#I feel like I can't write the next few scenes without doing the revisions for the scenes I've already edited

[squarebracket-trickster]

Maybe I could just [square bracket trick] these revisions and leave them for future me...

Future me is gonna be so mad hehe

[tlbodine]

Stuck? Try junebugging.

I don't know who needs to hear this, but we're 5 days into nanowrimo so maybe this will be helpful.

Do you want the safety and surety of knowing what happens next in your story but can't stick to an outline? Does knowing in advance what will happen suck the joy out of discovery writing? Do you try to wing it through plots but get tangled in plot holes or have a story that runs out of steam because you can't figure out what went wrong? Are you at your most creative when you have a little bit of guidance? Do you tend to under-write? Do you get ideas in your head for random scenes and snippets that drop from the sky without context?

If any of these apply to you, junebugging a draft might be for you!

What Is Junebugging?

Since you're on Tumblr, you might already be familiar with the concept of junebugging as it relates to cleaning. If not -- I think the idea was first introduced to me by @jumpingjacktrash.

The basic idea is that you tackle cleaning by way of controlled chaos. You pick a specific area you want to focus on, like your kitchen sink, and then wander off to deal with other things as they occur to you, but always returning back to that area. You end up cleaning a little bit at a time in an order that may not make sense to an outsider but which keeps you from getting overwhelmed and discouraged.

How Does Junebugging Work in Writing?

OK, so that's great, but how does this work with writing? Well. In my case, the general idea is to jump between writing linearly, outlining, and writing out of order. It usually looks something like:

Start free-writing a scene, feeling my way through it and enjoying the discovery process.

Thinking, ok, now I have this scene, did anything need to happen to lead up to it? Do I need to go back and add some foreshadowing? Does this scene set anything up that needs to be paid off? And then jump forward/back to make those adjustments.

I'll usually have a bunch of disconnected ideas of ideas that have popped into my head, so I'll write those down in a list somewhere and then try to figure out what goes in between them and what order it goes in.

I'll write what I call "micro-scenes" which is where I'll just sketch out a few essential elements of what's going on without worrying too much about details, description, etc. -- just he did this, she said that, the setting was this, real bare-bones script. Then I can come back through and flesh out each of those microscenes into an actual scene later.

Got a story that has a complex structure? No problem. Write through each storyline one at a time and then chop them up and weave them together afterward. Write all the B plot scenes first then come back through to do A plot and C plot. Move the pieces around like legos. No one ever has to know.

This method works for me because I can't "decide" story elements in advance. I have never been able to just sit down and "figure out" what happens in a story beyond a couple steps ahead -- I have to discovery-write my way forward. But at the same time, that gets really daunting. So I zoom forward with micro-scenes, roughing out the beats in the most bare-bones way possible, then when I run out of clear vision for what happens next I backtrack, flesh out those scenes, build in connective tissue, etc. and by then I will probably find more inspiration to jump forward.

It's basically folding drafting, outlining, and revising all together into a single phase of writing, which is chaotic and goes against everything people teach you, but if it works? then it fuckin works.

Anyway, sorry for the jumbled-up post, I'm dashing this off quickly while I heat up a pizza and I'm about to dive back into my WIP -- but I hope this was a little helpful. If nothing else, take this as my blanket permission that it's 100% OK to jump around, write out of order, write messy, outline sometimes, pants sometimes, and do whatever else it takes just to get through the story. You've got this. Good luck.

[gatitties]

Straw hats x speedy male reader during the marine ford arc where y/n literally ran out of his way in the ocean using all of his speed despite struggling through the rough waves manages to arrive just in time the middle of the war between the white beards and the admirals since obviously he just can't stand there and do nothing and since the place he got teleported to had nothing to offer and he had to find the others too (yeah sorry If I didn't add much on how it would go tho maybe we could have a moment where he crashes onto the ship so hard that the ship was literally shaking?)

I'm just gonna left this right here since I was suggesting an idea if you could write male reader where he awakened his speed devil fruit and now he has the ability to control the wind using his speed and being able to travel somewhere faraway using teleportation which takes a lot of speed and stamina to do it

(think of it as like a mixture between toothless in HTTYD2 and movie sonic during the baseball scene where they kept on running at full speed as the electricity begins to surround their bodies until they released it, creating a huge shockwave)

(this is something they forgot to put in the request)

—Strawhats x male!reader

—Summary: You seem to awaken some powers that you did not know and you try to help as much as possible but time plays against you

—Warnings: none

─ You separated from the Strawhats in Sabaody like everyone else, the thing was that you ended up on a completely remote island, only a few people lived there.

─ In your desperation to return to your companions you ate a devil fruit that according to the locals could 'teleport' you to other islands.

─ It took you at least a day to think about what you were going to do, and you thought that the villagers had tricked you because you didn't feel any power after devouring it.

─ It was maybe a few hours before the whole battle in Marineford broke out that you noticed some changes in your body, or rather on the outside, they all seemed to go in slow motion while you moved.

─ It was hard for you to come to the conclusion that the teleportation they were talking about was nothing more than supersonic speed, barely having been able to experience the use of powers and with complete inexperience you jumped fearlessly into the sea.

─ You thought you would die trying to run through the water, however when you noticed that your steps were lighter due to the speed you gained enough confidence to run more.

─ Nothing could stop your feet at this point, neither waves nor giant doors, although that was the problem, you didn't know how to stop your run so abruptly, you entered the battle overwhelming many soldiers without even wanting to.

─ You couldn't stop until you flipped a couple of times and crashed into a big ship, shaking the ground in such a way that some people staggered and fell.

─ Luffy was happy to find you there, although fate was already sealed, you tried to help as much as possible, but the exhaustion of getting to Marineford and the little experience with your powers were not the best help.

─ Events did not change and unfortunately neither Ace nor Whitebeard came out of that war alive, but at least you could be there with Luffy after all that.

─ As for the next two years, you dedicated yourself to honing your powers, improving your stamina, improving your speed, you used your 'teleportation' to visit others, although everyone wanted to keep their personal training a secret, you were their confidant.

─ Chopper was so scared to see you there, he gave you a revision and recommended activities so you don't wear yourself out with your new abilities.

─ Nami used you as a guinea pig to create air currents or move clouds.

─ You didn't visit Zoro much because Mihawk looked at you badly the times you went, he's just resentful because you accidentally knocked him down in Marineford.

─ Usopp was glad to share his little inventions and crops to someone, proud boy showing you everything he has improved.

─ Sanji will cry for you to take him to another island, but you just can't interfere with his training (it's a canon event).

─ Franky will ask you to bring him cola because there isn't much around there and Brook will give you a VIP pass to his concerts, he will also ask you to do some kind of show with your speed for his shows.

─ Robin will be glad to see that you're okay, surely she was the one who helped you the most to understand your powers and trained you with the revolutionaries, you needed to get stronger so that things like the Marineford incident doesn't happen again.

[xoxoemynn]

Was tagged by @wistfulcynic to share my writing process, fun! Tagging @abigailpents, @red-sky-in-mourning, @montygreen, @gayhoediaz, aaaaand....I think I've already seen all my writer mutals active on Tumblr tagged in this BUT if you have not been, please consider yourself tagged.

Do you write in order? I do. I have to. I will happily tell other people that if they're stuck, they should skip the scene and come back later, but when I try to do it, I fail. My brain just won't let me proceed with the next until I know exactly what happens in the moments leading up to it, because WHAT IF SCENE A INFLUENCES SCENE B? I do wish I could jump around, but I can't.

How fully formed does your writing come out the first try? Pretty damn finished. I may go back in and add some flourishes, but overall, I'd say it's about 95% there.

How many drafts do you go through? Depends if it's a one shot or something like WTDB. One shots usually it's first draft, possibly pass it off to a beta reader, revised draft, and then I do another round of editing once I upload to AO3 because I swear I always find new things to fix once I see it in a totally new format, bringing us to a total of three. WTBD? Depending on the chapter, but usually looking at five or six.

Tell me about your process. I've realized I have two non-negotiables. The first is music. Sometimes I don't have music on because I feel like I need to Focus and it turns out I just don't write anything. I created a writing playlist for WTDB that basically just became my writing playlist, period, because my brain now associates it with writing. Other non-negotiable is an outline. I need one. Even if it's just bullet points. Every time I try to pants it I just end up spinning my wheels until I give in and jot at least a few notes down.

Again, I'd say one shots are different than a longer piece like WTDB. One shot I come up with an idea, write down the gist of the idea and maybe key lines/details I want to include because my memory is shit and I WILL forget. Then I just open up the ole Google doc and get going. I'm a simple lady.

WTDB was a totally different ballgame. I used Scrivener for that, and I can't imagine writing something of that length without it. I had a tab for each character, as well as pages for key settings, descriptions, references, etc. before I officially started writing. Especially with the intro character background stories, I was often shimmying sections around, and Scrivener made it really easy to do that. Then I'd write a chapter, immediately send it off to @margotandthefox for a pulse check off "does this make sense, does this work, does anything stand out to you as off?" Get it back, make edits. Once I had a nice chonk together, I'd send off to @monksofthescrew to beta that entire section of chapters. I'd then do some initial revisions, then another round when it's actually time for the chapter to go up, and a final one on AO3. (Although with ch. 5 I skipped AO3 because I had already been looking at it so much and it was weirdly liberating.)

Also I'd be remiss if I didn't mention I'd be lost without @margotandthefox, who frequently lets me just throw half-baked ideas at her, sometimes via rambling text, sometimes rambling audio message, and work through areas when I'm stuck. Highly, highly recommend you get a friend like that. 💕

Only other note I thought I'd share is I read my writing out loud as I edit, which was a trick I learned from my days as a writing tutor. And when I read along in my head, the voice narrating WTDB, especially the intro scenes, is the voice of God/the narrator from Good Omens. Now you know.

[tamiveldura]

I'm autistic and have ADHD, and I'm a chronic illness spoonie, and I'm here to tell you that A System is your friend. You don't have to write every day. You don't even have to write once a week. But you do need a system or routine that you can activate when it's Project Time.

I have been writing to-deadline for about 6 years now. I have never missed a deadline, but a few of those first ones were skin-of-the-teeth and I've been perfecting my systems ever since so that never happens again. I can't handle the stress.

The deadline is not a healthy motivator. Though my ADHD peeps will agree that it is effective. I've spent the last 6 years figuring out how to avoid Crunch Time.

The answer is a system.

I do not write every day. I do not track wordcount. I tried both of those and they don't work for me. (Maybe they work for you. Try it, but try other things too. Don't force it.)

Your system will be unique to you. But you'll figure it out by trying other systems on until you assemble the pieces that work.

My process looks like this:

Idea or deadline: either I've thought of a genius plot or I've chosen to tackle a project with other people (like a multi author series, or an anthology). Both of these trigger a new file in my scrivener wherever the story belongs.

Setup: I have a brainstorm document, an outline document, a draft document, a notes document. These keep the project contained.

Ideating: most writers really love this stage of a project, it's where all the great excitement of discovery lies. I dump all of this into my brainstorm document.

Plotting: works very well for me. Might not work for you. I organize all the tangled things in the brainstorm document into a structure. I check the beats of my chosen tropes. I hunt down plot holes. I scene block characters and action sequences in very rough terms just so I have large movement gestures. Emotional arc.

Drafting: not my favorite task, NGL. I dictate the initial draft and it's not good. I'm not trying to come up with beautiful words and amazing turns of phrase. I could, but it would make this part take 10x as long and it doesn't need to. Often this is a very dull series of simple sentences just to work my way through each scene. My goal here is to literally convert the plotting notes into the correct tense and sequence of events. Nothing more.

Revision: I like this part because I don't have to do the heavy lifting of "what happens next?" I already know what happens, now I get to make it pretty

PWA: proofreading. Not my strongest skill, so I use Pro Writing Aid to jumpstart me. It really helps with passive voice, which I'll slip into when tired.

Editing: paid. Not everything gets a paid pass. Some works go on submission. Others are released naked into the world. I do a lot of short stories.

Publishing: formatting, cover art, audio art, uploading, audio upload, newsletter announcement, promo scheduling, etcetcetc

Ok so these are the general steps of authorship, but what is the dang system?

The system boils down to two things:

1: days I decide I'm working

2: days I decide I'm not working (number 1 can turn into number two if it's a bad day)

By default I work Monday-Friday from about 1 pm to 4 pm. Weekends are off. Any day my husband comes home early gets cut short. Any day he is off I'm also off. Any day I wake up with no spoons, I'm off. Any day I realize I'm feeling stressed, I look at the calendar to check deadlines and book a week off. I take a week off after every novella or novel, but I'll go two or three short stories in a row. I take December off, usually starting at Thanksgiving and ending a week after new year.

You may be seeing a trend here. I take a lot of time off. It turns out, when I started giving myself the time I needed to rest and read and relax without guilt, my output on workdays skyrocketed.

Side note: you are probably not living with a sugar daddy paying the bills. I'm really fucking lucky to have funding in my corner. But REST is a requirement and you must do your very very best to protect your resting days/hours to the death.

Tami, I hear you say, what is the system? The writing system. The system that keeps you getting up every Monday-friday and having the energy and attention (if not the motivation) to work every day on the book?

Rest is the system. But the system is Deliberate. The system is Attentive. The system asks: is today a rest day? If yes what storytelling are we consuming to refill the well for our next workday?

It's not restful to doom scroll Tumblr "looking for inspiration." It's not restful to binge 6 seasons of Survivor in two weeks. Both of these things have their place, but when was the last time you deliberately planned your rest to be fulfilling and recharging? When was the last time you gave it any more thought then "I'm just tired."

The first day I decided to rest on purpose, I slept for 12 hours straight. The next couple of weeks were solidly 10/11 hours per night. That has since eased up to about 9 or 9.5, but it's 9ish Every Single Night. Before I decided to rest, I was only giving myself 6 or 7. Did you know some symptoms of chronic exhaustion are indistinguishable from dementia? I had no idea how much sleep I really needed.

If you're still here (I appreciate you), this is where we get to the work. You have rested. You have refilled the creative well. You wake up and decide Today Is A Writing Day.

Cool. Open the document and read your most recent chapter to figure out where you left off.

Take a glance at your notes or your outline if you have one.

What scene sounds fun today? Start writing that one, [put brackets around anything questionable] or that you have to look up later (do it later!) and as soon as you come to a point we're you've exhausted the initial energy of the day: STOP.

Write a few notes to yourself about where you think this is going next. And put it all away.

Congrats, you've probably been writing for 20 minutes. Maybe 50 if you had a good run. Perhaps you managed more than 1k. Maybe. I can only break 1k/hr when I'm dictating.

But Tami, the book is NineHundredThousand words long this will take forever.

Yeah, it will. It's a novel. But if you rest and you refill the well first, you will have more and more and more workdays.

You wanna write a book in a year? You're running a marathon, but you've gotta build up your muscles. It takes months, years, to train for a marathon. And you know what a marathon runner needs to train well and hard?

REST.

Writing Tip - What ‘Habit Over Motivation’ Actually Looks Like

We’ve all heard the writing advice that you can’t rely on motivation to get you through writing a book, sometimes you need to force yourself to do it and make a habit of it. And a lot of us will scoff at that or find it too restrictive or boring, it leaves us feeling like it’s a chore rather than a fun activity

As someone who only worked out what people actually mean by it recently, let me explain my take on it

You’re not always going to be inspired to write, you’re not always going to be motivated to write, but if you only write when you’re motivated it’s gonna take a crap ton of time - and writing anything to completion already takes donkey’s years as it is. Forming a habit is going to enable you to write consistently, and thus even unmotivated or uninspired progress is still made. Hence, sometimes you have to force yourself to write

But writing too much will make that habit impossible, or at least it becomes a chore and not a fun activity. You need to give yourself realistic goals to meet, even if it’s only something small. Write for ten minutes a day, write 500 words every week, any snail’s pace progress regardless of how insignificant it may seem. Something small enough that it doesn’t drain you but frequent enough that there’s still a habit being formed, there’s still consistency to it

I used to only write when I was inspired and motivated and could get myself to start writing, and even then the word count would be inconsistent. It could be weeks or even months between proper writing sessions. But now that I have a baseline for productivity, I have a baseline for consistent progress. And I’m only on 1K words a week! And if that doesn’t work, you can do less, or go by time spent writing if that’s a better metric for your writing style!

There’s no such thing as not enough progress when it comes to forming a consistent habit; if you can get at least one word per deadline (day, week, whatever) then that still counts as consistent progress

What everyone else seems to think of is “You must get this big amount of words written daily, think of it as eternal NaNoWriMo, if you miss even one day you’re a failure and you’ll never get the book done, SUFFER FOR YOUR ART!”

Just do what’s comfortable and it’ll be fine, no worries

[spell-cleaver]

Meta asks! 1, 3, 8, 14, 20, 25?

1. Tell us about your current project(s)  – what’s it about, how’s progress, what do you love most about it?

Ohhh boy. Current project is in the pre-writing research stage where I'm still planning it out and doing some research. I'll be writing a few unrelated oneshots while I finish research, but. Next longfic is one based on a prompt I received here nearly two years ago (anon if you see this I'm sorryyyyy) about Senator Luke Naberrie arrived at the court of Empress Padmé Amidala. It... snowballed. Now it's basically Luke trying to be a good, honest senator while every one of his relatives is extremely cutthroat and fighting over his allegiance. Padmé is evil/pro-Empire. Some other good people are evil. Vader is as much of a mess as usual. Leia is even more intense, more devoted to democracy, and scarier than usual. Padmé and Sabé have a breakup scene. I'm so excited to throw Luke into a court full of vipers politicians he is related to. I'm currently rereading Queen's Shadow and about to read Queen's Peril while I nail down how to characterise an Empress Padmé, but I have the character arcs, central themes down. And I have the first five chapters planned out, with five acts planned, so it'll hopefully be about 25 chapters. If all goes well. *crosses fingers and grimaces*

!!! I'm very excited about this project, if you can't tell :D WIP title is The Protégé.

3. What is that one scene that you’ve always wanted to write but can’t be arsed to write all of the set-up and context it would need? (consider this permission to write it and/or share it anyway)

I answered this here, but bonus other scene from another WIP:

Fantasy AU where Luke is a prince and has been "assassinated" (everyone thinks he's dead and they're about to go to war over it). Vader, who has been a pretty shitty dad since Padmé died but is feeling all his sins catch up to him, breaks down apologising in front of Luke's grave (I have all the dialogue planned out for this and Will Not Spoil it) and Luke comes in at the right moment for an emotional reunion.

I don't want to say anymore because this has been keeping me going for 4 years and I swear, I will write this, I will. I need to completely revise the plot since someone about it just dried up all inspiration, but i know how to figure out what's causing that and it will happen. There's always another fantasy AU coming for SpellCleaver's AO3 page XD

8. Is what you like to write the same as what you like to read?

By and large, yes! I'm actually a lot angstier in what I write recently than what I read, it has to be a specific type of angst to hold my interest. I think I accidentally vaccinated myself against angst. But generally what I read is more varied than what I write, and I crawled out of a years-long reading slump last summer so I'm expanding my reading tastes even further the more original fiction I read.

14. At what point in writing do you come up with a title?

Usually as soon as I get the idea. Every story needs a heading to go into my ideas folder, so I think of one that fits a little bit and slap it on. Later on they sometimes get replaced (The Seafarer -> No Heroes on the High Seas) or refined (The Free, Ordered Record and Codex of Everywhere (FORCE) -> The Codex of Everywhere). But I have a pretty good instinct for titles, so usually they get assigned early on to fit the plot and themes I want to develop, often with a double or triple meaning (The Heir). Or they get named something, I get attached, and I have to spin the motifs and themes to match the title (Eclipse, Sparks).

20. Tell us the meta about your writing that you really want to ramble to people about (symbolism you’ve included, character or relationship development that you love, hidden references, callbacks or clues for future scenes?)

I rambled about something before here, but I'm gonna take the chance to ramble about something else:

Communication. It's a core theme in a lot of my fics, without me ever really intending it??? It's not something I'm particularly fascinated by (okay, maybe a little bit - but you take my point.) I always think I'm writing about something else and then it loops back to communication. Sparks is about secret-keeping and a coming of age story, yes, but it's also about trusting your loved ones and telling them about your fears/reasons for doing things to prevent misunderstandings that lead to people getting hurt (...in an extreme way.) Reality and Other Constructs is on the surface about how we all only ever see one point of view of the world, but the entire solution (and strength of the Jedi) is that they talk to people, connect with other people, compare beliefs and points of view, to discover the truth and broaden their horizons. It's about how communication leads to a better world (and understanding of the world). Same with Eclipse, where Luke and Leia's main strength is their honesty and trust in each other, and they mainly lose when they don't know all the facts or someone is keeping secrets. And a bunch more of my fics fall into this! I think it's necessitated by the characters I'm writing about - Vader? Communicating healthily first try? Nah - but it is a fun thing to examine. So this isn't really information about specific symbolism or development I put into a fic, mainly bc I have too many to choose from (if anyone wants a ramble about a specific fic, shoot me an ask and I'll go off) but just... an observation I've had across fics. I don't know why it keeps happening, but it fascinates me.

25. What part of writing is the most fun?

I love most of it, but especially the first draft. Typing at 50 words per minutes, poetic bullshit spilling onto the page, jumping from rung to rung on a plan ladder I built previously. It's the most exciting part!

That said, I love love love planning, even if it's harder (logistics and all that) it's got all the feeling of potential. And I do like editing... I just like editing other people's stuff more than my own :D

Thank you so much for the ask!!! Sorry I went off a bit XD I think this is the longest ask-reply I've ever written (that isn't prose) but I got very excited.

Send me some fun meta asks for writers!

[oddhour]

hi gina!! i've followed your journey from HPFF to author-dom, and it's so incredible to see what leaps and bounds you've made. congratulations on finishing your manuscript! i can't wait to buy your book THE VERY SECOND it hits the shelves. you're a huge inspiration to me and countless others. maybe this is weird, but do you have any advice to share for aspiring authors? you seem to have found a good niche and community. no worries if you don't want to answer—thank you for being an inspiration!

:’))))))) this is a very nice message to get while i'm fixing the Entire Middle Third of my book

The first thing that comes to mind is: you should try to be in a community/group that largely writes for fun before you enter a community that writes for some form of profit. The former is healthier for your actual creativity, and you want to make sure that part of you is strong before wading into any place where people worry about marketability, or deadlines, or the next big thing, or making a living. The worst that can happen is killing your original love for writing. Be aware of whether you want to make your hobby a career, because you will have to make compromises and concern yourself with a lot of non-writing things. (I didn't pursue visual arts because my gut knew I would hate having clients dictating the things I designed, I also didn't have a certain drive in wanting more of my art/designs out there, which I do with my stories).

I think you should be certain of what you want in a creative friend/critique partner before seeking those out, too. It's important to find others who are on the same page. Years back, I specifically sought out writers who were also in the process of writing a manuscript, who had posted writing excerpts that I liked, and who seemed relatively confident about their writing. I didn't become friends with everyone—maybe because we didn't totally vibe or maybe because I'm not what they're looking for, etc. But that's fine! I made a few really good close writing friends and a lot of other kinds of friends, because not everything has to be about writing.

When I started this manuscript, I knew I wanted to get an agent with it. I also thought, it's okay if I don't, and I can always revise more or write a different story. I'm lucky in that I already had a great support from readers before I ever tried to do this. Many aspiring and debut authors haven’t had the experience of having their writing widely read, and it can cause a lot of anxiety and hunger—wanting that validation from readers and not being sure if people will like your writing (even if a publisher buys your book, from that point it’ll be two years until you see it on shelves). I don't have those feelings almost at all, and it's EXTREMELY freeing. Even if people didn't like what I wrote professionally, I know that I've written many things that people DO like, and even just that shields against anxiety.

(Midway last year, I got into fanfic again briefly because I fell in love with Claude von Riegan of Fire Emblem—it happens—and it was really nice writing oneshots in a day without really thinking about them and posting them and getting comments again. It was a wonderful reminder that I could, in fact, write, during a time where my manuscript was yelling "you have no idea what you're doing." Sure my fandom detour delayed my manuscript completion by a few months, but it was creatively and mentally worth it. I have friends who are active in fandom and fanfic the entire time they're pursuing pro publication as well).

I'm always improving my writing. I'm revising my entire middle third right now, because my brain finally understood how to make a story Book-Shaped instead of being a loosely connected set of scenes like fanfic is. I'm picking up a lot of holistic skills I never had before. Everyone's writing process is different and you need to be actively paying attention to your own. You should try new tips and tricks to see if they work with your process. Most will not and that's fine—now you know! Some will, and that's even better.

And I'm still having fun! I have my ups and downs, but it's a very familiar set of ups and down, and that comes with the experience of having written for a decade. I think finishing a story is the most important milestone, because it'll probably be the one milestone you come back to most often. I'm glad I made it a point to finish my fanfic novels, because it laid the foundational confidence that I can finish stories, even if it takes a long time! Also, writing an ending is nothing like writing a beginning or middle, and skillwise it's important to crest that hill—being able to write the part where the entire story comes together. Build a writing process around finishing a story.

This is now a long rambling thing, I hope it covers some topics that are helpful!! Thank you again for the message and now I gotta get back to work <:

[imawriteriwrite]

I'm currently trying to write my first lengthy fanfic, and I keep getting stuck. I've scrapped my writing so many times because it simply doesn't feel right. Do you have any tips for a beginning author? Specifically pace-wise, I feel like I'm either writing too much about a scene or too little and I can't seem to find the right middle line.

I LOVE being asked for advice, it makes me feel like I at least appear to know what I’m doing. First of all, congrats on working on your first long fic! Whatever you do, DON’T give up on it!

The MOST important thing, in my mind, for a beginning writer is just don’t give up, don’t stop, just keep going. Here’s a secret: there will always be something that doesn’t feel right, there will always be times when you think everything is perfect only to glance at it the next day and think it’s absolute crap. The thing is, you can’t really see what’s good and what’s not good until you’re completely done. That can get complicated with a fic if you’re posting chapter by chapter so whether it’s just finishing the first chapter or the whole entire thing just finish it. Even if it feels like crap, even if you hate every word, just push through, finish that chapter and maybe even the next, just keep writing because eventually, I promise, you’ll hit your groove and then you can go back and see if that really is crap and rewrite it and play with it.

Pacing can be a pain, like I know I was terrible with pacing at first and it’s honestly something I still have to focus a lot on because I have a habit of drawing things out a liiiittle too long. In my original novels, it’s something I fix in revisions, in fics I mostly just let myself ramble because whatever. But the main thing I do to help myself is to OUTLINE. I would not survive without an outline. Usually, chapter by chapter but at least a basic plot outline so I know where I’m going and get an idea of how long it should take to get there, if that makes sense?

So pace-wise… Okay. Let’s say you think you wrote too little about a scene that’s, in my opinion, the easiest to fix. Because, when you read through, you just add to it. After you’ve finished a chapter and you’re reading back through it, I usually find, it’s really obvious where you need to add too. And same with where you’ve rambled on longer than needed, you’ll see that when you read back through it a few times, try to notice if you’ve repeated thoughts or feelings or anything like that, just using different words. You want to spend time on descriptions but you don’t want to ramble too much. With pacing, for me the general rule is: don’t linger so long on something people will get bored but make sure you’re not going so fast that it’s confusing. Some scenes, need a little lingering, I personally like to draw out kiss scenes or emotional scenes but you also want to make sure you aren’t lingering so long that it’s annoying and you’re just restating the same thing again and again. I’m not sure this is helpful? Ugh. And I feel like I’m just repeating myself but again after you’ve forced yourself through a few chapters and gotten into the groove of things and go back and reread it will be easier to see what needs work. Where to cut some. Where to add some.

Also, if it doesn’t feel right maybe try starting it differently. Maybe you’re starting the story too early or too late. Maybe you need to start it from a different characters POV. If something isn’t working, you don’t necessarily need to rewrite the same part again and again, you might need to try something completely different.

A lot of pacing is very instinctual for me at this point but I say that knowing I drag things out too much sometimes and I especially sucked at pace when I first started writing and I’ve been writing for over six years now. Of course, an important piece of advice is making sure the scenes are needed. Having scenes that don’t contribute the plot moving forward or important character development will seem slow and unneeded and just drag the plot down (I’m terrible at doing this) so that’s why I outline! Outlines are my best friend, they help you keep things straight and figure out what needs to happen so it’s much smoother when you’re actually writing (in my opinion). 

And I’m rambling, sorry, I’m tired! SO yeah, outline, WRITE, and don’t scrap things! Try something new if this isn’t working, maybe you’ve already outlined but something isn’t right. Maybe you should attempt outlining or you just need to try starting the story in a different way. 

Those are my top tips. I know it’s hard but things always suck at parts and you always hate bits and pieces. I’ve personally been rewriting my newest chapter of Paparazzi, again and again, I must’ve redone the ending at least a dozen times cause it wasn’t GOOD. So like you just have to write through that and then go back and fix it once the chapter or whatever is done.

I hope this helped some, if you have any other questions I’m willing to do my best to answer and provide advice! Happy writing!  

[transguykeith]

i wanted to ask u a few of the writer asks but i can't decide which one i want to ask you most, could you answer all the asks? lmao if its too muh of a mission i can just decide on a few

It’s not like I’m doing anything else so yeah, why not. I just won’t ones that might not apply. I’ll put some of this under a read more:

1. Describe your comfort zone—a typical you-fic.

usually some sort of character study of sorts mixed in with scattered events to lead to an ultimate end goal.

2. Is there a trope you’ve yet to try your hand at, but really want to?

im a sucker for a good soulmate au, so maybe one of those eventually

3. Is there a trope you wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole?

i would never write an abo fic, just no

4. How many fic ideas are you nurturing right now? Care to share one of them?

um, a LOT, like a ton of them my main one is a college au of sorts centering around Yuuri and Phichit as well as Victor, its title is Made of Stars and its gonna be fun to write

5. Share one of your strengths.

i mean, i guess im okay at character studies, but i dunno, im really not super great

6. Share one of your weaknesses.

pretty much everything, im not great at connectivity or writing in a pretty style. like i just kinda write, im not particularly great at it

7. Share a snippet from one of your favorite pieces of prose you’ve written and  explain why you’re proud of it.

This is from chapter 5 of You’re Not Alone:He danced because he skated, and he skated because skating was flying. And somewhere along the way he forgot what had drawn him to it the first place. He supposed that that was what he was searching for some days, that spark that started everything.

That spark that started a fire, a fire that’s flames were the smallest they had ever been. It was almost funny how one small moment could all but extinguish him. A spark started it all, ballet was just kindling, ice skating was logs, and he was a forest ablaze. But it was as if that one moment had sucked the oxygen from the air and the flames died, it suffocated him.

This is a bit flowwier than some of what i write, it’s one of my favorite lines because it encompasses what i have him feeling in that exact moment

8. Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

I think this is one of my favorites, it’s from chapter 17 of You’re Not Alone:

“I’m glad too,” Otabek smiled. “It’s how this doing goes though. You dedicate your soul, mind, and body to the ice and you don’t always get to leave without losing something to it. It’s give and take, we’re all just caught in an intricate dance until the fates bottom us out one way or another.”

“When did you go all serious on me?” Yuri teased. He had gotten used to Otabek’s propensity for the occasional dramatic monologue though, they gave a good look into the head of his friend.

“Think about it Yuri,” Otabek clearly wasn’t done. “Here we are, the pinnacle of humanity, literally trying to carve a place for ourselves in history. We have to fight the fundamentals of the universe to do what we do, work against gravity itself all while having a timer above our heads. Who knows when it will expire and the ice will take it all away. We fight everything to be able to do this: the laws of physics, the passing of time, even our own bodies. That’s what makes you a soldier, we all fight this fight but you’re out there with a makeshift helmet and a sharpened stick while the rest of us have full armor and swords. And who is it that we see winning the battle time and time again, you.”

“Did you really drag me out here to give a dramatic monologue on how impressive I am,” Yuri flushed at the barrage of compliments. “You’re such a dork,” he buried his face in his hands.

I just really like how it turned out.

9. Which fic has been the hardest to write?

I guess You’re Not Alone just because of how long it is, but it depends. some of it has been very easy to write and some of it ( ahem my current chapter) has been really hard

10. Which fic has been the easiest to write? 

I’ve written a lot of little drabbles and one shots that i havent posted anywhere but the easiest was probably the little request i did yesterday which is either titled “Pretty Darn Cute” or “The second prettiest boy in the world”

11. Is writing your passion or just a fun hobby?

a little bit of both really

13. What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever come across?

if you have an idea, write it down immediately. it doesnt matter if youre currently engaged in something else, write that shit down or you WILL lose it

14. What’s the worst writing advice you’ve ever come across?

not necessarily advice, but like the idea of only writing it if you think its good

16. If you only could write one pairing for the rest of your life, which pairing would it be?

can I say Yuri Plisetsky and happiness, because yes

17. Do you write your story from start to finish, or do you write the scenes out of order?

I tend to write my chapters in order, but within each chapter i jump around a bit and then connect everything

18. Do you use any tools, like worksheets or outlines?

I have an outline in my head that i sometimes write down, im usually good about following it

19. Stephen King once said that his muse is a man who lives in the basement. Do you have a muse?

my muse is the genderless ghost that haunts me it stares into my cold soul and pokes me until i words

20. Describe your perfect writing conditions.

I prefer it to be kind of dark and i like to be nice and cozy, though sometimes ill be struck with random inspiration and have to write it no matter where i am

21. How many times do you usually revise your fic/chapter before posting?

Ha, revising?! whats that

25. What do you look for in a beta?I have never had a beta, but if i did have one i would like someone to help me idea bounce and keep my writing from sounding choppy

26. Do you beta yourself? If so, what kind of beta are you? 

I haven’t but i would be willing to if anybody wanted me to. I’m pretty good with general editing skills and idea flow

30. Do you accept prompts?

yes! please send me prompts i love them. I cannot exaggerate how much i appreciate being sent prompts

31. Do you take liberties with canon or are you very strict about your fic being canon compliant?

i would say im right in the middle about this, it really depends on what im writing though

32. How do you feel about smut?

ive never really tried my hand at it, i havent written anything that calls for it, but my next fic might

33. How do you feel about crack?

i kind of have written some stuff that could be considered borderline crack, but most of it isnt fanfic and i havent shared that

34. What are your thoughts on non-con and dub-con?

personally, i probably wouldn’t write it, but if its necessary for a backstory then maybe but certainly not in detail

35. Would you ever kill off a canon character?

oh certainly, just depends on the fic im writing

36. Which is your favorite site to post fic?

ao3

37. Talk about your current wips.

my main wip is Youre Not Alone and that one is getting close to its end, i know where it’s going and how it will end i just have to write my way there, but I’ve had some pretty bad writers block in regards to it lately

38. Talk about a review that made your day.

i got this one really long review gushing about how much my story meant to them and how reading it always made their day feel better and that was just such a nice review and it made me really happy. Another one i really liked was somebody complimenting something i did that a lot of other people complained about so i really appreciated that one

39. Do you ever get rude reviews and how do you deal with them?

ive gotten a few upset reviews about something i included in You’re Not Alone, but i cant do much about it. i once got a review about four chapters in asking why yuri had a menstrual cycle and this wasnt rude exactly, but how do you read that far without knowing he’s trans in my fic