc just writing in order and connecting what I had thus far.

I often leave the smut scene for last because I’m never super inspired for that lmaooo

Revision: I read over the things I already wrote, but without actually editing. Just checking if it makes sense, maybe adding some extra information. This is the part in which I make sure every idea connects well, and that the plot is consistent.

Editing: The most irritating part of writing IMO. This is the point in which the story is already done, I’m tired of looking at it, and now I have to go down changing repeated words and checking the grammar. The longer the fic, the worse it is and, quite frankly, sometimes I just give up halfway through. Sorry.

Drafting: I make the post: title, summary, cover, warnings, etc. Sometimes I do it at the “planning” phase, but it’s not as common.

Posting: It’s done, and I’ll never look at it again. I probably hate the final product, but I worked too hard on it to just forget about it. Also the time I realize my editing was horrible, and I let a billion grammar mistakes pass by. Forgive me.

I think this is it? Probably forgot about some things, but this is the foundation of my writing process. There is a lot of listening to music in the dark of my room and coming up with mental MV’s for my stories, but no one has to know about that.

Hope it helped! Feel free to ask me for further clarification in any of these points.

[maythedreadwolftakeyou]

Fic Writer Meme! tagged by @aban-asaara, thank you!! a nice meme to self-indulgently wind down with after a stressful day...

What is your total word count on AO3?

160,546. I had forgotten all about the AO3 stats page until having to dig that out, oops. I have more short drabbles etc on tumblr as well (and a LOT of stuff I just... never finished/posted anywhere).

How often do you write?

varies hugely depending on what else is going on in my life. In good times, I aim for daily, at least 500 words. During years I participate in NaNoWriMo, 1500-2000 per day in November. Other times I just can’t make even 500 happen with work/etc. Still more other times, my depression kicks in and I’m pretty useless at everything, and unfortunately go months with no writing at all. 

Do you have a routine for writing?

I try to write in several short bursts. If doing 500/words/day, then two chunks of 250, and some editing/planning on top. If during NaNoWriMo, 4 chunks of about 500 words each. If I really push myself to get them done in sections, I spend less time fiddling around, but the break between them makes it still relaxing/fun.

I also have a computer/document setup that works very well for me. I write on a laptop that can scroll between several different ‘desktop’ screens. I have one for fun stuff, and set one aside for writing. The only browser window/tabs allowed to be open on that desktop are writing-related ones--research, youtube clips of scenes, wiki articles, etc. All other fun stuff goes on the other desktop where it can’t distract me while I get through a section. Then over the browser I have two word documents: one on the left titled “[StoryTitle.docx]”, and one next to it titled “[StoryTitleNotes.docx]”. On the left is the “final version” of what I’m working on--aka the working document, with the most current edits/chapters/etc. The right “Notes” one is for outlines, summaries, lines I had to delete but might want to use somewhere else, passages I haven’t gotten to yet but wanted to sketch out before I lost the inspiration for them, quotes that I want to echo the feel of, copied dialogue from the game so I don’t forget it, etc etc. Anything related to the story in the working document that I might want to reference. The notes doc can be fairly messy--my level of organization for it changes from project to project. But it makes it WAY easier for me mentally to delete and tweak things when I can put them somewhere else just in case it turns out the first way was better. 

What are your favorite kinks/tropes/pairing?

Ohh... my pairings are pretty obvious, I’m really into Lavellan/Solas, Hawke/Fenris, and Shepard/Garrus. 

But what I’m really into is Hawke/the concept of found family and also various coping mechanisms+mental health issues; Lavellan/the weight of duty above all else, Shepard/the giddy knowledge that you won’t survive what you have to turn yourself into in order to save everything you love, Ryder+Sam/breaking the boundaries of what it means to be a single conscious entity...  

my big literary kinks are pretty much any narrative that has to do with one or more of the following: self-sacrifice, the transcendence of humanity in pursuit of a goal, the knowledge of the futility of one’s actions, the duality of self plus other, the terrifying and terrible beauty of rage, stubborn and violent perseverance in the face of insurmountable odds, the frailty of people who nonetheless fool everyone into believing they’re not broken. I am also a very big fan of nontraditional formats, and the meta-narrative of a story over usual structure. 

tl;dr: I like my fiction weird. 

Like... I recognize that most of my fics. Do not include a majority of these. And the ones that do aren’t really very popular. The one that gets closest to these concepts is probably the people you love become ghosts inside of you, and like this, you keep them alive which very few people read and got almost no attention. But I knew that when I posted it. I wrote it for me, after finishing the ME trilogy for the first time. The above tropes show up way more in my original writing, while I use fanfiction as a break from these more complicated/heavier themes, and to just have some fun with less technical writing. They’re there, just in smaller doses.

Fics with that sort of bend are WAY harder to search for than ones based on pairings though so like... if you have recs for anything that follows the above themes. please send them to me. i’m dying. please. 

Do you have a favorite fic of yours?

How can I not answer this with Fallout from the Fade? It’s my baby. It’s the longest thing I’ve consistently written, without getting bored and abandoning it halfway through. It will probably take me a while yet (depending on mental health/writing pace/etc) to finish but I know how it ends, and most of how to get there. It’s also the third fanfiction I had ever started writing. The beginning feels rough to me when I go back to it (which an inevitable fact of my decision to post as I write/not use beta readers, which I still think was the only way for me to do this story), but I still think a lot of my ideas were clever and my execution may not have been perfect but it was pretty good. I’ve learned a lot while writing this fic.

And also I love to make people suffer. Knowing that people have shed literal tears because of things i have written fills me with the delightful glee to push forward. 

But really. Comments mean the world to me. They spur me on through rough patches where I otherwise abandon works. I’m really not used to having an audience: most of what I’ve written in my life is original content that I don’t post/share. Having other people also invested makes me feel accountable, in a good way. 

Other honorable mentions: I think Grief is one of my best fics in terms of execution and balance. Less a man than a wild cat and A Slip of the Tongue were both exercises in pacing/timing as well as forays into the highly unfamiliar territory of comedy. The aforementioned the people you love become ghosts inside of you, and like this, you keep them alive satisfies my eternal desire for weird presentation and ideology taking a front seat over narrative structure (I have like. 4 other partial fics similar to this that will probably never be posted because I know they’re what I want to explore, not what other people actually want to read).

Your fic with the most kudos?

Fallout from the Fade, with 626.

Anything you don’t like about your writing?

I wish I was more consistent about sitting down and working. I managed it for 6 straight months when I started the fanfic gig, but to be fair, during that time I also had no friends and spent 5 days every other week camped out in Death Valley with no internet and nothing to do but write and brainstorm. Having the barest scrapings of a social life now that I’ve moved doesn’t do much for wordcount, it turns out.

Now something you do like?

I think I can write about mental illness realistically without it coming across as either overdramatic or idealistic. I like my descriptions, when I allow myself to use them (y’all don’t want to see how flowery most of my works would be without my self control). I have visibly improved since I started writing in 2015. 

i feel like a lot of my original circle on tumblr isnt active/writing anymore but gonna tag some people w/ no obligation… @leviathanmirror  @seekingidlewild @littleblue-eyedbird @loquaciousquark @kayla-bird and anyone else who wants to answer!! feel free to tag me if you do it, im lonely... 

[canadian-riddler]

How Indy writes

Sometimes people ask me about this so I decided to do a rundown.  You might find it helpful, you might not.  This post is long.

How she begins:

Most of the time, like this:

Title, who I’m using, what the main plot is.  Title is good to know in order to get the feel of your fic, but if you can’t think of a title just leave that.  You do kind of need the synopsis though.  If you aren’t able to come up with a synopsis, it’s likely you don’t know the core message of your fic and where you’re going with it, which’ll make it really hard to write.

The fic itself:

This happens a few different ways.  For the sake of this example, I’ll use the same fic as above.  This is what I have to start:

It’s just a summary.  I did not start this fic from page one.  The place I actually started this fic when I started writing it was page five:

I started with what I knew was going to happen instead of worrying about starting from the beginning, and just did that.  I do this throughout the fic:

I’ll have the story written out for what I felt like doing at the time, and then a plot summary in boldface for what I don’t feel like doing right then or what I am not entirely sure works just yet.  Sometimes I do that as a paragraph but usually as a list.  From the Misophonia AU:

The second and third parts of the Misophonia AU right now are mostly a list with some paragraphs of story slotted in where I felt like doing them.  This is how I work out plot details without worrying about getting all my ideas done at once, because even I can’t type that fast.  Doing it as a list can also help you identify themes and pinpoint threads you need to wrap up later on: in the above paragraph, the first sentence tells me that when I get to the end of part three I have to remember to address why Misophonia became successful and why they get along.  They can’t just magically have become a success.  The list is also helpful in pinpointing exactly where you want the fic to go and in smoothing out plot details.

Sometimes I will be writing a paragraph and I’ll want to get the general idea down of what should happen in the scene, but I’ll know it’s not quite in character or how I want it.  From the retirement in Canada fic I have:

The bold part is what I wrote and liked originally, but after rereading I don’t like it and need to change it.  I don’t know what to change it TO right now, so I just made it bold to remind me to change it later.  I don’t usually do this with entire paragraphs, mostly just sentences that feel a little out of character, but that retirement fic I’ve been working on for maybe a year and a half now and as I’ve been working on the series it belongs to it has undergone a lot of changes.

Very rarely I will write something I like for a fic and not use it.  For We Get Along, I had a paragraph/scene I kept moving around because I couldn’t find anywhere to put it and eventually the part I liked best had to get axed:

I have that all in italics to reuse later for something else.  I should probably give it its own document so I for sure don’t forget about it but I’ll leave it there for now.  Sometimes I will have a similar situation where I write something I want to put in a fic, but I realise that would make it too long or it doesn’t really fit with where the story is going in general, so I just give it its own document.  This was originally going to be part of the retirement fic but as we can see it doesn’t have a whole lot to do with retiring or learning to pretend you have morals to fit in with society:

So instead of trying to fit it into a fic it doesn’t belong in, I moved it.  It gets its own fic later when I feel like writing it.

Keeping track of what you’ve already written:

You gotta just read it.  Over and over and over again.  For all my fics, especially the longer ones, I read them probably ten times or more.  Some of this is the editing passes, but after I’ve posted I just keep rereading what I’ve done.  Even if you have to do it fifty times, it’s the best way to keep things consistent.  Another way would be, if you were using the list summary method, to keep the list summary in another document and refer to it as you write the whole fic.  I personally just delete the point after I’ve written it.

For most of my fics I keep the entirety of the story inside of one document; We Get Along is twenty chapters and a hundred sixty-two pages all in one word doc.  I have one fic divided into a hundred and thirteen documents because it got too long to keep track of in one document.  I used to keep my author’s notes in a document separate from the fic as well but I like to write the note as I write the fic/chapters so I stopped doing that.

Folders are your friends.  My Portal folders:

This keeps my fics organised by main character and if I start to have too many in the main character folder I divide them up by the secondary character.  Name everything meaningfully.  No ‘ashiofdsho.docx’. That’s not helpful.

Quality assurance:

The best way to know how quality your fic is is to have a beta, and if you’re super super lucky your beta will also identify themes for you and threads you missed and tell you about them so you can elaborate on them in future chapters or tie them up in the end of a one-shot real quick so you can look really clever.  I have a longfic that only is a longfic because I had one reader who kept asking questions about how the threads of the fic worked.  I didn’t know, but I sure did have to come up with a way to explain it.

Something you also have to do is come up with your own writing rules and follow them.  This will form your style a little bit too.  I have a few rules I know off the top of my head: chapters have to be between eight and twelve pages, always spell out numbers, avoid proper place names, and I cannot repeat words (except for prepositions) in a single paragraph or even consecutive ones if I can help it.

How to improve:

Write.  Just sit down and do it.  That’s literally the only way.  Just as with drawing, writing a lot will enable you to eventually realise where you often go wrong, what your weaknesses are, etc.  At my most productive I was writing six to ten hours a day: at home, on the bus, during my break at work.  I don’t recommend ten hours a day because it starts to get a little trippy but if you want to git gud you have to put in the work.  You will not be good at one thousand or two thousand or even ten thousand words unless you’re a prodigy, in which case congratulations!  You just gotta write.  A lot.  More than you think you have to.

Do NOT tell yourself you suck.  That is super extremely counterproductive.  Don’t.  Tell yourself you’re amazing, that your idea is fabulous, and if people don’t read it, hey, that’s their loss.  It’s always gotta be for you, first off.  You are the one who is going to read that fic fifty times, not anyone else.  Write it because you love it and you love writing and you love reading your own writing.  And if you don’t, pretend.  Pretend until you believe it.

Read authors you admire.  If they are Internet authors and you have the opportunity to know them, don’t be jealous of them.  Being jealous helps nobody.  Read their stuff and let it be something you aspire to, not something you think about resentfully when you’re writing something of your own.  There are a few people I admire and one I will never, ever be better than or even come close to, but I’m not jealous of her.  She made me a better writer just by existing and I am grateful for that.  Acknowledge that they’re better than you are, accept it, and then try to figure out why it is they’re better.  Is their vocabulary better?  Are their fics more nuanced?  Do they put a lot of detail into their fics?  To be a good writer you need to learn to be an active reader.  You likely don’t have an editor (beta), so you have to be able to identify things yourself an editor would be finding for you.  A good independent author is usually good at self-editing. 

If you happen to find a beta, l i s t e n  to them.  Unless you have a great friend who is willing to tell you what you need to hear, don’t have a friend as a beta.  A lot of people ask for a beta, the beta says some nice things and some points to improve on, and the writer then only sort of acknowledges what improvement needs to be made.  If you’re getting a beta, and they tell you you have a plot hole, you have a plot hole.  Nine times out of ten they’re not wrong and they’re not misinterpreting your vision.  Telling you you made a mistake is not them being mean.  They’re doing their job.  If you have no beta but some random comments a question or criticism on your fic and it’s not hostile, do not get offended.  Do not take it personally.  If the reader doesn’t understand, the reader doesn’t understand.  You can get mad and rip them a new one, or you can acknowledge you did forget something and now you can fix it because they pointed it out.  Every writer forgets that the audience does not know what they know.  Do not shoot down people who genuinely do not understand things.  You made a mistake and that’s okay.  Learn from it.

And that’s about it!  Hopefully that helps someone. 

[paintedrecs]

You're such a good author!! What are you thinking when you're writing? And what's your editing process? If you don't mind me asking!!

Ah, thank you!! I’m very often thinking “wow I am not a good author” while I’m writing, so it’s always nice to hear positive responses once the finished work is out there. :)

This ended up (unsurprisingly) long, so be aware there’s gonna be a Read More.

My editing process is very, very nitpicky. To begin with, I edit a LOT as I write, so those two questions share some answers. 

I considered posting a photo of a page I handwrote this week, but I don’t want to subject you to that. Suffice it to say that if I’m writing in pen, there’s a lot of scribbling and paragraphs that branch off into the margins and spiral around the edges of the page as I rework sentences and expand sections. Before I switched to writing almost exclusively on my computer, I used to use a mechanical pencil to make all that a little less messy. Still, though. Eraser shavings. Everywhere.

It seems like most of fandom swears by writing sprints, and I can’t do it. I either write in long, tireless stretches where I forget to move for hours, or I spend an hour writing a sentence, frowning thoughtfully at it, tweaking a few words, tilting my head to the side, changing it back, muttering, “No I don’t like that,” and shifting the structure until it fits with the rest of the story.

I spend a lot of time reading my own writing out loud, which is part of why I’m not usually that productive when I try to write in public. (Although once I’m in the zone, I’ll write on my phone as I walk to the grocery store, take the bus to work, etc. I probably still mutter to myself.) At this point, my poor neighbor has probably heard the entirety of all my fics in scattered bursts. I’ll read a single paragraph to myself six times in a row to make sure the pacing sounds right and the dialogue feels natural.

I’m a start-to-finish writer: if I write scenes out of order, they won’t work in the final version. With tide pulls, I wrote all this emotional, ultra angsty dialogue that I was expecting to stick into one of their final scenes, but by the time I got there, it didn’t fit. I initially tried to squeeze stuff around it to keep those lines intact, but it’s never a good idea to force your characters into something that they don’t naturally want to do over the course of the story. It rings false, and I think readers can generally tell.

That’s not to say that I don’t plan ahead or map out certain arcs or important scenes. I just don’t write them in their full form until I’ve reached that point. PDIW was much, much too long to plunge through without an outline; if I hadn’t marked down and organized all the emotional points I wanted to hit, I would’ve lost control over the scope of it. (Which is ridiculous to say when it’s over 200k, but it had the most detailed outline I’ve ever made for one of my stories.) 

Still, though, pieces moved around a lot. I’d push a scene into a later chapter when it turned out that Derek and Stiles needed to talk to each other more before getting to that exchange. Or a conversation that was meant to be between Derek and Laura ended up being between him and Cora instead, catching both of us by surprise. Laura was always Derek’s best friend and confidante, but he turned out to have a lot more in common with his younger sister than he’d ever realized. Of course I had to let that play out. 

There are a few sentences I desperately wanted to get into the final version, but they’re clumped at the bottom of my notes doc, along with all the other unused or deleted material. Sometimes you think a phrase sounds really, really pretty, but if your character doesn’t want to say it, that’s all there is to it. 

I don’t have a beta for my shorter fics, because by the time I’m done writing, I’ve probably spent more time editing than actually putting new words down on the page. (Unless they’re tumblr fics or notfics, in which case please forgive the fact that they’re wobbly; they’re just me having fun!) That doesn’t make the final product perfect by any means, but I don’t have a regular beta set up to read over my fics for me, and I don’t like bugging people unless it’s necessary.

For my longest fics, I tried to rope in at least 2-3 betas. It seems like most people in fandom just share their fic’s Google Drive link, sometimes while it’s still a WIP, and have their betas all work in the same doc. It may be annoying that I don’t do that…but I want to get separate, unbiased responses. If multiple people tell me to fix the same thing, it definitely needs more work. With that said, I’ve found that there actually doesn’t tend to be all that much overlap, because betas have different styles in much the same way that writers do.

The fandom dream (or any writer’s dream) is to have a set, longterm writer-beta relationship, because it really does involve a lot of trust and communication. One of my PDIW betas was the wonderful @bleep0bleep​ , who prodded tirelessly at all my pronouns and long paragraphs but also took the time to learn my style and where I most need/want help. (She also laughed at me when I had conversations with myself in the comments while figuring out how to fix passages that she’d told me weren’t working.) She and other betas found gaps that you simply can’t see for yourself after spending that long immersed in your own story. I ended up writing a few extra scenes and expanding some other areas, and the final version is absolutely better as a result.

If this was going to be a published work, I would’ve ideally set it aside for several months so I could come back to it with fresh eyes. My posting schedule for PDIW was already months behind what I’d originally planned, and I was super eager to share it, so I rushed right into the next stage. I also very much wanted to start posting on April 1, since that was Stiles’s birthday in the fic.

So I finished writing the final chapter, gave myself about a day to celebrate, then went right back to the first chapter and started editing. My betas got those pretty-much-completed chapters, and I took their edits and suggestions and transferred them back into my central doc. Then I started drafting the fic on AO3, editing each chapter one final time as I was posting. 

It was…tiring. I wrote the fic in about 7 months and edited the entire thing twice…almost three times?…in a little over a month. I’m going to give myself more leeway if I ever do that again. Thank goodness for my speed-reading betas, though.

I don’t know if any of that was the kind of information you were interested in hearing. Welcome to my writing world, I guess? It’s a little messy, but it has pretty intricate organization if you know what to look for.

As for what I’m thinking as I’m writing…that’s a complicated answer. Is it weird to say that I’m kind of not thinking anything? Writing is a craft, but it’s also a strangely instinctive part of myself that I tap into when it’s going well. I absolutely cannot write if I’m busy thinking about where a scene should go or whether anyone’s going to like reading it or if I even remember how to string words together. That’s the kind of thing that makes me slam right up against writer’s block. Or, if I do manage to get words down, they’re clunky and I’m never really satisfied with them.

When I sit down to write, I do my best to clear my mind out. I tap into my characters. If I’m writing from Derek’s POV, I’m seeing him - all his gestures, mannerisms, the actions he’s taking in a scene - but it’s more important to me that I’m feeling what he’s feeling. The same goes for Stiles, or anyone else whose eyes I’m trying to see through. I guess I’m an emotional writer? I want to feel things as I’m writing, and if I did it right, my readers should feel things, too. It doesn’t always work, but when it does, it’s incredibly rewarding.

Reading has always been an escape for me. When I’m wrapped up in a book, I lose touch with the world around me and slide into the pages, living alongside the characters. Writing’s the same way. It’s an indescribable, addictive feeling. 

When I finished PDIW, it almost felt like I’d lost a part of myself, because I was letting go of something I’d been living with and dreaming about and spending so much time getting to know.

I’m glad I got to share it, though. It’s a wrenching, terrifying process, but you all made it worthwhile. The final step of a story is its readers. Thank you for being amazing ones, and for letting me share my words with you.

[copingmechanism1899]

Apr 23, 2019

It's happening. My life is ACTUALLY over. Some people can be such idiots. And I don't know how to deal with this BS. I can never trust anyone again because so much s*** arises when I try to help people. I've been betrayed, and I hate how I can't stand up for myself. I honestly don't know what to do. But I should probably describe the situation. I wrote an essay, and it wasn't a very good one. I'll admit, I'm having some trouble in this class. Okay, a LOT of trouble. I currently have an F. In order to improve this grade, I met with my teacher on Thursday, and they said that after our conversation, they would feel bad if they just let me turn in the essay as is, because I would just get things marked down. They gave me until Monday to fix it. So I worked my a** off /all weekend/ in order to improve this essay. This was a second chance, that I was EXTREMELY grateful for. So, I also have clubs before school on Mondays, so I come in early Monday morning, and my "friend" is sitting there. So I start up a conversation because I still have some time before my club starts. Turns out, even though we have different teachers, we got the same set of prompts. It /also/ turned out that my "friend" didn't do their essay, and needed some help. So I shared my essay with them. And this is where s*** hits the fan. For anyone who's ever made anything, you've probably started making whatever because of inspiration. Take a cake for example. You're walking around, and you see a really pretty cake, multiple layers, colors, decorations, and you think to yourself: "Wow. What a pretty cake! Now I want to make a cake!" and so you do. Now while you might have similar aspects to your cake (like how different essays might have similar points because they're about the same topic), you make the cake your own. Because you know, if you just make a replica, then it's not really /your/ cake. It's a copy of somebody else's. That's what I thought my "friend" was going to do. I thought they were going to take my general ideas. I thought they were going to look at my cake and say "Hey, I like the thought of buttercream.", then go make their own buttercream. But of course I was wrong. Whenever anything bad could happen, I always seem to make the wrong decision. My "friend" looked at my buttercream, and proceeded to stick their hand directly into my mixing bowl. Spreading the contaminated frosting all over her "cake", making it "their own". And here's the kicker. THEY WEREN'T SNEAKY ABOUT IT. I was working in google docs (which will be an important point later). Now, I shared my essay with my "friend", who I will refer to now as "M" (for motherf***er. lol), because "friend" is too much work. So, I share my doc with M, and then I ran off to my club. And while I was at my club, M decided to just STEAL my essay and "make it their own". Changing some words around (eg. changing "hive mind" to "cookie cut expectation") and calling it their own. Now, I'll admit, they added some of their own evidence, but they had too. Because we're in different classes, they had different sources. But they didn't even change the supporting reasons for the evidence. I ran the documents though a program, and it turns out they changed a whopping FIVE SENTENCES. In a SIXTY SEVEN SENTENCE ESSAY. That's not a lot of difference. And they changed all of this while I was at my club. But, they f-ed up. Instead of hiding what they had done (like any cheater should know how to do), they decided to edit /right on top/ of my work. Now I'm not saying that I cheat. I've definitely made my own version of a buttercream, but I've never outright taken someone else's. If I read someone else's essay, and I find a point that I agree with, I'll definitely find a way to incorporate it into my own essay. But I will find my own evidence, and I'll write my own conclusions. But M was an idiot, and didn't even have enough common sense to try to hid what they were doing. And since they typed directly in my document, when I turned it in, after my club, right before class started, it had their name at the top. I didn't even realize it until halfway through first period. I thought to myself: "Hey, did you remember to finish that sentence before you turned it in? Because it would look pretty darn stupid if you had a half finished sentence." So I went into google docs to check. And as I'm reading though, I see the title of an article that I didn't read. "wtf?" I think to myself. Then I scroll to the top, and lo and behold. It has M's name on it. I start freaking out, and I go to where I submitted it online. It has M's name on it. So I immediately text them. I ask them why the f*** they were writing in my document, I tell them the one I submitted has their name on it, and I almost break down in class. And one of my table-mates notices. She asks me what's wrong, and I tell her the gist, leaving out names. At this point, M isn't replying, so as soon as class ends, I call them, all of my calls going to voicemail. Second period, I'm still freaking out. A friend asks me whats wrong, and I tell them. Again, excluding names. My friend tells me I should write an email to my teacher, telling her how M ripped me off. Then, it happens. M replies. They immediately go on the offense, saying "Dude delete it or something" (which I couldn't because the website I turned it into doesn't allow you to delete submissions), along with "Dude why didn't u check", and "I wish u just read it over before submitting". Well, let me tell you something. I worked on that essay ALL WEEKEND. I read it, and re-read it so many times, I was sick of it. I made some final edits, and I knew that I was going to submit it as it was. I tried my very best and I was finally content with how it was. And now I feel like she's trying to make me feel guilty, like it's my fault. And honestly? It's kind of working. I'm in a constant state of fear because I know how much trouble you can get on for copying someone else's work. So, back to second period. M has texted back, telling me, that I should tell the teacher that, and I quote: "My friend shared her essay for me to  check it and I accidentally  submitted hers". Which both me and my friend (who will now be E, for "extraordinary", and "friend" is long), know would never work. M said "Just tell her U accidentally submitted mine  she’ll believe". Which made me think to myself: "But... no. My teacher is not a F-ING IDIOT." M tells me to email my teacher, and because they apparently doesn't trust me, says: "Lemme see the email when u done writing". And all the while, E is telling me "just throw M under the bus. If you try to cover for them, and you get caught in a lie, then you'll both get in trouble. But if you blame M, then it won't be as bad for you." But because I'm who I am, I'm a bit of a pushover. I don't want to be mean. I don't want to throw M under the bus. But I also don't want to lie. So, I do write an email to my teacher. But it's the truth. I told my teacher that I shared my essay with my friend, and they typed over it, in order to pass it off as their own. Now, I was upset. And E was also very angry. So that email was probably a tad bit more aggressive than it needed to be. (Now here's where the google doc part becomes important) I included in the email that I had proof that I wrote the original essay. In google docs, you can look at your "version history". And if you look at the version history of this document, you can see that all previous versions had my name on it. (this point will also come up again later, so don't forget it.) With my email sent, I asked E what to do. Sure, I wrote the email, but the content wasn't something that would please M. E told me to confront M, and say that I wasn't going to cover for them, but I don't like confrontation, so I said that I couldn't. So E took my phone and got M's number. E texted M, and I didn't know what had been sent until 4th period. E knew that I was having trouble in this class, and she relayed this information to M. E explained the gist of what was going on, beginning the message with "she wont tell you this so i will", and ending it with "please just write your own essay next time". Overall, I think the tone of E's message was a bit cold, but it wasn't outright mean. But then. M has the AUDACITY to message me, saying "would it help if I gave u my essay and u could finish it?" I mean, what the F***?! I worked mt a** off for that essay, which you practically STOLE, and now you're asking me to write ANOTHER ONE? FOR YOU? And your explanation is "So it shows u had ur own essay". Absolute bulls***. So I've sent my email, and now I just go though the rest of my day, trying to avoid thinking about it, figuring I'll talk to my teacher at the end of class (which would also be at the end of the day because I have that class last.), but I never get the chance. I walk into 8th, and I start silent reading, like we do during this unit. Then we start working with our groups. But halfway through class, I get called out. Joy. I get escorted to the Dean's office, and guess who's there. If you've read everything preceding this, you've probably guessed it. It was M. The Dean starts talking, and M tries to explain themselves, telling lie, after lie, saying that we had "switched essays for peer editing", and "because we shared them, I might have just submitted the wrong one" (one again, I think they were trying to make it seem like my fault). And then the Dean says something that makes me question why I'm here. They say (something along the lines of) "Well, you came in here, sounding kind of frustrated". This. This makes me think that M came in here if their own free will. And from what it sounded like, they came in here because of E's message. And even later, M texted me saying "Did u tell a lot of people Cuz lots of people were talking to me". And I think to myself: "I've told like, 1 and a half people? And I've never used your name. How are people alking to you?" So I ask who. And apparently, "lots of people" is 2. E, and the girl from my first period class. The single message E sent was apparently enough to set M off. And the girl from my class? She's friends with M, so when M started talking about the this s***show of a situation, (so I'm not the only guilty party!) this girl put 2 and 2 together and figured it out herself. Yet M blames me for telling people. WTF. But whatever right? M's just trying to make me upset (right?). Back at the Dean's office, class is ending and so M leaves to catch their bus. I have clubs after school, so I stay in the office a bit longer. The Dean (who will now be shortened to D) says that our stories are conflicting. My email accuses M of stealing my essay, but M is saying that it was a mix up and that I accidentally submitted theirs. I proceed to tell D that I wrote the essay, and that M made edits on top to "make it their own". I tell D that I can show her the version history to prove it (told you it would come up again!) So I take out my essay, and show her the version that had been completed April 21, 9:19 PM. But D says that doesn't count as proof because I "could have just gone back and put my name over M's". Which is BS. Because if you try to go into a previous version of the document to change something, /it makes a new version/. AND, it /keeps the old version/! There's no way to delete a previous version (that I have found), so the version history should have been proof enough. But it's not. Which made we so worried, because of what D said next. She said that because I didn't have proof that I wrote the essay, and because the one I turned in had M's name on it, it looked like I was the one who stole /M's/ essay. Which is f-ed up. Because it's the complete opposite. D also said (something along the lines of) "I like it when people just confess and come clean. Telling the truth makes it so much easier for everyone. Because your stories right now, are very confusing. Someone just coming forward and admitting to what they did would be super helpful." And the entire time, she was looking at me as is she was just waiting for me to crumble and admit to the crime. But I didn't do it. And her BS about how "telling the truth makes things easier"? I've told her the truth. But she doesn't believe me. And it sucks. And it's not even a "boy who cried wolf" situation. I haven't been lying to her, she just won't believe me from the get-go. After I get dismissed, I go to my club. During which I get a text from M. But I couldn't deal with their BS right then so I waited until after my club to read it. And this /monster/, this /criminal/, is just asking me different variations of "what did you say". I tell M the bare minimum because I don't really want to talk to M again. But because M had to go catch the bus, D ended the conversation with "we'll continue this conversation tomorrow". So M messages me, asking "Can we meet b4 school tommorow to talk more abt this", saying they'll be there at 7:30 in the morning. Now, I had other plans that morning, and I know that M just wanted to meet up so we could make up some lie that would inevitably get us caught, but I still wen't early so I could tell M that I just wanted to tell the truth. I get to school 7:18. I'm early so I wait. 7:24, I text them, letting them know I'm there. 7:30 rolls around, and they're a no-show. 8:18 comes, and at this point I need to get to 1st period. Finally, 8:31 hits, I'm already in class and I get a text from M. "Hey fam I’m sry I got sick today and I couldn’t go to school". First of all, this is serious. WTF is up with the texting language? Second, "sick". Yeah right. Would have been nice to know before you made me WASTE my morning. I had other s*** I needed to get done. And I couldn't because you're a flaky piece of garbage. So yeah, a entire crock-pot of flaming trash. I spent my hole day in fear, wondering if I was still going to get called to the Dean's office even if M wasn't there. I got through my last period class, and practically bolted out the door as soon as the bell rang. I do't know what's going to happen to me. M won't take responsibility for their actions, and because D won't believe the truth, it looks like I'm the one in the wrong. I'm so f-ed, because I know M isn't planning of taking the blame. Saying "I’m freaking out too because I need to try so hard to make sure none of us get in trouble" and "Dude I don’t wanna get u or me suspended or smn" even though is we just TOLD THE TRUTH, it would only be M that gets in trouble. M is trying to make me go along with it by saying "u or me", when in reality, M is just trying to save their own a**. So I'm just freaking out. Because I'm already failing this class, why would I do something as stupid as cheat? I know that if I were to get caught, then I'd be completely and utterly f-ed. I have no reason to cheat. But I've been screwed over because M won't own up and D won't believe the truth. S***.

[williamlwolf89]

How to Write an Ebook: 21 Dumb Mistakes to Avoid in 2020

Want to learn how to write an ebook like a pro? It’s not just what you do, but what you DON’T do that can make or break your work.

Admit it.

You’ve thought about writing an ebook.

In fact, you’ve already imagined the front cover.

You can see the main title and, underneath, your name.

And when you picture it, you feel a ripple of pride.

An ebook would be a big step up for you as a writer.

Because while blog posts and freelance writing gigs are great ways to express your ideas and earn a side income, you can’t help feeling they’re a little, well, fleeting. Lightweight even.

But your own ebook? That’s more substantial. It’s taken more seriously. It has more gravitas.

And having an ebook with your name on the front transforms you from a mere writer into that more impressive beast — an author.

But how do you become an ebook author without falling victim to the same mistakes that sabotage the attempts of so many other writers and bloggers?

Why Most Ebooks Are Embarrassingly Bad

On the surface, writing ebooks seem relatively easy.

Lots of writers seem to be doing it, so how hard can it be?

But in reality, most ebooks that see the light of day are horrible. Embarrassingly bad.

That’s because your average ebook author doesn’t have a clue how to write an ebook. They can’t afford to hire a ghostwriter, and they don’t have the support system a traditional author would be given by their publisher when writing a book.

They do their best, but they don’t know what they don’t know.

The good news? We can learn from their mistakes. In this post, we’re going to show you the common mishaps first-time authors make when writing an ebook.

In other words:

Want to write an ebook like a pro? Avoid these 21 common mistakes:

Table of Contents: How to Write an Ebook Like a Pro (Don’t Do These Amatuerish Things)

Choosing a Topic You Know Little About

Writing the Ebook Your Audience “Needs”

Thinking Like a Writer, Not a Publisher

Picking Up Your Pen (or Laptop) and Starting to Write

Trying to Make Your Ebook Too Valuable

Starting at the Beginning

Only Writing When You Feel Like It

Letting Your Inner Editor Take the Lead

Quitting Just Before it Gets Easy

Trying to Keep Up The Momentum

Throwing Your Best Work in the Fire

Reviewing With a Microscope, Not a Telescope

Telling Yourself You Don’t Need an Editor

Hiring the World’s Worst Proofreader

Indulging Your Inner Perfectionist and Procrastinator

Assuming You Know the Best Format for Your Ebook Already

Using the First (Yawn-Inducing) Title that Comes to Mind

Designing Your Own Front Cover

Forgetting to Link Back to Your Blog

Completely Ignoring the Power of Social Proof

Acting Like Your Ebook Isn’t a Big Deal

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1. Choosing a Topic You Know Little About

If you want to create a premium ebook, you can be tempted to pick a “hot topic” thinking that’s where the money is.

Likewise, when creating a sign-up bribe, you might think you need to entice readers with the latest information about an emerging topic.

And if you’re self-publishing using Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), it’s easy to think you need to target one of the most popular categories.

But picking a topic like this is a BIG mistake.

If you know little or nothing about your chosen topic, creating an ebook will be a huge amount of work. You’ll have to do a ton of research on Google, interview experts, and perhaps even pay a real guru to get you up to speed.

What to do Instead

Write about something you actually know about — which almost certainly means tying your ebook to your blog’s core topic. You’ll not only save a ton of time on research, but you’ll also have a ready-made audience for your writing.

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2. Writing the Ebook Your Audience “Needs”

I’ve fallen into this trap myself (twice) and I’ve seen a heck of a lot of other bloggers do the same.

It happens when you realize there’s a topic you know your readers need, and you know you can write the perfect book that will genuinely help them.

Sounds great, but people don’t always know what they need. And your sense of what it is might not be spot-on either.

What to do Instead

Don’t give your readers what you think they need. Give them what they know they want.

How? Run a survey, and ask your readers to choose between three or four ebook topics.

(This is also a good opportunity to find out how much they’d pay, whether they’re beginners or more experienced, and what specific questions they need your help to answer.)

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3. Thinking Like a Writer, Not a Publisher

Planning isn’t just about deciding what you’re going to write and what order you’re going to write it in.

Because when you decide to create an ebook, you’re not just a writer; you’re also a publisher (and marketer). You have to write and publish.

If you don’t start thinking now about how you’ll sell your book — whether that means selling it to make money or just selling the concept to your readers — you’ll run into problems later on.

What to do Instead

Draft your sales page while you’re planning your ebook. Make it sound as attractive and useful as possible (try Jon’s list of power words, and make the reader the hero of the story) … and use that pitch to drive the writing process. This will make your ebook much stronger and will make your life much easier when you launch it.

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4. Picking Up Your Pen (or Laptop) and Starting to Write

Once your survey results are in, you might be tempted to start writing straight away.

Whoa there.

Jumping into the writing at this point will cause you serious problems. You’ll find yourself repeating things, or wasting time exploring ultimately unhelpful tangents.

What to do Instead

Plan your ebook before you start writing.

This means having a clear outline that has, at the very least, a title for each chapter. Yes, that might seem a bit boring, but it will make the writing stage far easier (and more fun).

This doesn’t have to mean opening a blank Google Doc or Microsoft Word document and writing a linear outline. Try freeform brainstorming, mind maps, or index cards as creative alternatives to help get your ebook ideas flowing.

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5. Trying to Make Your Ebook Too Valuable

With your first ebook, it’s easy to think you need to deliver the definitive ebook — the only one your audience will ever need.

If that sounds like a good idea, ask yourself this: “What will I give them next?”

Chances are, you won’t write just one ebook. You might write several in the same series, or you might create a short starter ebook for free, and then write a more advanced one to sell.

Even if your ebook is destined to be your subscriber incentive, if you give your readers everything they’ll ever need, why would they come back to your blog?

What to do Instead

Go back to your survey and determine what aspects your audience cares about the most. Focus on those. If you have lots of extra ideas, great! Keep them in a separate place and use them for your next ebook. Or explore them in a detailed blog post.

If you inadvertently miss something crucial, you’ll find out when you get feedback, and you can add a new section or chapter to address that point.

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6. Starting at the Beginning

Although it might be the first chapter in your book, your introduction almost certainly isn’t the place to start writing.

It’s hard to know what to include until you’ve drafted the majority of your book, and you don’t want to get bogged down at this early stage.

If you start with the introduction, you’ll often end up writing far more than you need to. And let’s be honest. No reader relishes the sight of a long introduction — they want to dive into the real content.

What to do Instead

Don’t begin with the introduction; start with your first “proper” chapter. Once you’ve drafted the rest of your book, you’ll know what needs to go in the introduction.

Also, a lot of “introductory” material can go at the back of the book – I strongly recommend having an About the Author page at the back, because it’s a great opportunity to point readers to your website, mailing list, and so on.

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7. Only Writing When You Feel Like It

Although your ebook is probably a high-priority project for you, it can be genuinely tough to carve out the time for working on it regularly.

But if you don’t write consistently, you’ll never build up any momentum. You may write for a few hours to begin with, but then end up taking weeks off … and never getting back to your ebook.

What to do Instead

You don’t have to write thousands of words at a time. One of my clients wrote a short chapter every week, without fail, and finished her ebook within a few months.

Find a consistent time each day, or several times a week, to work on your ebook. You might like to try the Pomodoro technique (25 minutes writing, 5-minute break) to use your time effectively during short writing sessions. Anyone can write for just 25 minutes.

If you know you have a problem with time management, address that now; it’ll pay off for years to come.

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8. Letting Your Inner Editor Take the Lead

If you’re writing regularly and staying focused but making slow progress, then you’re probably trying to edit while you write.

Perhaps you find yourself typing a couple of paragraphs, then changing your mind and deleting them. You might even be stopping every sentence or two to make minor tweaks.

This is a serious drain on your productivity as a writer.

What to do Instead

If you change your mind about a whole paragraph or section, leave it in as is, but jot a note to yourself about it. You may find, on re-reading, that it works perfectly well.

You might find it’s helpful to use a full-screen “no distractions” text editor. I like Dark Room for this — as it doesn’t have those distracting red and green wiggles that your typical word processor adds when it doesn’t like a word or phrase.

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9. Quitting Just Before it Gets Easy

After you’ve been working on your ebook for weeks, perhaps months, you may find that you’ve not made the progress you’d hoped for.

Whatever the exact cause (illness, workload, etc.), you’ve hit a wall. You aren’t even halfway through the draft, and there’s a long way to go.

When you go through a patch like this, it’s quite tempting to just give up — to cut your losses and leave that ebook draft abandoned on your computer.

But that would be a huge mistake. Because this is often a sign that things are about to get easier.

What to do Instead

Push yourself to reach the halfway point. Once you’re halfway, natural momentum kicks in, and you’ll speed up as you approach the end.

Be sure to remind yourself of your motivation for starting the ebook in the first place: what’s it going to do for you and your blog? How will it help your readers — the people who you’ve come to know and care about?

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10. Trying to Keep Up The Momentum

While it’s important to not let your ebook stall after the first draft, you don’t need to rush into editing. Some writers dive straight into the editing phase — but then they struggle to get perspective, and may quickly feel burned out.

What to do Instead

Let your ebook “sit” for at least a couple of days (and preferably a full week) before you begin reviewing and editing. That way, you’ll come to it with fresh eyes and a new perspective — you’ll be able to see what’s already good, and what needs a bit more work.

With a little distance, you’ll be able to see your work from the perspective of a reader, not a writer.

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11. Throwing Your Best Work in the Fire

Many ebook authors start their edit using the same file they used for the draft — for example, MyEbook.doc.

While that’s not always a problem, it’s seriously frustrating if you cut something you later want to put back in.

Worse, if you manage to delete, lose, or somehow corrupt that master file, all your hard work could be gone for good.

What to do Instead

For each new draft, create a new version of your file — MyEbookV2.doc, MyEbookV3.doc and so on. And create regular backups. A simple way is to email yourself a copy of the latest version from time to time.

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12. Reviewing With a Microscope, Not a Telescope

If you start your editing by looking for minor typos, you’ll miss much more significant issues.

By focusing on the micro detail, you may fail to address major problems with your book — like “Chapter 15 is way too short” or “Chapter 7 should come after Chapter 10.” These often require a bit of perspective (see Mistake #10).

What to do Instead

Read through your whole ebook, preferably in .pdf form, on paper, or on your tablet, before you begin editing.

In other words, read it in a format where you can’t easily make small changes as you go along to force yourself to concentrate on the bigger picture.

Make a note of any issues you need to fix, like chapters in the wrong order, repetitive information, tangents that need deleting, and new sections you want to add.

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13. Telling Yourself You Don’t Need an Editor

When you’ve been working away on your own for (probably) several months, seeing mistakes can be tough — from the big picture issues to the small details like missing words or misplaced apostrophes.

But many first-time ebook authors are either too inexperienced to know the value of an editor or figure it’s a luxury they can’t afford.

Even if you’re not in a position to pay for a full edit, that doesn’t mean you have to go it alone.

What to do Instead

Consider paying for an editor to review just the first few chapters of your ebook. Many problems the editor identifies will probably occur throughout the ebook and you can fix them yourself once you know what to look for.

Recruit volunteers to help edit: ask your readers, or members of any blogging community you belong to. Be prepared to repay the favor!

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14. Hiring the World’s Worst Proofreader

Once you’ve made any major changes and addressed the suggestions of your editors, your book is almost complete.

But before it’s ready to publish, you’ll need to do at least one complete read-through to catch any remaining typos or errors. A writing tool like Grammarly or a different grammar checker can help.

However, you’re probably the worst person to catch those errors.

You’ve likely become so familiar with the content and its layout that you’ll miss typos that will be obvious to someone else.

What to do Instead

If you can afford a professional proofreader, or if you have a talented friend who can help out, brilliant.

If you have to do most or all of your proofreading alone, here’s the secret: don’t proofread your ebook in the same environment you wrote it. Try changing the font style and size and printing it out, or reading it on a tablet. You’ll be surprised at how errors stand out.

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15. Indulging Your Inner Perfectionist and Procrastinator

Quality matters, but if you’re onto your fifth proofread and you’re spending ten minutes debating whether or not a particular sentence needs a comma, you’re wasting time.

Even books from major publishing houses have mistakes from time to time. You may never have noticed this, because (like every reader) you don’t pause and scrutinize every word.

What to do Instead

Give yourself a deadline for finishing the editing phase, and accept that catching 99 percent of your mistakes is good enough.

Don’t agonize over the possibility that a typo may still be present. Readers aren’t likely to notice, and if someone does point out a particularly glaring mistake after publication, it’s simple to update your ebook.

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16. Assuming You Know the Best Format for Your Ebook Already

Even if you started out with a specific end goal in mind, be sure to review your options once you’ve finished your ebook.

An ebook that started life as a subscriber incentive might in fact make a great premium product, or serve as an authority-building book in the Kindle Store.

But if you don’t at least consider other options, you might miss out on a huge opportunity.

What to do Instead

Depending on the final destination of your ebook, a range of different ebook formats are available to consider:

If you’re giving your ebook away as an incentive for joining your email list, then .pdf-only is simple and straightforward.

If you’re positioning your ebook as a premium product (e.g., at least $10), you can just create a .pdf … but you might also want to offer .epub and .mobi formats. You could also include multimedia bonus material on a password-protected webpage (e.g. audio interviews, short video tutorials).

If you’re publishing your ebook on major retailers’ sites, you’ll need a lower price (usually $9.99 or less) and to publish your file in the appropriate format for the store.

And don’t assume that a particular option is right for your ebook just because it’s what you’ve seen other bloggers doing.

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17. Using the First (Yawn-Inducing) Title that Comes to Mind

Just like a blog post title, an ebook title must grab attention. It’s going to be the first (and quite possibly the only) thing your potential ebook reader sees.

When I wrote my first full-length ebook, I planned to title it Writing Blog Content. That’s what it was about, after all! But it’s not exactly sexy.

A wise friend (Charlie Gilkey) jumped onto Skype with me and spent a while hashing out better titles. We eventually went with The Blogger’s Guide to Effective Writing … a much stronger, more compelling title.

What to do Instead

If you’ve had a working title in mind since the planning stage, now’s the time to figure out whether it’s truly good enough. You might want to ask your blog readers to vote on different titles.

The same goes for the headline on your sales page — you’ll probably want to put something a bit more intriguing than just the title of your ebook.

Jon’s Headline Hacks report is packed with lots of inspiration and advice.

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18. Designing Your Own Front Cover

Like it or not, everyone judges books by their covers.

Unless you’re a professional designer, creating your own ebook cover design is a hugely damaging mistake.

Your ebook will look amateurish, and readers may well be put off from buying it.

This is especially true if you’ll be selling your ebook on Amazon (or other e-retail sites) where most potential readers won’t have any prior knowledge of you.

If you need some examples, plus some handy templates you can use, take a look at Venngage’s 17 eBook Templates and Design Tips (From an Expert Who Sold 10k+ Paid Copies).

What to do Instead

If you can afford it, hire a designer. This is a crucial investment, and you’ll likely sell enough extra copies to more than pay for the designer’s work.

But if you really have to create your cover yourself, keep it simple and straightforward, and look at lots of examples of good and bad designs.

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19. Forgetting to Link Back to Your Blog

Your ebook might be a reader’s first contact with you. And even those who downloaded your ebook from your blog might forget where they got it.

So failing to link your ebook back to your blog is a big mistake. You’re missing an opportunity to drive new subscribers to your main email list or to a separate list that tells your current ebook readers about your next book.

What to do Instead

Include a page at the back of your ebook — after “About the Author” — that lets readers know where to find you online.

Be sure to link to your subscriber landing page, to your next book’s sales page, or anywhere else online you want to send them — e.g., your social media profiles.

Also important is giving your readers an easy way to send you feedback for your ebook, such as a dedicated email address or a link to a contact page.

And don’t be afraid to link to relevant blog content within the body of the ebook itself.

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20. Completely Ignoring the Power of Social Proof

Even if a reader already knows you, they won’t necessarily trust that your ebook is any good until it has at least one review or testimonial.

Whether your ebook is available for purchase or simply a reward for new subscribers, people probably won’t trust its value unless they can see that other people have read it and found it useful.

And if you’re in a niche that’s known for having a few sleazy operators, or one where ebooks are rare, then failing to provide social proof is an even bigger mistake.

What to do Instead

Be proactive — send out review copies to bloggers in your niche, and to any of your blog’s readers who’ve commented regularly or emailed you recently. Add positive reviews to your sales page and, if possible, use photos of the reviewers to boost credibility.

And if you can, send out your review copies before you launch your ebook – preferably at least a couple weeks before. This gives people a chance to read your book and get a review ready on or soon after your launch day.

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21. Acting Like Your Ebook Isn’t a Big Deal

Many bloggers are uncomfortable marketing their ebooks so their “launch” simply involves a new link on their blog and a couple of low-key posts on social media.

But even the best ebook will wither and die without some determined promotion.

And the truth is that if you’re not willing to market your ebook when the hard work of writing it is complete, you’ve basically wasted all that time and effort.

What to do Instead

You’re proud of your new ebook, right? So start acting like it. (If you don’t feel a swell of pride about your work then go back to the writing and editing phases until you do!)

Despite any preconceptions, you can effectively market your blog without coming across like a used car salesman.

Here’s how…

Mix up your promotional messages with lots of useful and interesting content.

If you’re giving people useful information at the same time as promoting your ebook, you’ll feel less like a pushy salesperson.

If your ebook is on Amazon Kindle, you can create some buzz by giving it away free for short periods.

If this is your first premium product, make sure you tell your existing list about it and consider offering a discount for existing subscribers.

Write guest posts for popular blogs in your niche and direct readers to a dedicated landing page for sign-ups or for the sales page for your ebook.

You might even look into ways to do something more interesting and innovative, maybe creating videos, offering special extras, or getting readers involved.

Download our Ebook Cheatsheet(a free, 1-page PDF packed with info)

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Writing an Ebook Doesn’t Have to Be a Dream

Lots of mistakes are lurking out there to trip you up on the path to publishing your first ebook, but the potential rewards are great.

You can get more subscribers for your blog, more authority in your niche, and even earn more money from your writing.

And now that you know the most common mistakes, you can avoid them with ease.

But of all the mistakes you can make, one trumps them all:

Not even trying.

Or telling yourself that you’ll write your ebook someday.

But you’re not going to make that mistake, right?

You now know how to write an ebook. Grab your calendar, take a look at the next week, and choose a day to begin.

Because in just a month or two, you could easily have a finished ebook … one that could supercharge your email list, position you as an expert, or start bringing in a steady income.

When will your ebook journey begin?

The post How to Write an Ebook: 21 Dumb Mistakes to Avoid in 2020 appeared first on Smart Blogger.

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