#I have been writing/plotting/brainstorming a lot the last few months

[mathmusicninja]

Wrapping up the SAINW arc in the WWAC universe before we go back to main story

[snugglesquiggle]

Do you like juzi or vuzi more

i'm gonna ramble hella hard about this, sorry, but that's the bargain you strike when you shoot an ask my way

but there's a fun story to my answer. you see, V/Uzi was actually my first interest, and in fact when i started kicking around the idea of writing Murder Drones fanfics, the first idea i seriously tried to work out was a V/Uzi fic

(for the curious, general shape of the idea was that Uzi encounters V first, railgun wipes her memory, fails to befriend her like she did with N and has to run away. Uzi then sneaks out again and again, exploiting the railgun-induced amnesia and errors to try and get through to V, leading to a kind of mutual rivalry as V tries to figure out why she keeps having gaps in her memory.

pretty sure it was going to escalate to Uzi hacking into V and potentially going dubious places. the working title for that fic was "Somnabulation". which means sleep-walking, so it would have been kind of ironic for Somnabulation to be the mind control fic and Hostile Takeover the one that spends half its wordcount in memory simulations)

but i'm rambling.

i never ultimately figured out how to make the V/Uzi fic come together into something i liked. and i didn't have that much motivation to do so, as there are good V/Uzi fics out there, like This World Couldn't See Us or Hold On Tight To This Time, This Place

but, as you'll quickly discover if you search the tag now, J/Uzi fics are a lot less numerous. i did like some of what i saw there, so i didn't have a full on "if i don't do this, nobody will" kind of motivation driving me

but then one day, out of the blue, a single thought occurred to me, an observation, comparison, an answer to the question of "what could a relationship between these two possibly be based on?"

and then the whole fic just crystallized around that thought.

(what was thought? i'll leave that as an exercise for the reader, or perhaps i'll save it for a minor reveal later on in Hostile Takeover. it's not very profound, but when it occurred to me i did have the distinct feeling that i'm not sure anyone had thought of the connection i just made.)

and i want to emphasize, when i say it crystallized, i mean it seriously came together, all at once. on October 31 last year, i jotted down the outline, initially as something to post in a discord brainstorming channel, but then i spent all evening writing more and more, and came out the other end with ten thousand words of notes and scene sketches

but anyway, all of that yapping is a long way to say

at the start i preferred V/Uzi (V was my favorite character, and J barely registered as anything but a joke to me), and i began writing Hostile Takeover essentially as a writing challenge or puzzle to prove something, or even just as a practice run for the fic i really wanted to write.

but i think my phrasing here gives the game away, doesn't it? i think very few people would write nearly 160k words in four months out of mere intellectual curiosity

so to finally, finally answer your question, my favorite is J/Uzi and by a long shot. the relationship absolutely grew on me as i wrote it. i'd genuinely go as far as to say my hot take is that it's actually easier to have J/Uzi make sense than V/Uzi, if you're being truly faithful to both characters. is this because J has less character to be faithful toward? shut up.

i think the biggest factor here is that in the course of writing HT, V stopped being my favorite character. i still find her a lot of fun when i'm reading her in other fics, but writing her has just brought a lot of her flaws to the forefront, and it's hard not to be increasingly frustrated with her character. (is this self-inflicted on my part for writing a plot where V causing problems is the central driver? maybe)

but yeah, i've found myself so much less interested in V/Uzi as time goes on. one of my mutuals has describe vuzi as something to the effect of the blander, safer alternative to juzi, and don't look at me i'm just misquoting him.

[tetrakys]

I'm sorry it's been a hot minute since I interacted with the fandom but what is happening with Eldarya??? Also what is call of the dragon?? 👀

Oh boy anon... where to start?!

Let me try to draw a timeline...

1. The company decided to cut Eldarya in two seasons, move Lance's introduction as LI to season 2, remove other LIs and give the game to another creator since around episode 22 of TO. Since then Chino has stopped working on Eldarya and, this is my personal opinion, the person who took over had no interest in romance because since then the only romantic interactions we've had in Eldarya have been a few random sex scenes. No deep dialogues, no dates, no cuddling, not even kissing except maybe one or two exceptions and this has continued all the way through season 2.

2. In March 2021 the company hosting Beemoov's servers in Europe caught fire. Beemoov's servers were destroyed, fortunately most backups were in another building so all their games and accounts were saved except for... you guess it, Eldarya. All European language accounts were lost and the american and brazillian servers were the only ones who got spared. We all lost our accounts and the company had to come up with a way to bring people back to the game. They created a new free currency for TO and opened a shop for a few months. This led to the first season becoming completely unprofitable, plus lots of people never came back since then. Mostly old players who used to spend money on their collections.

3. New games started to be developped, Uncoven and Henri's Secret season 2. The "new" Eldarya creator went off to write Uncoven at the same time as still being theoretically in charge of Eldarya. The company started to recycle events mechanics both in MCL and Eldarya so everyone has been unhappy with events in both games because they are extremely repetitive since basically two years.

4. ANE's writing has gone more and more downhill. It'd started decently but because the writer was new and had no idea what happened in TO nor what were Chino's characters backhrounds and history, the story is full of plot holes, contraddicting things all the time and all the characters' personalities have changed. It reads like a different game.

5. Lots of people have left, very few are playing the game at this point, and even less are spending money on it, so it's very very obvious that the company is just letting it die, the game is often bugged and the art quality is a hit or miss. Only 2 episodes are left at this point. Fans who still cling to it are angry. Fans who abandoned are sad. No one wants to play ANE anymore but lots of people wish there was a revamp of the game once ANE ends, with good writing and art. However, because the game isn't making money right now the company won't invest in something that is not profitable.

This is it I think 🤔

About your last question, Eldarya: the Dragon's Call is a story I'm writing and publishing on my AO3. The main plot is Chinomiko's and we brainstorm together all events and characters' backgrounds and personalities. This is the story of Lance's route and Valkyon’s routes if she were to make Alternate Eldarya games. Because at the moment this isn't planned I asked her if I could write it and share it with people and she kidly said yes. If the company ever decides to make Alternate Eldarya games I will delete it. If you want to read this story, links are in the pinned post in my blog, I've released 4 chapters so far and the 5th is coming this weekend ☺️

[elizmanderson]

Hi again. You made a few posts about first drafts being ridiculous and cleaning them up later. And I desperately need more writers talking about the writing process as they are writing it (like 'making of' posts/ videos, any creator who does those gets me obsessed with them)

Anywho, I was wondering how your revision process looks? How different is your first draft from your last and how did you make the decisions of what to cut vs what to expand on?

I know for myself, my MC is a constant-overthinker and all of faer POV is stream-of-consciousness, and fae goes on a LOT of unnecessary but characterizing tangents that I don't know how to work with, given the corner I wrote myself into.

TLDR - Any info about your revision process would be much appreciated.

Thanks :)

hello and thanks for asking!

first of all, in case anyone is curious about the original post, it's here. also, there are many ridiculous things in this draft of NettieWIP, but that post was brought to you specifically by this line that I wrote even though it's completely tonally wrong for both this book and this character lmao

okay, revisions. this is gonna get long, but I'm breaking it up into sections that will hopefully be helpful.

general process

so the first thing is, my revision process and how much I cut or add is different for every project. but here are some general principles I follow. keep in mind that ymmv with any and all of these! you have to find what works for you. this is just what works for me.

1. finish the draft first

I will never finish a draft if I'm focused on editing while I go. I've been hardcore resisting with NettieWIP because I keep having ideas about how to make it better mid-draft. but I know if I don't finish the draft as-is, it's not going to get done.

2. let it breathe before diving in

sometimes I have the urge to rush right into revisions after finishing a draft, but I do force myself to wait at least a month or two before returning to it. it gives me the emotional distance I need to be able to make decisions about what to cut, no matter how much I like things that don't serve the story.

(again going to have to fight this urge hard with NettieWIP in particular lol)

3. read it before diving in

the one thing that stays consistent from project to project is that I always do a full readthrough before I start revising. highly, highly recommend this regardless of what else works for you! reading through my entire manuscript gives me a big-picture view of the whole story and how all the parts work together (or not), as well as what the problems are.

note: when I do my readthrough, while I do make general notes of my thoughts, I do NOT focus on line-level details or edits. which brings us to...

4. fix big things first

okay jk actually this stays consistent from project to project, too. when approaching revisions, I always start with the biggest changes and work my way down. line edits are the last thing I do, because I figure it wastes my time and energy otherwise. what if I put all this energy into line edits or scene-level changes only to cut half those lines or scenes later when I make structural changes?

5. this is the time to plan!

I'm a plantser, which is somewhere halfway between a plotter and a pantser. while the amount of planning I do before a first draft varies, I always dedicate time to planning before revising. the exact process varies, but it's kinda like this.

read the entire manuscript, making note of plot holes and problem areas

brainstorm potential fixes and where they might fit in

write an outline, synopsis, chapter map, whatever (for me it's usually either a synopsis or chapter map because I simply cannot with outlines)

6. start rewriting

...and as discussed in a different post earlier, I always start the new draft in a new document! you never know when something from an earlier draft could come in handy.

7. use beta readers

I typically do a second draft on my own, because I typically have at least some idea of what needs fixing when I'm done with a first draft. I bring beta readers in once I hit the point where the story's cohesive but I know more work needs to be done, but I'm not sure what that work is.

you specifically asked how I decide what to cut vs. what to expand on, and beta readers are one important way—especially for what to expand on. while I have a habit of overexplaining in many areas, things in my head frequently fail to make it onto the page.

(I think this is because things are obvious to me bc I thought them up. but readers cannot see inside my head, so they may be confused or think a character or plot point is underdeveloped even though I have a lot more information about it mapped out internally.)

if readers feel like information is unnecessary or overexplained or like I'm patronizing them, that's a potential area for cutting. if readers are confused, lack insight, or feel like a reveal came out of nowhere, that's a potential area for expanding. that said...

parsing beta feedback

while outside feedback is important, it's at least equally important to be able to decide what feedback to listen to and what feedback to ignore! not all feedback is good feedback. and even feedback that's technically good may not be good feedback for your story.

for example, I had feedback on the manuscript that's now on sub that was drastically different than the rest of the feedback I received on that same manuscript. I love the beta who gave it to me and I respect their opinion a lot, so I took this feedback seriously. but I couldn't make it work, felt deeply frustrated, and spiraled a bit over my ability to write a book even though it was far from my first.

then I got into Author Mentor Match which I applied to mostly because I need some guidance re: this feedback. my mentor basically said, "I think this is good feedback, but I think it would change this book into a pacier, more action-packed book. and I don't think that's the kind of story you're trying to tell."

and my mentor was right! I think this friend and I are simply interested in different kinds of stories. so as much as they love my stories and as great as they are at giving feedback, their feedback may not be a good fit for me.

usually, I like to look at patterns of feedback.* the more readers agree that a plot point is weak or a reveal doesn't have enough build-up, the more likely it is that I really do need to worry about that.

BUT if a single reader's feedback makes me go oh and I really vibe with it, that's also good feedback to listen to! as long as you know what the heart of your story is, you can follow feedback that helps your story do more of what you want it to do and do it more effectively.

*in my experience, patterns are most helpful when your readers share aspects of your identity. for example, I'm neurodivergent and queer. when most of my readers were neurotypical and straight, I'd get told "this doesn't make sense" "no one thinks/feels like that" "this is unrealistic." and I'd be told that by multiple readers, so I'd decide that meant I had to change the story, even though something deep down told me I was wrong about that, that my betas were wrong about that.

now, most of my readers are neurodivergent and/or queer, so they understand when my characters do or think or feel certain things. and at the very least, they never tell me a character is being "unrealistic" or assume that characters' feelings aren't based on things I have really felt. so particularly for marginalized creators, patterns of feedback may NOT be helpful if your readers do not share your marginalization.

examples of changes to my drafts

cutting and combining

The Remarkable Retirement of Edna Fisher was drafted over a year and a half as part of a last man standing-style writing challenge, so the first draft was 160,000 words. it was pretty obvious I'd have to cut SOMETHING, since I was planning on querying agents.

(recommended for adult fantasy if you're seeking trad pub as a debut author: 120k max word count. better to be lower if you're writing contemporary fantasy, while you can be on the high end if you're writing epic fantasy. other subgenres may fall in between.)

I cut...a lot, in some cases through actually cutting while in other cases combining things. for example, there's a scene now where a dragon attacks Detroit while Our Heroes are delayed there. It used to be separate scenes: Edna & Co. delayed in Detroit, with not much happening except the reason for the delay, and a later scene where they came across a random dragon attack elsewhere. additionally, the secondary antagonist runs around with an old friend who used to be two separate characters: the character he is now, and another old friend of theirs who was just sort of a generic asshole who didn't serve much purpose in the story.

thanks to cutting and combining scenes and characters this way, the story moves along faster, the stakes involved in those scenes and characters are higher, and everything is more tightly tied together. when I finally queried, Remarkable Retirement was down to just 98,000 words (published at 99,000 words).

similarly, in the book now on sub (Buried Things aka GroundskeeperWIP), I cut most of a short chapter from the antagonist's POV. I tried it as a prologue but didn't like that I don't do prologues in general although I know some folks love them, then tried moving it later but didn't like that either, and finally ended up just using bits of it that I felt were particularly useful in a chapter focused on a different character. I also cut a chapter from the POV of a friendly ghost/wingman from beyond the grave (but have it saved in case a future editor's like "you know what we need—")

worth noting that Buried Things wasn't massively overwritten. I think the longest draft was 104k or 106k, while it's on sub at about 90k (and the entirety of the last 4,000 words I cut from it was through line edits, not plot changes). however, both chapters stalled the story without adding much. what they did add, I was able to incorporate into other chapters instead.

expanding

while Remarkable Retirement's need for cuts was more obvious, some things were also expanded upon, especially with my publisher! my editor felt that the romantic subplot needed a little more build-up—not in terms of what happens or how it happens, but in terms of making it clearer why these two people start to have those feelings. similarly, a friend who read Buried Things thought it was great overall but that a particular character wasn't fleshed out enough.

in both cases, I think it was that instance of "things in my head do not always make it onto the page." when my friend had questions about the character in Buried Things, I had answers; those answers just weren't on the page. same thing with the romantic subplot in Remarkable Retirement. so it was a matter of taking what was in my head and making sure it actually came across on the page, although in other cases I may realize I don't already know that stuff and need to brainstorm to develop it more.

both together

in the case of NettieWIP, even though I'm not done drafting yet, I already know some stuff I'll need to cut and expand on! I find I'm repeating myself a lot in this draft, plus it's very dialogue heavy. so I'll need to cut back on some themes and emotions I keep bringing up, as well as trim down the dialogue and let the murder investigation not be entirely conversation.

conversely, there's virtually no setting description or atmosphere, so those are things I'll want to expand on in revisions.

tl;dr: in conclusion

okay this got really long because if you get me talking about writing it is impossible to shut me up, but here are the major takeaways for everyone playing along at home:

my general process: (1) finish the draft; (2) let the draft breathe; (3) read the entire draft; (4) focus on big-picture changes first; (5) plan your revision/rewrite; (6) rewrite/revise; (7) use beta readers

knowing the heart of your story helps you figure out what to cut, what to keep, and what to expand on

knowing the heart of your story helps you figure out what feedback might be useful and what feedback might not be right for this book

it can also helpful to look for patterns of feedback, but this is mostly helpful when your beta readers share your identity, particularly if you are a marginalized creator

thanks so much for giving me an excuse to drone on and on about writing your question!

[james-p-sullivan]

so i think things have been doing better in terms of recovery from the tbi i had last year. reading and writing is still nowhere near where id like but i also don’t want to ignore the progress ive made over these past few months. i still have a lot of trouble reading large pieces of text at a time if im unfamiliar with it, but i think writing has helped me get used to prose and new story lines again (which is good because there is SO much fan fiction in my tbr pile that ive been dying to sink my teeth into)

i still have no memory of the accident itself or even the days surrounding it in general. there’s pretty much an entire week that results in a 404 error in my brain when i try to think about it. every so often someone will say something and im like ‘OH YEAH’ or have zero recollection so there definitely are things that ive forgotten. im trying to be forgiving about this but having amnesia was one of my biggest fears and then it freaking happened so yeahhhhh 😬

but all in all, i can slowly feel my creativity coming back. im having sudden bursts of inspiration and ive been crocheting and brainstorming personal projects, it’s been so much fun! there’s a novel plot ive been kicking around since 2019 that im actually starting to develop now and im super excited about it (you guys will start to hear about it soon hehe)

[kpopfanfictrash]

Hi Shanna!

Hope you're doing well.

I'm so excited for elemental 😍🤩. When it comes to fantasy au, I know every part of the plot and back story will be well thought. I don't know how you come up with this stories overall, do you just mix ideas together, or do you get inspired by movies.

Is fantasy your favorite genre to write?

And also, how do you keep yourself motivated to keep writing the story, I'm asking because I see all these writers get inspired and have this amazing ideas, and they start posting, but eventually quit or take too long to continue the story. How do you deal with 'time pressure' (i mean from yourself, not others)

Hello and good morning! I'm so glad to hear you're excited!! I'm super excited to post, as well. Have been making good headway (although this feels like I'm jinxing by saying LOL)

Putting the rest under a cut because how did this get so long?

I actually don't watch a ton of movies or TV, but I do read a lot! My favorite genres to write (and read) are fantasy and romance... which probably shows in the types of AUs I post lol. It kind of depends on my mood/appetite which one sounds most appealing. For me, writing fantasy is more time-consuming/exhausting because not only are you keeping track of the plot and the characters, you're also creating an entirely new world/magic system and then, depending on whether you're writing high fantasy or modern fantasy, there's wholly new countries, governments, religions, politics, etc.

There are certain types of fantasy I've always been interested in and love to write about. Heaven/Hell mythology. Greek/Roman mythology. Celtic mythology. Fey realms/AU. Dragon lore (mostly Western, although I've recently become super interested in Eastern). You've probably seen a lot of those concepts pop up in my writing, as well!

All of my fantasy ideas tend to start with a what-if. Sometimes that comes from a movie or book. Sometimes that comes from an MV (wink; Elemental), or sometimes it's just a weird dream or tweet or random thought that popped into my head. The brainstorming process afterwards usually starts with me asking myself questions: what's the main conflict? what are the motivations of main characters? where does the story begin? how does it end? And so on, and so forth. I could probably write a whole TED talk about random writing observations LOL

One thing you mentioned is backstories in writing. This is something I find gets hammered out in my editing process. Usually, I know my plot before I start to write but character motivations/backstories are trickier. I need to wait and see what my characters say and do before I can smooth out their backstory and make it consistent. Usually, by the second or third edit, their character lines have fully filled in for me.

And lastly, oof, motivation. This is one of the trickiest parts of writing in my opinion. I'm a big believer motivation doesn't just happen. You need to sit down and start writing; motivation will follow. I know this sounds counter-intuitive and I'm as guilty as the next person of saying, "I don't feel like writing today," but tbh, you're never - or rarely - going to feel like writing until you actually start.

Now, with that said, I have gotten a lot better about putting pressure on myself. In the past, I'd churn out these gigantic one shots every month (or few weeks) and it took a massive amount of time and energy. I didn't give myself time to recharge, and I think I burned out much faster. Now, I'm more of the mindset that this is my last priority. Work comes first. Friends and family come first. Errands and taking care of myself come first. Writing is important, but it comes after all that. As long as I'm making some type of progress, I try to be content with this. Even if I don't post as often as I used to. I think this is a much more sustainable process and gives me content ideas for the future (how can you write about life without living?)

Phew! Hope that answers all your questions. Have a wonderful day/night and stay safe/healthy!

[yerbamansa]

Ohhhh my god, so I wrote a novel-length fic over the last five months and I just…need to write down some Thoughts on that, because it hadn’t happened before and I have no idea if it will again, just seemed worthwhile to collect myself a bit. To be clear: I’m…really proud of myself?? Who knew I had it in me! And I think it’s a fun read! I learned a lot! More under a cut if you care to read my ramblings.

The gdoc containing my initial outline of ideas was created on October 29, 2022. I shared it with the group chat from whence the idea came, because I was planning to participate in a daily prompt challenge in November so I wasn’t going to have time for it yet. By late November, quite a bit of work was happening in the doc—a proper outline with a three-act structure I borrowed from various writing tips websites and then wandered off on my own with. I’ve never written something this structured and long before, so I searched for some structure tips.

I found a few different forms (a 9-block, 27-chapter structure; a three-act checklist) that I ended up using almost like a self-survey/brainstorm. A couple passes through that, plus trying to work it out as a character/timeline spreadsheet, gave the whole thing a much clearer shape. I knew I wanted to alternate between Ed’s and Stede’s POVs, but not limit it to theirs. Early on I decided that Oluwande would be a third POV character because (a) I love writing him and (b) the crew’s perspective is REALLY IMPORTANT. Then, because I used Lucius as an outsider, he became the fourth POV, introduced at the beginning of act 2.

[ID: A bar chart showing word count by POV character. Ed has over 34,000 words, Stede about 26,000 words, Oluwande 13,000 words, and Lucius a little under 10,000 words. End ID.]

But it’s not like I had it 100% perfectly mapped out at a chapter level, nor did I know exactly what details would…emerge. Like, I knew the shape of the details, but I kind of worked them out as I got to know this version of the characters better. The outlining process was kind of my draft: I went through it to get to the point that I could sit down and outline each chapter (or two ahead, in some cases) and then write it.

Very few things were written out of order, but the scene where they’re trapped in the storage closet was written well before I finished chapter 1. And I thought it would happen later than it did. I really thought I was gonna enemies-to-lovers these guys! 😂

There were a TON of details/potential plotlines I thought about including, but ultimately decided not to, either because it was totally out of my lane to do it justice (ex.: literally anything to do with Ed’s heritage and food—I read up some and whew, it’d have to be its own story, and not really mine to tell) and/or because it would’ve overcomplicated/distracted from the plot as it unfolded. There was a whole thing where Stede was meant to pull a Christopher Kimball thing and screw over the magazine by starting a rival publication and, you know what, there was more than enough drama to mine from just the Bon Appetit Test Kitchen debacle(s).

The idea came from a group chat, and the same group chat was instrumental in helping me flesh out a bunch of character details. That was fun. That’s also where my main beta reader came from. It’s funny, I’ve written on and off pretty much my whole life, but rarely had an editor like this. It was very collaborative and challenging in the best possible ways, I think; especially with something this long, it really helped to have someone who knew some of what was in my head but wasn’t nose-deep in it.

While it hasn’t been a runaway hit or anything, it’s had by far more eyeballs than anything else I’ve written in this fandom. Definitely a lot more comments than anything else, which is fun. Some folks I really admire have said kind things and if that didn’t make me all 😊 well. (It did, though.) It was because of those commenters that I got a sense of how it was coming off—that it was, and could be, fun and frothy and still touch on subjects that were difficult (labor rights etc.) without making light of them. At least, that’s what I hope I pulled off in the end.

There were so many random little side routes and ideas that came up while thinking about and writing this that I really had to make a series. For the one-shots. For fuck’s sake, I put too much into building out this little world and this version of each character not to.

And if one of those ends up being some kind of E-rated fic involving Mary and Evelyn, like, posing for Doug with fresh fruit still-life and it turning into A Whole Thing, so be it. (It didn’t make the story text, but Mary and Evelyn are married and Doug is Mary’s guy who lives in the guest house out back. Also they make cooking YouTube videos together as a trio. There will probably be one-shots about them because Evelyn was too much fun to write.)

[anamazingangie]

re: my authors note

I am so incredibly grateful to the feedback I've received on A03, I have put a lot of content out into the world in the time i've been online and no website has ever been kinder to me. The quantity of comments i've gotten there and the kindness people have shown is astounding and I won't forget it.

I totally understand the "fuck the haters" mindset and I wish it was as simple as blocking someone who disagrees with my ship. But my hurt feelings come from other writers and I can't unlearn what they think about me. I was in a community I really liked being part of and writing for and I thought they liked me too. Finding out that was very much not the case really sucks and I feel quite stupid. ...

I've always tried to be upfront about where I take inspiration from - I loved working off of prompts and existing tropes and applying them to daemyra, especially early on when most fics were canon-era.

I never felt like the vague premise of a story mattered as much as the actual words you write and I thought that was a pretty universal opinion (it's not, I guess).

I also thought I was in a space where I was brainstorming with other people and helping to encourage them while also motivating myself. I thought it was a mutually beneficial thing and I looked back at those interactions really fondly.

I'm not (or I wasn't) ashamed that they contributed ideas to the concepts of things I've posted. I was grateful to it. And grateful to the community as a whole for keeping me enthusiastic and creating.

But now I know that I misinterpreted a lot of those conversations and people feel like I stole numerous ideas if not entire plot lines. Which sucks. Because that is a shitty thing to do. And now I look back at all those 'fun' conversations and my stories that stemmed from them and second guess things.

It hits extra hard because I was too sick to work for several months and writing became a way of me feeling productive and creative when I couldn't do much else.

Because of this, one of the few things I was proud of (as dumb as it sounds because it is fanfic) is my writing from the past few months. I've written like 400k words and invested a lot of time into my work, so having it all be invalidated by people I admired is rough, even if it's deserved.

Anyway. It might be really stupid but i'm sort of mourning the loss of something that I guess never existed, the pride of what I thought I created, along with the outlet and community that really kept me going for the last little while.

I quickly went from being content with what I had contributed to a fandom to feeling incredibly guilty for what I'd taken from it. I sincerely apologize to the writers on the daemyra discord that I trampled on.

I'm not really sure how to come back to writing given all that. But time will tell.

Regardless, thank you very very much for taking the time to read my silly works, and an extra big thank you if you commented on them!

It got me through a tough time and those comments were often the biggest bright spot in my day.

xxx

[fmdmichelle]

♡ 𝐇𝐈, 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘𝐎𝐍𝐄 !!  first of all, i hope the new year has been treating everyone well ! on a personal level, it’s been a little chaotic for me ( despite thinking everything would be so magically different in my life after the blur that was november to january 🤣 ), but i’m hopeful i can get my act together to be a better, and more active, member of this space with all of you. having been in famed for so long, it makes me sad that i haven’t put in as much of an effort to write with everyone here as i should, and going forward, it’s a genuine goal of mine to try and turn things around, and i want to extend an apology to anyone i’ve ghosted, or haven’t replied to, or followed-up with in regards to plotting, etc. it’s never my intention to do so, and i hope that i can prove to all of you through actions that i want to be better about consistency in all things famed-related ! so, if you’ll have me, my first step is pouring more love into michelle ( with jake & rioh to follow, of course ) ! with that said, i’d adore to get some new threads going and more plots brewing, and below the cut will be more info if you’re interested ! ♡

𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄,

in regards to plotting, i prefer to brainstorm specific ideas that suit the muses at play; i feel like i’m much better at that than coming up with open plot-lines to be viewed and taken. however, if you have any wanted connections or plots that you want filled for your muses, i’d be more than happy to look through them ! i love doing that, too, so don’t hesitate to let me know if you have stuff up for grabs. 🥰 oh, and i have a discord i can give out, too. i tend to prefer plotting there as it’s easier for me to keep track of, but i’m happy either way !

𝐂𝐔𝐑𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐋𝐘...

michelle is in a rather confused state at the moment. in doing more of a deep dive on her off-dash, i’ve come to discover that she’s at a huge crossroads with her career right now. while she’s appreciative of all that she’s been able to accomplish in korea as a pop act, the façade of having to be an idol is weighing heavily on her shoulders. having been in the game for over a decade now, she’s becoming really bored of the same ol’ same. in her heart of hearts, she wants to transition into being known as an independent singer-songwriter; a talent that’s somehow been hiding behind the veneer of lily’s “michelle” for all this time. however, that comes with its own complications because she’s signed yet another contract with bc entertainment that she’s riding out, and she’s trying to figure out the best way to go about making this vision she has come true without rocking the boat too much. slow and steady wins the race, as she says.

on a positive note, this conflicting time period ( as well as other more personal life events ) has given her a dramatic boost in creativity. now more than ever, she’s been at her piano writing so much music. her heart is so full of emotions and her mind is, like, overwhelmingly loaded with ideas that the only way to rid of some of that weight on her shoulders is to purge them through song. over the last few years, she’s been finding her own sound as an independent artist, and she feels as though she’s developed it a lot in ways that she’s really confident in. in fact, she’s submitted her own piece to be used for the fm202.3 march release. it’ll be this anthem, if anyone’s curious !

throughout the last maybe like, six-months-to-a-year, she’s realized that she’s become really self-isolated from people and she’s wanting to not be anymore. after a lengthy phone call home with her uncle, she’s feeling the push to get out more, and connect with friends, and make new friends, or kiss girls and guys, and just... have a little more fun. she’s definitely more the type that prioritizes work over anything else, and that’s often to her detriment, but she’s forcing herself to leave her home for more than just work obligations now. i also know there are plenty of people in the industry she either wants to reconnect with, or get to know more, so there’s openings for plot ideas !

she also would adore to collab creatively with someone right now omg ! like, she’s feeling so fueled with ideas and wants to like, share them with people she trusts, or even people that she looks up to in order to hear their thoughts, or to learn from them if they’re more seasoned in the solo realm. that, and as someone who always wants to learn and improve ( total virgo in that sense ), i think she’d even enjoy getting in touch with the other singers to nerd out about vocal pedagogy and music theory in general. she misses doing that with her vocal coach back home in hell’s kitchen.

while it’s not a totally formulated thought or idea yet, she’s sort of interested in doing some musical acting. mostly because it reminds her of new york and seeing broadway shows from the seats all the way in the back of the theatre that one of her uncle’s friends could snag her. a part of her thinks that being involved in a project like that would push her out of her comfort zone and re-inspire her in some ways, but she’s timid about it still. she wants to make sure she has the time and mental space to handle it before committing to a full run in a show. though, if she does want to go through with it, i’m thinking of giving her the role of roxie in the musical “chicago” as an option. 👀 it just... seems fitting and works.

𝐈𝐍 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐂𝐋𝐔𝐒𝐈𝐎𝐍...

there’s so much more i could say, but i don’t wanna make this too obnoxiously long. if you’re down to brainstorm or plot something with me/michelle, please show me some love by liking this post or messaging me ! i’d love to hear from you, and i do promise to be on my shit ab replies to im’s. you’re all more than welcome to kick my ass if i slip, too. 😅

[suneiaaa]

2022 recap!

Hey so I want to reflect about 2022 cause it's been one hell of a year. I do this for myself, but perhaps someone else is curious. I also want to bring back writing blog posts. I hope you'll excuse me if that's difficult and ends up being just a wish though, cause nowadays it's very hard to drop the phone and stop watching silly videos. I hate how our attention span goes off the window just like that. Actually let me make that a New Year's resolution: stop with the silly videos, thank you. The only reason I don't feel guilty about it is because I know it's the way social media is designed that manipulates our attention span left and right lol

Anyways,

2022.

In summary, I finished artschool, found my first industry jobs, moved into a new flat with my partner.

That was a lot of changes in a short period of time and I feel like I'm still recovering from/processing it.

_

In January, I was working really hard on the last 8 pages of Crow of Stone for one of my projects. That was the steepest learning curve up to that moment. From having to change the plot 7 or 8 times, to thumbnailing and scribbling, to storyboards, to handling critique and applying it, to being hella stressed out because perfectionism & still being unable to guess correctly how much information 8 pages can hold. Doing Comics Is So Hard, it's so much harder than you think!!!

I also put myself in charge of putting together the InDesign document of the zine Crow of Stone was in and that was really stressful FUCK THAT!!!:) We sold our zine at Comic BCN a couple months later, that was also a nice experience.

--

Then I got a chance to catch my breath but not really because that project ending meant the start of the final project And I Did Not Know What To Do Yet

I focused on adding some more pages to Crow of Stone and make it to the deadline of the International Comic School Contest of Clip Studio 2022 that is very long to write so from now on it'll be 'CSP CONTEST'. That was very important to me! I had always wanted to participate. I couldn't make it during 3rd year (my classmate won though!!) and this year felt like my last chance. So I did that. I had already given up on the idea of making something new with the time I had so CoS would have to do! You can read it here.

We were also Kindly Asked to participate in another scolarship (?) contest and had to create several comic(al) strips as entry. That wasn't too bad even though it didn't go anywhere lol

------

A NY WAYS, there went my time for the final project lol

It must have been April by this point. At first I wanted to create a storybook with my OC Neia but I struggled to give the story a... story.

My brainstorming for a new idea started. And it was a bit desperate. What did I want to draw? Should it be a comic? What did I like to read? Should I make something according to my inspirations? Quick, what are my favorite genres? Tropes? And most importantly, what do I want to tell? Etc. 

Lots of little drawings ensued.

And I finally came up with something that I felt was 'me' enough, and cool enough, and worth exploring. Llamadas Perdidas (missed calls, or lost calls.). The plot is STILL very hard to explain so I will translate it literally below and make of that what you will...

----

May. So my final project was pitching this whole thing. Thus creating a portfolio with the premise, plot, synopsys and sample pages. Just like with CoS, storyboarding was hard, thinking was hard. Time was almost up when I decided to pour all my energy into 6 pages. I was even finishing up the cover just a few hours before my deadline. 

That moment was fun, actually. I showed my work to my professor full of self doubt and wondering if it would be enough. He looks at me like girl this is fantastic sdhsjdhsjdh 

I had barely slept that day. On the way to school I found some broken glasses in a puddle and wondered, who could have lost their glasses like that? Flash forward and I'm home and I had taken a quick nap. And I can't find my newest, goodest pair of glasses. Before paranoia got the best of me I went outside and looked for them on the street (yeah I couldn't believe it either). Halfway to my school I gave up and went back home... And I found them before that: someone had left my glasses, intact, on a windowsill. On my fucking street. I had dropped my fucking glasses on my way home. Hah. I'll admit I cried a little bit.

---

June. As an extraordinary school thing, we were visiting a publisher's installations that day. When we met up with my teacher, for some reason, he said to me something like 'Thank GOD you're here. If you hadn't come I would have killed you. Are you nervous?'

And I said 'No?'

And he replied 'You better be'

Which puzzled me for a bit, but haha... During our meeting with the publishers they actually said 'Later we want to talk to X and Sun' and OH MY GOD was I fucking shocked (laughs)

Yes, they told me they Wanted To Publish Llamadas Perdidas. They saw my pitch and thought it was very cool. So I'll let you imagine the look on my face. Finishing school and already landed my first gig and as an author, no less. Man.

I spent several days being in a weird high and processing and I'll admit I haven't processed it yet. And thus I finished 4 years of art school.

---

I've written so much so from now on it'll be an actual summary.

Dealing with my first contract, panicking a little bit... On July I also received this good news: Crow of Stone had been awarded a runner-up prize in the Manga category of the CSP contest!

This was really great!! I fucking loved reading the critique and checking the other entries and I felt very proud...!

Also!!! They contacted me from ANOTHER publisher to work on another comic project. Since comics aren't well paid I took the job too :^) Freelancing in Spain is also hella expensive like you wouldn't believe soo... No, but it's also a good project and I'm glad I'm working on it as well! Can't talk about it yet.

MEANWHILE my partner and I were LOOKING FOR A PLACE TO MOVE IN TOGETHER!! Barcelona is so fucking expensive and it was straight out impossible to find anything decent. Even in the suburbs. So it sucked for a while... but eventually we decided to live in the small town we live in now. And we could find something pretty quickly :') And we moved in in August!!! WAHOO big lifegoal achieved :')

---

Fall. I've become a freelancer (oh god finances are such a headache...) and have been working on my 2 comic projects mostly. It took a while to adapt to like working everyday but I'm proud at how hard I've been working. Llamadas Perdidas is definitely the most difficult because I want to get it right/so many demons to fight and so much to learn. I'm also happy about the commissions I've been taking and love the style I developed. In December my art school and Clip Studio invited me to have a small panel at Manga BCN where I talked about Crow of Stone. I was honored & happy, especially since I met with my professor (the same I mentioned before) and he was very happy to see me and encouraged me a lot!

----------

That's about the major events that happened. My reflections? This year has been the steepest learning curve by far and also my most successful. I hope I can grow as an author and artist and keep flourishing. Also I literally just want to pay my bills with my work lol so there's my hopes and dreams. I haven't had much time to draw for myself, planning and drawing comics is super time consuming. But I didn't want to force myself too much and properly adapt to my new life (deadlines deadlines...deadliens...dead aliens...)

Videogame wise? I played Earthbound. It was the greatest thing I'd played in the longest time. Definitely a highlight. Triangle Strategy was cool too, but I hate Roland with all my heart. Xenoblade 3 was a good game but a disappointment story-wise. I had genuine fun being hyped for it, and playing too, though. So as we say in Spanish 'you can't take away the time in which I've been dancing'. Endwalker was fine though I like Shadowbringers a bit more x) OST wise this year was super fantastic. There were more games but I forgor. Oh yeah, Paper Mario was being great but it broke on me :( Also I became addicted to Eve and blame myself for not discovering him before. It's my fucking jam I admire him a lot.

To wrap up.

Wish me luck, I'll be working on comics all year, head full, want to maybe try streaming with the mic on,aaaaahhh thank you all for supporting me ESPECIALLY those who have been there for YEARS those who have commissioned me and just. Thank you! Happy New Year 2023, manifesting good mental health for all of us.

[oathena11-writes]

Just a bit of an insight into how I write for anyone curious. 

I do better with an idea of a plot, some scenes to hit, and then just planning out the next few scenes as I go. A lot of times, by the time I get halfway through a fic, I know how the second half is going to go in more detail than just some scene as a result. But overall, I don't actively plan beyond some brainstorming to help me prepare for writing each day.

I do not work on one project at a time. That leads me to burnout quickly. Usually after about 5-7k on a project, I'm starting to struggle with writing it. So, I rarely try to write more than 3k at a time on anything unless I'm really inspired. 

And then I switch. I actually have a semi complicated system that has been working for over half a year, and looks to be the winning solution for the way my brain works. 

I have my projects listed by priority. 1-6. I focus more on the priority 1s than 2s, and so on. I also have a 'shifting schedule' that's a guide for when I should jump between the lists. I'll work on one priority 1 one day, then the next on the list the next day, and so on. Beyond that, is just the basic schedule I use to make sure I'm hitting each priority semi regularly, and that the higher priorities get hit more than the lower. 

Every month I go through and shift projects around based on how the writing is going, and if there is a deadline (usually for an event)

When I write anything, I don't divide into chapters until I'm finished, or in the case of event fics, I need to have them in chapters for one reason or another. I find that my chapter lengths are more consistent this way, and it's less stressful planning out the next scenes in general over what I want to accomplish in each chapter.

I usually go back and reread what I last wrote before writing again, which gives each section a small bit of editing along the way. Longer fics often get reread, and therefore some edits, more than shorter ones. 

Once I divide into chapters, I go through and edit the whole thing in as short a time as I can manage (typically, at least two chapters a day), before I declare it ready to post. Then each chapter gets one last edit right before going up. 

And that's a look into my writing process.

[seeingteacupsindragons]

So I was talking to @user-needs-new-hyperfixation today about...well, various things, but also about how my WIP is going and how stressful and busy work has been for the last couple of months (very. It's my department's busy season, but it ends this weekend and I'll have some time to decompress).

And she commented that she had no idea how I was writing anything, much less a lot (a reasonable amount; Scrivener has my average day at 446 words right now).

Thus, I made a joke about how my brain is frantically thinking about my new book to think about anything other than work because work is trying to turn my brain into overheated pudding and my WIP is something of a life raft.

And that's probably true on some level, but the truth is really more boring in that, well.

I have spent a long time building up good writing habits and clinging to them when the writing isn't going well, and smoothing the way for the writing to come well.

Because I've worked for 17 hours in a 25 hour period once (over two days). And I still wrote both days. Not much, because I didn't have any time to breathe. But I made a point to write.

And I am busy as all fuck right now, but I am making sure to write.

I open my computer as soon as I can get to it. I take a couple minutes and write a few sentences. I take a break from work and stare out a window making plot notes. I commute home from work and brainstorm as I drive. I send my draft to myself so I can work a little bit on my lunch break or between two tasks at work in the middle of a deluge to reset my mind.

It can be really hard sometimes. Sure. But I've been doing many of these...what, since I've had jobs? Since I've not had jobs. Hell, in high school I used to do a lot of things.

So at this point, these habits that get my word count up when my brain is cooperating (which is doesn't, always), is default, rote, and routine the way putting my glasses on or contacts in or putting a mask on when I leave my apartment is.

And it's really boring to say, "I just kept doing it until it was the only way I knew how to be."

But it's true.

And so I'm getting a lot done at work and a lot of writing done and I am so very tired and my brain is so very pudding-like, but I have carried through both of those things successfully almost to my rest stop now.

And those habits carried me through.

[inbetwecns]

full name, ana júlia bezerra magalhães. birthday & age, june 10th  ━  35 years old. gender & pronouns, cis woman & she/her. occupation, war journalist / freelancer. living information, two bedroom apartment, lives alone. sexual orientation, heterosexual & heteroromantic. marital status, widow. ethnicity & nationality, white & brazilian. religion, raised catholic, but leans toward spiritism. education level, phd in international relations & conflict. family, mariana magalhães ( mother ), roberto magalhães ( father ), has a younger brother and a younger sister ( see wanted connections ), bernardo magalhães mendoza ( three year old son ).  pets, xuxa, the goldendoodle & paçoca, the scottish fold. personality traits, determined, polite, gregarious, impatient, curious, egotistical, adaptable, self-destructive, reticent, self-serving, opinionated, overachiever. zodiac, gemini with a gemini sun & scorpio moon.

older of three siblings, ana jú, as she is called by her family is the only one who was born and lived in brazil, in rio de janeiro, with her siblings being born and growing up already in the u.s.

loves everything sun & beach, which is why living in london is a far cry from what she is used, but she travels often and everywhere she loves. given the chance, ana jú will spend most of her year away from home and driving around the colorful road trip van she loves, but is forced to leave behind when work calls.

daughter of activists, she is opinionated and loud when needed and is not mealy in the slightest. learned from her parents not to take no for an answer and this particular trait aligned with her curiosity is what made her go into journalism in the first place.

she graduated with honors from columbia university, having moved away from san francisco to pursue her dreams. what started as a passion, grew into her means of living and ana got her masters in political science and her phd right after. she was hired for the cnn for a while and spent enough time abroad to know she was more than good at what she did.

during her beginning as a war correspondent ana met and fell in love with a man in the military and they would get married a few years into their relationship. both of their families attented, it was small and intimate, but it was full of love.

ana jú would have trouble concieving, between her demanding work load and the fact that her body just didn’t seem to be working with her. it would be a hard time for the couple, but right before marco got deployed again, ana jú found out she was pregnant with their first baby.

marco wouldn’t return, he would die on this tour, a heavily pregnant ana jú receiving the news on her doorstep. it made the rest of the pregnancy ever harder than it had been and during the last month, seeing as she needed to be on bed rest, her mother moved in with her and helped her until bernie arrived, and as much as ana was delighted to become a mother, she was also wrecked at the loss of her husband. 

a chance for something new would bring her to london. a job offer from the branch, where she didn’t have to be a correspondent, but research and analyse. knowing she couldn’t be away from bernie, she grabbed the opportunity with all her might, a change seemed to be fair for them, the best that could happen.

been in london for two years now, for most part she has let go of the whole war part of her job, even though she still writes some pieces here and there.

possible connections  ━  friends (best friend and close friends), wine parents (desperate housewives style), neighbors (she lives in an apartment with her son), nanny/babysitter, friends of her siblings, siblings, friends with benefits or other romantic connections (like to base it on chemistry though), frienemies/enemies (she can be a lot sometimes)  ━  all in all i am one thousand percent up for plotting and brainstorming.

[swaps55]

Writer Chat Tag game

Tagged by @screwyouflightlieutenant. Thank you!!!

Tagging @dearophelia @pigeontheoneandonly @shadesofmauve @urrone, @vhenadahls if you feel so inclined.

What is your total posted wordcount on ao3?

 890,960. Holy CRAP.

Do you have a routine for writing?

Not a religious routine, but I have developed a lot of discipline. I don’t write every day, but I do write consistently, and I’ve gotten a lot better about recognizing when I need to step away from something to let it percolate, or when I need to strap myself to a chair and just do it.

Generally, I collect my thoughts on what my goals are for a chapter, identify what character arcs and plot advancement need to happen, and brainstorm if needed. Then I draft a chapter, put it through 1-2 rounds of revision, send it to my beta, chew on the feedback, make revisions, then give it one last polishing pass before posting. Because my chapters are so long, this usually takes a couple of weeks to a month. Once a new chapter or story goes up, I’ve found that I need a few days off to recharge before diving into the next one.

What’s your favorite tropes/pairing

At this point, if you asked me to write something other than Sam and Kaidan I’m not sure I could.

I seem to have an attachment to mutually pining so hard they become trees, first kisses, friends to lovers, and good, old fashioned hurt/comfort.  

Do you have a favorite fic of yours?

Right now it’s really hard for me not to say Cantata. That’s as close to original fic as I am ever likely to ever get, and I am so fucking proud of it.

Your fic with the most kudos?

Sonata finally passed Celestial Navigation. This makes me very happy. It’s my lightning in a bottle fic.

Anything you don’t like about your writing?

Some days I don’t like any of it, ha. But I’ve worked hard to shift my perspective from “I can’t do X as well as others,” to being happy that I can just kick back and enjoy reading work that plays to different strengths from my own.  

Lately, though, I have been asking myself if a lot of the parallels and symmetry that keep appearing from one story to the next is good writing, or just me utterly unable to do something different and getting stuck in the same narrative loops. Probably a little of column A and a little of column B.  

Now something you do like?

Combat is such a fun challenge for me. More often than not, setting the chess board of a fight scene is REALLY agonizing, but the dangling carrot is actually getting to write it when the pieces are in place. I love the language of combat. There are so few good words in the word bank when you write about sex. There so many awesome words to describe combat and I want to use ALL OF THEM.

[fanficwritersinterviewed]

ITWW, shey

<<This post is a part of a longer conversation about fanfic writers, how they view fanfic, and their writing process. All views are the fanfic writer’s own, and whatever fanfic they choose to write is entirely their own decision. No judgment value will be placed on fic content. These conversations are meant to provide insight for other fanfic writers in whatever stage they are at in their writing life>>

In the Weeds Wednesday (with Shey, @shey-elizabeth​ )

So let’s talk process. When you start a fic what happens first for you? It depends on the type of fic. Short things (which tends to be anything less than 10k for me) just kind of happen. I usually have a vague outline in my head, but otherwise they do what they do. Long fic usually starts with a lot of brainstorming, followed by a vague outline that gets added to as I go. I typically have a list of scenes and plot points that gets fleshed out as I start writing and figure out who the characters are going to be and what their backstory is in this fic. I usually have a pretty solid plan by the time I finish the first scene or two, but other things definitely sneak in as I go.

You said before that you write about 2k and then edit for a long time after that. What's the typical rhythm of all that for you? Do you keep to a schedule? I try not to have a schedule since I've found that makes things less enjoyable. I do have an idea in my head of when I'd like to post the next chapter of my WIPs, but that's as far as I get. I'm also not someone who needs to post as soon as I finish. I'm much more likely to sit on a fic for a month or more and post it when I feel good about it.

I've been told my writing process is a lot like drafting? I get words on the page, and then I rewrite them until they do what I want them to. I might write an entire scene and change the dialogue four times (including the meaning of the conversation) until I get to something that sounds right. I also go back and add layers. I'll fill in emotion, inner monologue, and movement with each pass through until it feels complete. There's a lot of rearranging and adding. Not usually much subtracting. My goal is usually to get the scene down so I don't forget where I want to go, and then fix it so it actually works the way I intended.

This last pass through is usually adjusting word choice, making sure I'm not repeating phrases, and checking that the dialogue flows.

What part of the writing process brings you pleasure? Writing? Sculpting it in edits? Honestly, the actual writing is the hardest part and the part I have to gear myself up for. Writing will probably always be hard for me, but the finished product makes it worth it. I really enjoy the sculpting of it (LOVE that term! I'm totally stealing it, thank you!) and of course, the “having written” (I write most of my fic so I can read it, after all!). I do adore the comments from readers, too. They make the stress so worth it! My favorite part though, is getting the doc back from my beta and finding out if what I wrote actually worked. I love that feedback and seeing how the suggested edits make everything come together. It's like magic and so satisfying.

What's the hardest thing you've ever attempted with your writing and why was it challenging? Honestly, the hardest thing has been finishing my first fic. It was supposed to be a mid-length, self-indulgent, smutty little getting-together fic. And it's all of that, except the mid-length part! I started it before I really learned anything about the writing process, and I've grown so much as a writer in the two and a half years since then that the first few chapters feel almost unrecognizable to me. I've gone back and edited them (there were some grammar errors that I just couldn't ignore!) but I know the second half is a lot stronger than the first. That made it difficult to keep working on, and it sort of became this looming monster in my head. I started to feel like it was never going to be done. I actually stepped away from it for most of 2021, even though I only had a chapter left, and I knew it wasn't actually a difficult chapter to write. Every time I opened the doc, I would just stare at it and it felt completely impossible. 

What I ended up doing was focusing on my other long fic– “Sugarcoated”– and getting that story done. I convinced myself that if I could finish it I could undo this block I had about finishing the other long fic. It seems like it worked, because I finally finished “Sugarcoated” in October, and that took so much pressure off. Now that I can look at it and go "finishing long fics is possible! It's a thing that I've done!" it's given me confidence to actually sit down and get my first fic done. 

What's the best piece of writing advice you ever got and how have you applied it to your own writing? Oh man, I’ve gotten so much fantastic advice! Everything from technical (try not to start sentences with “ing” words) to process advice like what to do if you get stuck (go back seven sentences, or skip to the next scene). Probably my favorite piece of writing advice was about how to avoid “puppet syndrome” in my smut scenes. That’s the thing where the whole scene is just action without the emotions attached. You aren’t getting inside the character’s heads enough and the sex becomes “insert tab A into slot B”. It ends up feeling flat, or disconnected, and you aren’t sure why. Making sure the characters’ emotions and reactions are present in the scene is a big focus for me. 

I wrote a super smutty one-shot recently that had the working title “Stetopher Filth” and I got a comment asking how I was able to write filthy things that were also so sweet. That made my day. That fic has some heavy kinks in it, so it was extra important to me that the readers saw how much the characters cared for each other. I wanted the emotions front and center every step of the way. That comment told me I was successful!

Haha, that’s great! “Puppet Syndrome.” I usually say it feels like having two dolls and mashing them together, but now I’ll think of muppets, thank you for that horrifically wonderful thought!

Alright, lastly: say something nice about your own writing. Something nice about my own writing… I actually like most of my fics a lot. There's some great advice out there that says "write for yourself." I've always written things because I wanted to read them, and I think that that makes it easier to feel good about the results!

[thanksjro]

More Than Meets the Eye #33: In Which I Write the Word ‘Quantum‘ 19 Times

Dang, I forgot what happened at the end of the last issue. It was pretty important, too, but I don’t have time to reread. Maybe the establishing shot can help me out?

Oh, that’s right, Rewind happened!

Everyone’s pretty jazzed that Rewind is here, non-exploded, and supposedly alive. Megatron carries this ridiculously small man over to a table, while Skids is busy admonishing Nightbeat for trying to put the pieces of this mystery together.

That’s one of the two first canonically, openly gay Transformers, Megatron. You bet your ass he’s important.

Nightbeat’s dragged Nautica over to look at that poster for Crosscut’s play they saw last issue. Together, they discover something interesting, and it’s not that Nightbeat’s chin has elongated to the point of absurdity. On this future ship, the play was completed and produced a mere few weeks after the initial launch of the Lost Light.

While this is going on, Rewind wakes up and asks Skids what the hell is going on. Skids, likely not wanting to poke at farm-fresh trauma, glosses over the fact that everyone on this ship was violently murdered, and that they found Rewind blacked out inside the hollowed torso of his brother-in-law.

…This is a dark story line.

You see, the joke here is that “Dark Cybertron” sucked major chrome.

Megatron reminds everyone that they’re still in grave danger every moment they stay aboard this ship, but Skids is more concerned with Rewind’s mental health. Which is sweet, but maybe not the thing to prioritize in such a precarious situation.

Rewind takes the fact that Megatron is an Autobot now pretty friggin’ well, as well as the introduction of gender into his species. That is, until Nightbeat, the king of social graces, saunters up to the scene to ask Rewind what the hell happened to the ship. He does get his answers, despite Rewind being horrified to the point of speechlessness.

Over at the hole in the wall, Nautica and Riptide are taking a gander at the quantum drums, which house the quantum foam for the quantum engines so quantum jumps can happen.

As Nautica explains the process by which quantum travel works, she realizes that the answer to what happened to everyone who disappeared was right in front of them this whole time.

Quantum, quantum, quantum- doesn’t even sound like a word anymore, does it?

The data slug Rewind made corroborates this theory, showing a series of events that definitely didn’t happen to the Lost Light we’ve been following throughout this story so far. The data slug contains this Rewind’s version of dead Rewind’s “Little Victories”, the travelogue that was never completed, where the question “are you happy?” revealed just how emotionally unhealthy most of the crew is. I’d like to imagine this Rewind’s film is called “Small Achievements”, or perhaps “Dear Fucking Lord, We’ve Been on this Trip for Three Hours and the Captain Has Been Killed by a Goddamned Soul-Vampire”, or maybe even “Where the FUCK is Our Therapist”.

The DJD came into the equation by way of someone having led them to the Lost Light. We get a flashback panel of the gorefest, in which Tarn appears to have learned how to fly, given the angle he’s coming from.

Because Rewind’s big thing in this series is being the guy who records stuff, the DJD take the opportunity to make some movies of their visit to the space yacht.

James, why do you keep getting Rewind involved with snuff films? I’m starting to get concerned.

Now, the thing about Rewind is that he’s almost always accompanied by his other half. Where is Chromedome, anyway?

He’s dead, that’s where.

Turns out, when you tell the DJD that you won’t do the thing they want you to do, they have a habit of doing nasty things in retaliation. Chromedome got stabbed in the friggin’ visor with his own finger needles, because Vos enjoys ironic deaths, I suppose. There’s some other stuff that’s implied to have happened, but we’ll get to that once we learn a little more about the DJD themselves.

While Rewind recounts the grisly tale of his husband’s demise, Riptide notes that the quantum foam has begun to spread at a remarkable rate. This is a bad thing, because that shit can and will explode, given half the chance, and this wreck is floating right above a potentially-inhabited planet.

Though I could have sworn we established that this planet was a Smartplanet, and therefore very much populated by students and staff. I don’t know. Maybe we conveniently forgot that, so we could make this a learning moment for Megatron.

Jiminy Christmas, Megs, do you even listen to yourself?

Skids, who has had a very long day of finding corpses and learning about quantum theory, snaps at Megatron, telling him that in order to actually be an Autobot, you have to have a little frickin’ compassion for those outside of your peer group.

Which is sort of contradictory to the Aequitas trials, the Killswitch debacle, the POW situation back on Cybertron, and whatever the fuck Prowl’s whole deal is, but maybe Skids is speaking about his own, personal relationship with being an Autobot. Hopefully so, otherwise he needs a class on critical thinking, STAT.

Never mind all of that though, because the problem just got a lot worse- the quantum foam has expanded to a point where any holes in the stuff are too small for the Rod Pod to get through. We’re going to have to get creative if we want to save the day.

Luckily, we’ve got a quantum duplicate of just about the tiniest little dude in the franchise here to do the job. Now we just need another, equally tiny little man, so the quantum drums can be shut off at the same time. Nautica commits more microaggressions, and this gives Getaway inspiration for a witty quip, which in turn gives Skids a brilliant idea.

The gang heads down to Brainstorm’s lab, to look for the mass displacement gun that was used for treating Ultra Magnus’s nanocon infestation back in the 2012 Annual. While they search, Nautica explains just why the hell the Lost Light disappeared in the first place. You see, quantum duplication acts on the Cain Instinct— it’s fine, as long as the duplicates don’t perceive each other. However, the moment contact is made, it says “oh man, guess I’m gonna have to end you” to one of the duplicates. The contact in this case happened when the Coffin Rodimus was brought aboard the ship.

Anything that wasn’t aboard the Lost Light at the point of the takeoff/explosion was never duplicated, and thus wasn’t erased from reality once shit started going to hell. This is why the Rod Pod is still around, and why the remaining cast are— well, the remaining cast.

While this conversation is going on, Nautica and Nightbeat uncover yet another dead body; it’s Brainstorm, and he’s a little underdressed.

…Someone run a paternity test, I think Cyclonus might be the father.

Also, Brainstorm’s a double agent.

Fucked up.

Getaway is furious that a Decepticon has been living on the same ship as him for the last six months, right under his proverbial nose. Even Megatron’s surprised, stating that Brainstorm isn’t usually who the recruiters aim for.

So, no mass displacement gun, and now they’re aware of the fact that there’s a traitor on the ship who’s had access to a LOT of weapon tech. It’s at this point that Megatron decides to stop lying by omission and tells everyone that he can mass-displace, since he used to turn into a handgun.

Smashcut to Megatron and Rewind floating out in space, the former now not much taller than the latter, as they traverse the web of quantum foam to get to the drums. Nautica instructs them from the Rod Pod. If this works, anything produced or connected to the quantum engine will be neutralized, and maybe we’ll even get the other Lost Light back! YAAAAAY!!!

Y’all really let this man go out there to fuckin’ kill himself for the greater good, didn’t you?

Rewind is honestly pretty chill with ceasing to be, seeing as he watched 200/+ people die today, including his long-time spouse.

Jesus. I’d say get him a therapist, but in order to do that, we’re going to have to wipe him off the map anyway.

Rewind asks Megatron if the Chromedome that isn’t his and his duplicate are still together. And I mean…

Luckily, Megatron has the good sense to lie.

With that, they flip the switches, and deactivate the drums.

And that’s a series wrap on Rewind! Congrats to Mr. James Roberts for the esteemed honor of burying the same gay twice!

Later on, everyone is back inside the Rod Pod, as their disappeared shipmates return from being nonexistent. Chromedome pops back in, and Skids is on him like a shark, telling him to go on the roof. Skids doesn’t even try to explain why. Which, fair. How the hell do you explain to someone that their dead husband’s quantum duplicate survived both a terrorist splinter cell attack, and the laws of quantum sci-fi bullshit crashing down on his tiny, tiny body, and that he’s right there on the roof waiting for them?

Welp, there goes the Chromedome/Dominus endgame. Shame, that.

Looks like Chromedome finally hit the threshold for having earned Roberts’ pity, and won’t be directly targeted by the plot for a little while. This isn’t something you see very often, so let’s really soak this in.

…Someone had to have told Rewind what happened to the other Rewind, right? I wonder what that conversation was like.

Back inside the ship, Blaster gets word that the Lost Light has reappeared. As they navigate towards it, Megatron requests that an encrypted call be made to Rodimus, to discuss the Brainstorm problem.

In the interim, Ravage is offered the opportunity to be a part of the crew, so he doesn’t have to keep skulking around in the shadows. We don’t get an answer from him, as our focus shifts over to Nightbeat and Nautica.

Nightbeaaaaaaaaaat, stop stating the themes of the comic verbatim! People are going to start thinking you’re a shonen anime protagonist!

Nightbeat’s somehow managed to keep ahold of the briefcase that they found on the other Lost Light. Unless Brainstorm’s boyfriend is in there, I don’t think this one was the work of Huey Lewis and the News’ hit single from the Back to the Future soundtrack.

Over on the Lost Light, specifically in Swerve’s, Brainstorm’s making his way through the crowd, briefcase held gentle like hamburger as he goes. He makes it to the bar, where Atomizer tells him he can’t have his briefcase in here. Brainstorm has what most would accept to be a healthy response to being told “no.”

It’s what I would do.