#I've actually started to outline and write the first of 3 parts to this way back in 2022

[orengejoshi]

do u write fanfics? i need to GOON 💔

damn brother, you just gonna come at me like that? alright I see you

that's a great question tho! I have indeed thought about writing a fic... for years tbh...

but there's a merit of problems

well first of all I'm not native in english. that is probably noticeable more often than not. I sometimes even use a translator, I always secretly got google/dict.cc open in a second tab. didn't formally learn english, I just snagged it by proxy listening to American Youtubers and reading manga online. that's why I prefer to ramble a bit in public or to my damn self in private areas than live-texting 1 on 1/in groups; bc I can take more time totally judgement-free. you're gonna see me "typing..." for 30 minutes and wonder wtf is taking this mf so long?!

apart from that there's dyslexia. I can't spell one word correctly without swipe-to-type autocorrect. I think all arguments I've gotten into stem from me mistyping, using completely wrong words, messing up the sentence structure etc

my brain is a single dense cloud of fog that'll occasionally split open to drizzle down a bunch of jumbled thoughts that I could turn into barely cohesive words if I'm brave enough and exude copious amounts of energy.

so my linguistic skills are not up to par. my intelligence lies more in... intrapersonal and existential departments.

unsurprisingly I've thus become a visual artist to express myself.

the catch is... that I understand paperhat, I do.

but I can't seem to draw toxic dynamics. my head is just empty about how to depict it. it's like it doesn't come naturally to me. not without going overboard and making a whole comic that I would likely abandon before even reaching the half mark. I've been given these angelic skills along with the curse that I shall only draw joyous, bright scenes.

however if I could write it... now we're talking.

as a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure that most of my ideas are way too dark and sober. people don't know me like that so I'm petrified about the presumably shocked response when and if I did drop smth like that.

I'm not ready for that... I have really severe OCD (that the internet is making way worse with their anxious tendencies to interpret smth sinister into any and all fiction that is not happiness and rainbows. which seems new to me, idk where this mindset to read so deep into shit is suddenly coming from. I was here 2017-19, left for like 3 years and all of a sudden everybody's fallen off their rockers)

writing domestic stuff is too boring for me... there's gotta be gut-wrenching horrors and drama and tragedy and conflict!

none of this would be PG (which is what I assume you're asking for anyway) I'd just write smut with sprinkles of character studies and a pinch of comedy mayhaps, but I used to do that about 10 years ago and it was so bad. the way I describe these scenes comes off very plump and cringe

I... might. dip my toes into it later this year.

I'll drop a few ideas in the tags... maybe 2 ideas. very roughly. without spoilers, just in case.

[dxncingwithastrxnger]

1. i'm sleeping with a ghoul (Ghost!Lucifer x MC)

A/N: Hello!! This is a few days late, but I said I wanted to do Obey Me month and I'm sticking to it, damn it! So I offer you my very first story for it, as well as the first thing I've published for the om fandom that isn't Barbatos. This was actually really fun to write and I wanna thank @the-ancient-fae for giving me the prompt of 'ghost' to help me figure something out!! That simple prompt has created a whole basket of ideas in my head, so thank you, Roxy 💜 But anyways, enjoy reading!!

Pairing(s): Lucifer x MC

Prompt: Day 1 - Lucifer from @obeymetournaments's list of prompts for this month!!

Summary: The tale of someone who encountered a... different kind of ghost.

Tag(s): 18+, themes of stalking, Spectrophilia/Phasmophilia, dubious consent, non-explicit, mentions of sexual content, first person pov

Word Count: 922

Song Inspiration: Sex With A Ghost By Teddy Hyde

Not beta'd, all mistakes are my own.

~*~

[Author Masterlist]

[Day 1] [Day 2] [Day 3] [Day 4] [Day 5] [Day 6] [Day 7] [Day 8] [Day 9] [Day 10] [Day 11] [Day 12] [Day 13] [Day 14] [Day 15] [Day 16] [Day 17] [Day 18] [Day 19] [Day 20] [Day 21] [Day 22] [Day 23] [Day 24] [Day 25] [Day 26] [Day 27] [Day 28] [Day 29] [Day 30] [Day 31]

~*~

Anyone who’s ever lived in a haunted house before will be familiar with the usual signs. Creaking floors, footsteps down the hallway, doors opening and closing on their own, whispers in other rooms. I, myself, am familiar with all of those, but those aren’t the things I’m experiencing in my current home. I hear less whispers and more longing sighs. I see shadows creeping around the corner. Sometimes the flap of wings. The click of formal shoes. I’ve recently started finding feathers in random places throughout the house. Long, black feathers. Bigger than any bird in my neighborhood.

I can feel whenever I’m being watched. The time I seem to be watched most is when I’m sleeping. Or at least laying in my bed at night. I can even see the outline of a figure if I look into the darkness for long enough and I swear the figure has horns and wings. Do you think it sees me, too?

~*~

The ghost. It’s a man. I know what he looks like now. He’s gotten bolder, closer. Or maybe I’ve just started paying more attention?

The places I find feathers have gotten more consistent. More specific. They’re only in parts of the houses I often frequent, like the kitchen and my own bedroom. And just the other day… I was in the bathroom, had just finished a shower. It was such a cliche. I wiped off the mirror and immediately I saw him, behind me. But unlike the movies, he didn’t flicker away as soon as I saw him. Instead, he stayed. He met my eyes. It was like he wanted me to see him. And so, I did. Soft, black, feathery hair with just the tiniest piece of his bangs turned gray. Deep, mysterious red and black eyes. Four black-feathered wings that are a glorious sight to behold, almost how one would imagine angel wings. But then my eyes catch on the large, black horns curving upwards from the top of his head. That’s when I’m reminded that he is certainly no angel.

Even so, he took my breath away. And he knew it. A look of pride upon his face before I blink and he’s finally gone. It took me a moment to recover after that. But it was not because I was terrified. Nor was I upset that he was intruding upon my home. All I felt in that moment was an intense curiosity, along with excitement at the thought of finding out more.

~*~

I’m starting to think something’s wrong with me. I can’t truly be thinking like this about a ghost, can I? But I can’t help it. He’s doing it on purpose. Seducing me. There’s no other way to describe it. I see him all the time now. He’s stopped trying to hide from me. He watches me openly now, during all hours of the day. I’ve started speaking to him. He’s there to listen, so I might as well, right? And sometimes he’ll answer. With gestures or the softest of whispers. But what’s more important is what happens at night.

Once I’ve shut off all the lights and settled beneath my blankets, that’s when I’ll feel it. Fingers brushing over my skin. Sometimes gloved, sometimes bare. First, it was just soft affection. Holding my cheek or tracing my hand. Then, he’d trace down my neck and over my calves. And now, he’s trailing down my chest and up my thighs with touches that can no longer be considered simple affection. No, these touches are filled with intent. And I know something’s fucked in my head because in response, I’ve started wearing less and less clothes to bed. He’s taking it as an invitation to continue and we both know that’s exactly what it is. Even before it’s bedtime, I’m already anticipating the feel of his fingers and the pleasure his touch brings.

I think he’s waiting to take a step further because he enjoys seeing me touch myself. He gets this smirk on his face as his low chuckle fills my ear and it only adds to my overloaded senses, driving me over the edge. Sometimes during the day, I’m unable to help myself when I think too much about it. When that happens, I always make sure to be loud enough so that he’ll know exactly what I’m doing.

Even now, questioning my own mind, I can’t find a single ounce of hesitation towards any of it.

~*~

Lucifer. Lucifer. Lucifer. That is my lover’s name. He finally told me when he gave himself to me completely. I got to see him in all his glory, laid bare and without any clothing in the way. Just as he saw me the same way. And not only did he touch me without holding back, but I got to touch him as well. We were finally joined as one and that’s when I knew for certain - this is love. It must be. There’s no other emotion I could use to describe how I feel for him. And I know he loves me, too. He told me so. Told me that even when he was alive he never loved another the way he loves me.

We’ll be together forever, him and I. He’s in my bed every night and right beside me throughout the day. He takes me whenever he feels like it and I would never dream of rejecting him. All of me belongs to him now, mind, body, and soul, and I don’t want it any other way.

~*~

A/N: Please, let me know your thoughts!! Thank you for reading!!! 💜💜💜

[spacemonkeysalsa]

I read about an evil magistrate in another Faerûn city, a few decades after Astarion had that job in Baldur's Gate and it has me thinking about his pre-vampire days, and my irl time as a Las Vegas law clerk. A lot.

Full disclosure: I feel a little guilty that I wrote so much on this topic rather than on one of my fics.

I wrote very little in July 🫣but it's because I was drawing and reading instead.

I read 13 books, but they were the first 13 Legend of Drizzt books.

And while writing fic, I've avoid details about Astarion's background as a magistrate, for reasons I've talked about a lot before, but I might need to rethink that, because one book in the Drizzt series just gave me SO MUCH context for what the world was like around the time that Astarion would have had this job, and also, what that job was like, and how it was very effected by geography and race. And I have THOUGHTS. Thousands of words of thoughts, apparently, below the cut.

TL;DR - The popular idea that pre-Cazador Astarion is the biggest possible asshole so he "earns" his fate is boring as hell, not actually supported by canon, or the examples of magistrates that we see in FR (who don't even need to be corrupt to satisfy cruel inclinations) and I deeply prefer going in a totally different direction. Below the cut is me working through my headcanon, and why I came to these conclusions.

I tagged this appropriately I think, but to emphasize, topics of relevance include horror movie tropes, torture, the deeply flawed American justice system, and the even more deeply flawed one in Faerûn as described by the Forgotten Realms novels I've read and the mentions/demonstrations in Bladur's Gate 3.

If you feel you need to avoid thinking about all of that, you are valid, and probably more correct than me for doing so.

And as always, it's just my opinion, based on my experiences. All headcanon is equally headcanon.

To start, I'm going to briefly reiterate that:

Astarion's canon backstory is thin on purpose and that all we really know about him is that he was a magistrate with not-red eyes who made an unpopular ruling that was unpopular for an unspecified reason and got jumped by Gur for a (heavily implied to be unreliable narrator influenced) reason.

That artbook is a developmental tool that is actually less likely to ever be considered canon than even a later stage developmental tool like a full manuscript outline precisely because of its position in the process.

But, before I get into what I read in Drizzt, I want to establish that my head space started from thinking about how much sadder it is if Astarion actually did have compassionate ideals and a balanced sense of justice prior to Cazador. The reason I think it's sadder is best illustrated by the choice to either make a doomed horror movie character sympathetic or an asshole. What happens to Astarion is basically a horror show, and some people prefer those fates are reserved exclusively for asshole victims. There's reasons to write this way, and it can be done well, but it's very easy to make it feel cheap and contrived and it's usually a sign of an amateur production, and a quick way to make an accessible film rather than a good one. Another option (which can also be done well or done poorly) is to harm characters who did absolutely nothing wrong.

To be clear, whether or not we like a character doesn't affect whether or not they "deserve" death. Horror movies often deal with totally disproportionate consequences, and the gruesome fate not really being "earned" can be an inherent part of the horror regardless of our sympathy.

But, I'm not sad when the evil teenagers in Toxic Avenger are killed. I am not that sad when Jigsaw's traps prove to be too much for his chosen victims. What happens to Julia's marks in Hellraiser doesn't move me as much as what's going on with Kirsty, even if they didn't deserve it, because they aren't particularly sympathetic.

And the thing about using characters like that is that it's not realistic. And to be clear, I don't think you always have to be realistic to tell a good story, in fact, please don't always cling to realism. But realism in characterization is usually a stronger choice, and should be considered generally. Most people are not as flat and unsympathetic as the asshole victims in slasher flicks. Even people who do bad things are not so one dimensional as to instill no sympathy in irl humans. I think people like to flatten Astarion in their mind, so that they don't have to confront the fact that very bad things happen all the time, and that most people didn't do anything to earn a horrible fate.

In the specific case of what happened to Astarion, even if he was a bad person, it's very difficult to ever make 200 years of torture, the loss of autonomy, exploitation on every level, including physical, sexual and psychological abuse, ever feel proportional. So at this point, some people need something to make it seem more just. Either because they hate the character, and want to feel that hating the character is objectively correct, or their worldview includes an idea of justice that can't accept such disproportionality.

And if you need that for your headcanon, dope. you're allowed whatever headcanon you want.

The "corrupt magistrate" thing isn't canon. It's headcanon. I understand that some people who really seem to know what they are talking about said it was canon, that's because they are wrong. People are wrong sometimes.

I recently became aware that although I thought we were all playing the same game, a bunch of players have never seen what I've seen, because it's all missable content. And, because everyone knows there's a bunch of stuff they haven't seen, it's real easy to just believe any random person on the internet who tells you something is buried deep in the game that you don't know about.

This specific situation with Astarion's canon backstory is that you'll never find much in the game, no matter how much you play, because there's nothing to find. Here's the facts: -There was never anything about Astarion being corrupt in the game, in early access, or in any of the writing that made it to recording. It was an idea that was discussed very early on---like back when we almost had a werewolf companion, (RIP Helia, you would've loved what I put you through) and they went in a totally different direction. Essentially, just imagine what they ultimately ended up doing with Gortash, and know that they were thinking about doing something similar with Astarion, but a long, long time ago.

-In the game, he'll lie and tell you he's a magistrate in Baldur's Gate and that it's tedious.

-Or, if you wait to ask him about himself until after you know he's a vampire, he'll tell you he was a magistrate, punishing troublemakers.

-Backstory complete!

-Art books are great, and beautiful, and it's baffling to me to see fans treat them like canon content, because if anything, they demonstrate various attempts to put together a story that ultimately didn't land for the creators. I love using materials like this when I write, I create character sheets and artbooks for my work all the time, and part of their charm is the features that didn't make it into the final work. Minthara is no longer an elven cleric, Shadowheart isn't covered in tattoos, and Astarion isn't one of corrupt elite of Baldur's Gate, or even elite, or a courtesan. Stop bringing up the artbook, you're embarrassing yourselves.

-There's actual explicit dialogue in game in which Astarion says he doesn't remember much from before he was turned. He says the person he was is gone, nothing left but a name on a rock. That's what's intentionally in the game. I think this is brilliant, because I think his character represents loss in a really poignant way, and that if they included anything too detailed about who he was before he got turned, that would undermine this theme, in a way that's especially unnecessary. It's better to keep it purposefully blank. A void of nothing. I'm actually really surprised that they didn't do this for Shadowheart, given that she's a Sharran, but in her story, we actually see a really nice counterexample: she does recall small details about her time in the city. Coming back there triggers memories and if you find all three of them---[spoiler deleted, please message me if you want to know about this, I've been informed I shouldn't just shout this out, because some people like to discover this stuff on their own. But also I'm not a gatekeeper, if you really want to know, I'm happy to tell you]. There's none of that for Astarion, in fact, if you go to the cemetery looking for his grave, which is something I think a lot of us did, you won't find any mention of him anywhere, but you will find one of those Shadowheart memories if she's with you. You only get to see Astarion's grave briefly, if you're romancing him, and even then, he once again takes the opportunity to talk about the person he once was truly is lost to him (and to us) and gone forever, long before we ever had the chance to know him.

It's tragic, and kind of perfect.

And in the meta of all this, it's intentional that we'll never known him. We might think we do, but we literally can't, because it's not in the story.

Which is good because it would ruin the scene a bit if he'd been like "btw I was a real piece of shit lmao." Just like it kind of ruins the affect of the empty backstory to go ahead and add a backstory.

But. We're curious, we speculate, and we expand, that's what fanfiction is for—it exists outside of the canon. I usually write post-canon, canon-consistent content, but there's a possibility I'll need to add a few scenes from Astarion's mortal life in this one fic—maybe not, idk—but in preparation for maybe doing that (or not), I had considered working through what I think his life was life before he was turned, and the events leading up to Cazador capturing him. I wasn't sold on the idea, but I was thinking about it.

And, then I started reading Spine of The World, which features an actual magistrate from DR 1365. This one is um. Corrupt. Or, at least, we would consider him to be corrupt? He's actually doing his job perfectly according to the very messed up justice system in Luskan, where he works. They don't have a concept of burden of proof there, or of innocence at all after you manage to get yourself arrested, and instead essentially just torture people to death publicly and explicitly for entertainment. It's not chill. It's not subtle. They call it Prisoner's Carnival.

This magistrate has Astarion's exact job, in a different city and a few decades later (and those differences matter, we'll get to it) but the important features are the same. So, here's some things to note: being a magistrate is a position of limited power, you have total discretion over the prisoners given to you for punishment (minus a few notable exceptions that come up in Spine of The World), but that's it. It's not like an influential political position of respect or anything. It can't be, because they are beholden to laws they can't change, and cultural traditions that are non-negotiable parts of the community.

This guy is referred to multiple times are a carnival barker. And there's loads of magistrates, they all have different reputations and and ymmv on how sadistic they individually are in Luskan. In a later book, when this particular magistrate is brought up again to another magistrate in Luskan, it's clear that the carnival barker thing isn't entirely universal and that he's considered one of the really bad ones, but regardless, they all acknowledge that what he does is legal and "serves a purpose" and they all direct and orchestrate the torture and slaughter of prisoners, and they all admit that many of them are probably innocent. The magistrates, and more importantly, the people in charge of them, maintain the necessity of the system, and the fear it instils to keep troublemakers in line.

One of the more reasonable and intelligent wizards in the series (a guy called Robillard who I can't help but envision as Gale of Waterdeep, because almost everything he does and says makes him sound like Gale of Waterdeep) shocks Drizzt by defending this system of justice very passionately.

Actually, Drizzt's thoughts in general about the Prisoner's Carnival are S-tier Drizzt musings, I love a man who keeps a journal. Likes cats too. Drizzt is lovely.

Drizzt also notes that this is a popular system in human societies specifically. Other races don't go in for it so much, and tend not to participate unless it's as... um... you know... as the prisoners being tortured. I think it's interesting that he mentions that elves in particular (in his experience) are universally disgusted by it. It's also explicitly stated that Baldur's Gate is different, and a much preferrable place to get tried by a magistrate. That isn't in his journal entry though, that's earlier in the novel. A moment of foreshadowing.

The whole world is brutal, but Baldur's Gate is a bit more modern and open to change than other places. That's probably one reason it keeps getting featured and mentioned even though we've barely spent any time there in Drizzt's series so far. It's a bit more relatable a place to actually live in long term than somewhere like Luskan, where you may have to seek out real estate that's far enough away from the square that you're not constantly hearing the death screams of someone being drawn and quartered in front of a cheering crowd. So that's the basics of it, and getting back to Astarion and the backstory that I would personally novelize for him, we have options:

If I'm going to try to fit this into the context that I now have though, it's important to keep in mind that 1) Baldur's Gate is considered one of the "nicer" places to be tried and 2) culturally, elves don't go in for cruelty, especially not as systemic "justice." None of this has to apply to Astarion, but if I'm writing it, I'm not going to ignore this cultural context. At a minimum, I'm going to say that appointing an elf as a magistrate in a city that's known for being more progressively compassionate about their treatment of prisoners was probably pointed on the part of tptb. Baldur's Gate wanted him to set an example for these bloodthirsty humans about mercy and justice and the balance between them. Racism dictates that you don't go to a human for that. They're carnival barkers. If you want a more compassionate magistrate, appoint an elf. And from there, we get to decide whether or not Astarion met their expectations, or if he defied them. Because maybe he was an asshole. Maybe he was just as bad as his human magistrate counterparts. That's not outside the realm of possibility at all, there's an argument to be made that we write him as a counterweight to the stereotype. Astarion is written to be capable of anything, so you can literally go in any direction with his disposition.

But, considering how Cazador rages that he "made" Astarion, and Astarion doesn't even argue with that sentiment. I think it's more likely (and loads sadder) if this unmaking and making included a complete and total overhaul of Astarion entire sense of justice. I actually think the harsh sentiments that Astarion expresses at the tribunal in Ansur's trials are a really good example of the flickers of Cazador and the person he twisted Astarion into, than they would ever be indicative of who he was before getting turned.

That guy's gone, remember?

And if it's not obvious, I'm going in that direction with my fanfic. I'm going to say he actually thought he could help his community. He studied. He got this civil servant position. It was a bit disillusioning. It's better in Baldur's Gate than in other places, but the system itself is cruel, and he's rewarded for being cruel within it. It doesn't even matter that he originally got the job because they hoped he would be a compassionate elf judge amongst bloodthirsty humans, once he's actually in position, it's all about maintaining the status quo. That's what they actually want from him, in spite of their "progressive" leanings.

If anything, he's getting in trouble, and getting noticed by not quite being status quo. A soft-hearted elf, letting his charges get away with all kinds of mischief. I'd write him this way, because I think it then easily follows that Cazador takes note of him and targets him, precisely because he's too merciful. It's annoying.

And, little bit about me, I'm an attorney, and early on, during and right after law school I worked for a few judges.

If Faerûn is anything like the USA I figure that after a few years he has figured out that being a magistrate only gives him a limited amount of discretion and authority over the specific individuals who are brought before him.

It's really legislation that makes a difference and he is specifically forbidden from that. He rules from the bench, and hopes that if he's consistent and fair, and if nothing disastrous results from his rulings, (and if he doesn't get reversed too often, idk if that's a thing in Faerûn but it's a thing in America) then maybe he could eventually influence those who do legislate, but like, that's not his job. And it's going to take a long time because most of it's quite tedious and people don't pay attention unless it's someone they care about standing before him. Nobody cares about the vast majority of these people. His job is to stare at "troublemakers" who have supposedly broken the law, hear witnesses and confessions and denials and lies and decide what the truth is, and decide what's fair.

And it's emotionally heavy work. A lot of people describe being a magistrate as a political position, and that's not incorrect, but there's a valley of difference between Astarion's very hands on job, and what Gortash/Duke Ravenguard do. You are beholden to powerful politicians (like actual politicians) with a lot more influence who figured all this out long before they made the mistake of having ideals or believing in anything, or taking a job in which they would have to a) actually work with people to probable burnout and b) inevitably make a lot of people very angry regardless of what they did.

But, Astarion is still young, he's still got energy, he's not lost himself yet, he thinks he can handle this responsibility and he's wrong.

One day, someone is brought before him. This person is Gur and has supposedly broken the law. Other Gur are upset about the way Astarion ruled. He was way too harsh, or maybe he wasn't.

Quick sidebar: in court, I have watched people literally receive the death sentence and have zero reaction. Same with life w/o parole and other life ruining sentences. In my experience, what triggers an emotional reaction and anger targeted at a judge isn't the severity of the sentence, it's how the severity of the sentence stacks up against their expectations. The defendants (or their families, with proxy outrage) who get really angry, who try to attack the judge, or the ones who are so disruptive that we have to call it and go wait in the hallway while the baliffs calm things down, all have one thing in common: they legitimately thought they were going to just be sent home. They didn't think they were going to be held at all. For that reason, I actually saw a lot more rage from people who had committed minor offenses, because they didn't think what they had done was that big a deal, showed no remorse, ignored their atty, made no effort to express any respect for the law, or any victims, and then when the judge just decides to go with whatever the statute says, in light if zero mitigating factors, the defendant hears "60 days" for the very first time and assumes that the judge just made that up and hates them.

And like, I know it's fiction, and I'm speaking on a very niche experience that most people can't relate to. It's unlikely the writers had anything (let alone realism) in mind at all when they decided to be as vague as possible in the details about a character who embodies "loss" as a concept. I think they were vague because of the theme of loss. I think they were vague because of the theme of loss. I think they were vague because of the theme of loss. I think they were vague because of the theme of loss. I think they were vague because of the theme of loss.

But this sidebar is just to explain why whenever someone says "well he got beat to death for it so his ruling must've been racist and harsh" my knee jerk response is "not necessarily."

And sidebar within the sidebar: if I was going to fully novelize the story, I would actually go in the direction of having the ruling in question be uncommonly fair. I might hint at some racism though—nobody really talks about it below the surface level obvious stuff that's in the game, and part of that is because information about the Gur as a people isn't super accessible. But there is information, and synthesized: racism against the Gur seems pretty standard, especially for an elf who has had it up to here with human bullshit generally. Especially during that time period. He probably didn't have a good opinion of the Gur in life.

But, I have to assume that his animosity towards the Gur that we see in the game was at least affected by the fact that they beat him to death, and then, he spent two centuries as an undead being that they kill on sight with absolutely no justification needed. Like. I don't think it's wild to suggest that. I'm actually very confused by how much people push back on the idea that this could be responsible for his attitude, in part. And that's as far as I have combed through all this so far. Idk how much of it will end up in fic, but it's my personal headcanon now.

I love horror movies. I have watched so many of them it's embarrassing. My letterboxd is embarrassing. I do love several horror movies that feature asshole victims, but as I look at my very favorites, I'm noticing a pattern. I like to feel hurt. I like it when a movie doesn't shy away from dealing out universal, apathetic and disproportionate punishment to everyone. I can't think of anything quite so sad as seeing a perfectly normal, maybe even morally progressive person with their whole life ahead of them, and choosing to unmake them and twist them into a broken puppet in your own image. Sparing/saving no one and nothing in the process. Just make them lose everything, including their entire sense of who they are.

So, I'm going to hurt my own feelings with my Astarion headcanon.

[hollow-lime-green]

my 2sorcs gushy post

2sorcs is done at last, and i feel like i've run a marathon (albeit very slowly). now that people have had a chance to read the final chapter, i want to be squishy about it for a minute. so without further ado, I yap under the cut.

it's no secret (because I can't shut the fuck up about it) that i have had a pretty rough past year of grad school. things have often not gone as planned. i'm not where i wanted or expected to be when i started this program. and yet, i think i am happier than i would have been had everything gone to plan. all of the delays and difficulty of my master's degree have forced me to sit down and actually learn how to cope with this shit instead of forcing my way through. apparently (this will shock you), i cope pretty well by writing fanfiction.

i'll be honest, when i started domains, the scope was 40k of PWP under a thin veneer of H/C and comedy. I still wanted to do a little character work, and I couldn't help but do a bit of jujutsu theorycrafting. but i very much expected it to be a one and done thing that i was writing as an easy way to get back into writing fic after a long hiatus.

while writing 2sorcs, i started doing a lot of work unpacking my own anxiety and depression, and it's been quite a journey. but it has been a much more pleasant journey than it might have been, because i can project it onto some gay boys and make them kiss. and (eventually) be happy (maybe).

many of my readers have said very kind things about my characterization in FIYM, and that makes me so happy. 2sorcs, and FIYM in general, is extremely unserious. but underneath the comedy, there's a lot of real sht. i wanted the characters and their ridiculous hangups to feel real, and i wanted their extremely illogical decisions to still make sense. because real people are like that. i'm like that, and so - as most authors do - i put a lot of myself into these characters while i write, and we can feel and grow together. (i can't say that i'm a gay special-grade jujutsu sorcerer in the 2010s, but i think we'd have a few things in common.)

FIYM is also my first time writing comedy! there's something fun about writing serious, artistic fanfic, but there is something freeing about putting the dumbest 2010s shit i can think of onto a page and seeing how much psychic damage i can inflict on my audience (and Nanami). i love that you guys are here for it. it really makes the whole writing process so much more fun.

your comments and your asks have gotten me through some of the roughest months of my life to date, and i am just so grateful to have such a rewarding hobby and community to retreat to when the real world gets dark and cold and shitty. i would not have been able to write this fic, or honestly my thesis, if i didn't have you all cheering me on in the background and reminding me that things i do make people happy. <3

so what's next?

well, 3sorcs, obviously! FIYM is far from over. i feel a liiiiittle guilty leaving you all on such a cliffhanger, but with any luck, you won't have to wait too long. i've had the outline for part 3 in the works for a long time now, although it's nice to sit and take some time to re-work it and make sure it fits the writer i am now, who has grown so much over the past two years. part 3 will be (primarily) from satoru's pov, and it may get more serious, but also more unhinged. i can't wait. i also have plans for a few more interlude pieces, including a longer multichapter focused on shokohime in this verse.

for now, though, i'll take a short break and take some time to read some of the lovely fic in this fandom and some of the books on my tbr to recharge creatively for the next and final leg of this race. and defend my masters if these motherfuckers will get off their asses and send me my test samples. i know that we might be looking at a dip in the jjk fandom, at least until new animation comes out. but i hope that by the time i am back, you guys will be here and ready for some more tomfoolery :)

if you have stuck around through my yapping, here is your reward: a 0-context snippet from part 3, 'fellas is it gay to be his one and only'.

[cosmic-vacuum]

Introduction.

Heard someone online say this— "The right DIRECTION is actually more important than HARD WORK itself."

The first step to "working smart" is also stepping in the right direction.

Hard work directed towards unproductive and degenerative activities is equivalent to stalemate in the specific field if not further degradation.

HOW SO, DO WE STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION?

Step 1: Have a talk with yourself about what you really wish to do.

My talks before starting this usually ended up in tears.

I've been failing in life altogether for over two years now and all the cumulative criticism combined with regrets and embarrassments fueled defense mechanisms and avoidance techniques to develop inside me.

The talk was obviously hard, but finally I've opened myself to opinion and change recently— this in itself is the greatest change a human being can have.

It wasn't easy, of course.

I was supposed to fight down my own behaviour and impulsive reflexes to understand words and opinions of the other people around me whilst not being swayed completely by them or even rejecting them completely.

This is one of those things easier said than done.

It was talking to myself more that led to this.

The only person who can reach the inner voice of your consciousness is you. This voice is the most truthful and genuine guide you can find, only, you must know to separate it from words materialised by intrusive thoughts.

Sit with yourself, talk to yourself, ask yourself what you want to do.

It may take a while, but you will surely get response when you try to connect to your inner self.

Step 2: Get into what you wish to accomplish— know more.

Reasearch about your goal. We can't start into something we barely know about.

2024 is a great year to live in but only for the seekers.

You'll find everything you need to know about anything online today, all you need to have is the desire to see.

This is the first step to "Smart Work" too.

[Smart work: works only when applied with hard work. It's not the other way around— you can not replace hard work by smart work]

We will be revisiting this several times in times ahead so don't worry if there are unanswered questions [you can always comment or dm them to me].

Step 3: This is probably the TRUEST of all advise I've heard growing up– You're the average of the five people you listen to everyday.

I have personally seen so many people change for the worse on having bad company surrounding them.

It's easier for people yo pick up bad behaviours rather than good ones so no matter how selfish it would make you feel, cross out bad influences from your life

If you happen to be someone mostly at home and in presence of parents or siblings (like me), try to make firstly, your pwn mind your best companion. When there's problems, talk about it to your own self.

It's magical, trust me.

This takes time to get a hang of but it's magical.

Other than that, fill your ears with podcasts or perhaps you tube videos of people who are wise and/or related to your specific goal.

[I will be sharing a list of thr best podcasts to hear for personal growth later in a separate post.]

Step 4: Have a proper plan.

How you spend your minutes, hours, days, months and therefore the years becomes how you ultimately spend your life.

A— Take either a calendar or just draw out the months which compose your selected "two month" time.

B— Write your goal on a piece of paper and formulate a monthly procedure to achieve it.

If this goal is some sort of skill development for example, divide the procedure into the two months and then further down to weeks. Then, divide the workload per day of the week.

This is also applicable for students preparing for some or the other sort of examination or are just studying in general.

C— People who wish to upgrade their personalities will be part of a more active process which will run alongside the daily log posts.

WHAT NEXT?

Once we've got all we wish to change outlined, we can step into finally starting the process.

This turned out to be longer than I expected so I'll keep it till here. Anything else we need to do will follow in the following posts.

If we wish, we can.

[check out the blog to join the journey]

[doctorweebmd]

Hello! First of all you are insanely talented and your writing lives for free in my head and has probs rewired my brain on some level. Like it's that good tasty soul destroying gut wrenching all encompassing art that physically hurts that it's just concepts and not something you can like squeeze to pieces in your arms, how is it possible to feel all these emotions, ouch in the very best way art (I hope this makes sense lol) Secondly, I wanted to ask what your process is for ideating longer stories from start to finish? Cause they're always so layered and impressive like how do you keep track of everything. How do you weave it all together like that. It's so satisfying to see as a reader but what's it like inside your mind, can you give us a little peek (as a treat)? Thank you for your service❤️

Oh anon you are too kind i could cry seriously seriously seriously it means a lot to me. like, i dont even have words. thank you for taking the time to send this and make me feel like a human being that exists and that those words matter, even a little!

I've actually been thinking about how to answer this question for a hot minute, so apologies for how long this ends up being...

Anyway, click below for an exclusive look at ~*~my twisted mind~*~

I joke, of course. (ish.)

Regarding writing my longer fics... over the years, they HAVE become much more clean and organized and I have tried to at least keep to a central theme, so here is my sincere answer...

Think Yes, AND. All writing is improv. To me.

You come up with an idea. Think about how that idea can work, or how it can be possible within canon. Then explain that idea. Then explain THAT idea. A very bare-bones outline can help with predicting length and help you arrange ideas to assist with telling the story you want to tell.

For example:

First, we start with an idea. The overarching idea that you want to explore in a story. For Zero-Sum it was 'what if when Deku left UA and never came back and Katsuki went a little crazy looking for him?' For tptp it was 'what if Akutagawa got abducted and Atsushi went to rescue him?'

From there, extrapolate, extrapolate, extrapolate!

For me, I make incredibly vague outlines. It helps get an idea of what I want to accomplish in between 'core' parts or scenes. And when I say vague i mean, like, vague. Just put ideas down. Quotes you like. Potential events. Nothing is set in stone. Like, this is a copy of one of the earlier iterations of TPTP -

This part is where worldbuilding and thus the story really starts to develop. The nice part about writing fanfic is you're working in a defined framework, so there's many jumping off points. A particularly fun one is trying to explain canon and filling the plot-holes that are so so ardently bothering you. Researching anything and everything behind the canon itself, how it relates to the real world, how you can make sense of it always spurs ideas.

ANYWAY here are some thoughts that have kept me writing when I want to rip all my hair out and throw myself into a bottomless pit because, well, the only thing worse than writing is not writing. and also the horrors.

1.) If you build it, they will come - wow, it definitely feels super discouraging when you're writing a long fic and no one seems to be reading it. But, remember, you are writing the story YOU want to write. Many readers don't read incomplete works. Others only comment on last chapters. Others are just silent but love it anyway. Long-fics require a lot of internal motivation and love but it is always always worth it!

2.) Kill your darlings - oftentimes, if you're stuck making a chapter/passage work and you just can't, its the passage's fault. a lot of the times just deleting it can help gain some clarity of mind.

2.5.) Save your darlings - When I delete things, I usually either add them to the end of the fic or a whole new document. This is relatively new advice that I've started following and its definitely helpful!

3.) trust the process - goddamn it. you can't force it. you really can't. sometimes you have to sleep on it. think about things in your car. reread it and want to rip your hair out. the solution will come to you. IT ALWAYS DOES. trust yourself. this is your story. sometimes you just need to give it time.

4.) I will not explain my art to the stupidest people alive - there are always always ALWAYS going to be people that misunderstand you. no matter what you write, draw, create, how you speak, how you present yourself, there is someone who will misinterpret and shit all over it and there's nothing you can do about it. and when its something as vulnerable as writing, it might be compelling to overexplain yourself. DONT. do not dumb yourself down to appeal to people who dont give a shit about your art anyway. its not worth the effort.

5.) better done than perfect - one of the reasons i now post on ao3 as i'm writing. if you're a perfectionist like me, no matter how many times you edit something, it will never ever ever EVER meet ideal standards. it won't ever sound like you didn't write it. the nice thing is, this is fanfiction. you can write whatever the fuck you want, be it with too many adverbs and run on sentences or whatever. it doesn't NEED to be pristine. it doesn't NEED to be clean. this ain't the new york times bestseller or a world-wide tv show waiting to be critiqued. you will lose nothing by not making it an ideal. what it DOES need to be is DONE.

...

thank you again and i am sorry and hello :)

[taswritesstuff]

things i've learned about writing (from writing essays)

this is an expanded version of a post originally posted to my instagram account. for the original post, click here.

1: get your ideas out in the first draft

your first draft isn't supposed to be good. in fact, it probably won't be good. that's not what it's for - it's there to give you a start on getting your story written down. write down all your ideas. absolutely brain dump onto your document. it won't, and doesn't have to, sound good. it just has to make enough sense that you can understand what's happening when you go back to edit your first draft later.

your second+ drafts can focus on removing unnecessary information, combining sentences, and making things flow better. for your first draft, don't focus on transition words. if you don't know how to write something, put brackets describing what should go there (i.e. [fight scene here]) and move on.

2: assume your reader doesn't care

your readers aren't going to care about your story unless you give them a reason. to make your readers care about your story, you need to care. if you ever find yourself getting bored while writing, your reader is going to get bored too. change the boring scene. remove it. change the parts of your story that will make your readers put your book down.

similarly, make sure your readers don't get confused. sure, everything about your story - the characters, the worldbuilding, the names of things - is obvious to you, but your reader is learning it as they read your book. make sure you don't confuse your readers with an overload of worldbuilding or too many unexplained name drops, because a confused reader can easily turn into an uninterested reader who doesn't finish your story.

now, that's not to say you can't have lots of worldbuilding or name drops in your story - just make sure everything is explained clearly or the explanations are spread out over time to keep them from being too much all at once. this way your reader can keep better track of the story and its world.

3: when in doubt, plot

if you ever get stuck somewhere, do some plotting - even if you usually don't. writing down what you want/intend to include in the next parts of your story are a great way to brainstorm and get yourself reinvested in the scene you're working on.

this is also a good way to be productive without writing. when you're outlining, you're still working on your story. sure, you may still have to heavily edit and remove parts of your story that were in the outline, but outlines aren't perfect. sometimes you may have to ignore them altogether. the important things are making progress and maintaining interest in your story.

4: write whenever you can

yes, even when you don't feel like writing. some days, writing doesn't go as smoothly. some days, you don't feel like writing. this can make the task feel daunting. if you can get into the shitty first draft mindset, it can be easier to let go of all your anxieties and just write. no matter how bad this writing is, you're still getting closer to finishing your book.

this can also apply to plotting - sometimes, your outline will suck. hey, it's still progress! just get something on that page.

5: set deadlines

did you know that people actually do their best work when on a deadline? this is because deadlines prevent people from overthinking their writing. sure, spend a lot of time writing and editing and perfecting your story, but don't spend too much time. overthinking your story and overediting are real problems that can make your story worse.

so, set deadlines to motivate yourself. make them as difficult or as easy to meet as you want - whether your goal relates to word count (ex. "i'm going to write 1000 words this week.") or some other type of end goal (ex. "i'm going to finish chapter 7 this month."), it's a push in the right direction.

finally, give yourself a reward for meeting your goal! over time, these rewards can motivate you enough that your deadlines develop into habits that help you write consistently!

thank you for reading!

if you found this helpful and want to support me, please head over to my instagram (@taslo.writes). i post writing advice, book reviews, oc/wip content, and more 3 times per week, and i've also started posting reels when i feel like it. thanks!

[irregularcollapse]

For the wip game please can you share more Christmas fic I know it’s not on The game but if you wouldn’t mind that would be so nice but if not that’s okay could you share some meat fic part 2

Hello anon thank you for the interest! It's so nice of you <3

I've shared some snips of the Christmas fic, but I don't remember if I have a tag for it... I need to search my own blog lmao

I wasn't expecting to finish it before Christmas, because I definitely didn't start it in time and am bad at fake deadlines, and now it's February... it's fine, time isn't real.

I don't think I've talked about the ~~**~*concept*~**~~ because I wasn't sure I'd be able to finish it, but things aren't that deep! It's just fanfic, there's no secret! Hahaha okay so:

It's loosely based on the film The Family Man (2000), which in itself is a loose A Christmas Carol-slash-It's a Wonderful Life riff. The premise is that Bucky, a high-powered film exec living a lonely life and holding everyone at bay with a lot of "I'm fine"s, is yeeted into a version of his life where he never broke up with his college boyfriend Gale. It's an excuse for me to write a lot about mental illness guilt and self-victimisation, and the catharsis of accepting love and help from people who care about you and your mental state! I actually have ~15k of it written up so far, but I'm loathe to guesstimate what the final wordcount could be. I have a plot outline but it's also slightly intense for me to work on because it is. Incredibly personal lmao

It is also a lot for @angelfruittree because when I said I wanted to do an AU of this movie (I watched it for the first time last year) she said it was an all-time fave of hers and I just! Really want to do it justice! Bucky working in film (in both lives 👀) was her idea <3

This one is also featuring The Egan Sisters™ who I invented for my time slip fic, but are phlegmativerse canon now 😂😂😂

Jean "Bean" Egan is Bucky's eldest sister, and has very much been put into the position of being expected to be a third parent: eldest daughters are forced to grow up too fast, but youngest siblings aren't trusted to grow up (especially when they're mentally ill). Bucky is given a glimpse of a version of Bean who does trust him, and it throws him through a bit of a loop:

“My little gremlins ready?”

“Uh—No. They’re eating toast. Sorry.”

“Ope, you didn’t have to feed ‘em! There’s that iHop near the station.” There’s nothing in her tone but a bright kind of harried-ness, like how their mom used to be a lot of the time. None of the clipped impatience that Bucky gets from Bean more and more; she’s still smiling. “Hi, how are ya?” She cranes up to kiss his cheek, fleeting and careless, and then she’s already bustling past him in the direction of the kitchen, working at the toggles on her coat.

“Bean.”

“Yup?” She stops her charging, turning back to face him clear-eyed and happy, flicking her hair out of the way as she shucks her coat. Brown Egan curls, just like Maisie’s (just like Bucky’s), wild and escaping from under her pom-pom beanie. Lines round her eyes creased by her smile, not drooping with exhaustion.

“You let your kids stay with me?”

It isn’t quite what he wanted to ask, or what he wanted to try to tell her. It comes out all parched and strained. Bean cocks her head, tutting a little.

Anyway this is more than you asked sorry bye thanks for the interest again 🫣🫣🫣 I think I've rambled too much to waffle about meatfic too hfhfhffff sorry

[mrghostrat]

I remember you posting a blurred gif of the outline of atws, so if you don't mind me asking, how do you do that? Like, get the outline onto paper and not just scenes in your head. That's something I've always struggled with, because it's hard to write without an outline, but hard to do the outline when I don't have a first draft? I'm not sure how to explain it so I hope this makes any sense at all lmao

ahh so fair! some people just don't operate that way and you gotta do what's best for your brain. no point exhausting all your energy trying to squeeze into a "standard writing process" that'll make writing even more difficult for yourself.

under the cut, i'm going to explain my writing process every step of the way, using scenes of ATWS. i hope it helps in some way? i don't think it's anything special, but this is just how i write to appease my adhd.

first, this might help: i once used storyplanner.com when i didn't know how to even start a story and i loved it. it's a great tool that can hold your hand every step of the way, or just prompt you to think on your own. there's over 20 planners that ask different questions like "what's your character's major flaw?" "what's the inciting incident?" "what outside elements hinder the character?" etc that will present you with a complete story structure when you're done with it.

ok, now, how i write:

as for the post in reference, that's the 2nd stage of my writing process. i get carried away with tangents and hone in on details, so i plan in dot points to try and force myself to keep it simple and stay zoomed out.

i just write what happens in chronological order, and if i have an idea for a later scene (or something that i just want to happen, but don't know when/where/how), i note that in a separate document that i can refer to while i plan. this also allows me to gloss over vague sections to keep my writing flow going.

stage 1:

i've started using Notion's "toggle list" feature to minimise the less important parts of a scene and keep myself focused on the overarching plot during this stage. this is what the first point looks like:

i go beat by beat, essentially amounting to an elevator pitch for each stage of my story. "crowley and aziraphale are streamer roommates" + "people start to notice they each live with someone and the speculation starts" + "crowley and aziraphale interact on twitch" + "they attend the edinburgh meetup" etc.

i finish a story before i move on from this stage. i won't start writing something in earnest until i know how it ends.

stage 2:

this is what you saw in my gif, and why that page was so long. that's every scene i'm going to write in the story.

sometimes i jump straight from stage 1 to writing, but ATWS required a lot more figuring out before i started any kind of prose. here i'm basically noting down the details of what each scene is, the brunt of what's happening. this is when i have to figure out those "vague sections" i glossed over earlier.

it's still just intended to be a rough outline so i know where the characters are and what's moving their relationship along. most of these dot points are short because i've already thought about them a thousand times, and may have more details noted down in a different document.

meanwhile some of them i'm planning out the scene as i'm dotting it, making not of dialogue that i want to include.

stage 3: my bracket method

i only use this stage when i'm struggling to write and need to baby step into it. this is my "bracket method" in which i write the scene without, like... caring? some people may consider this "double handling" which may drive you mad, but it's the most helpful thing i've ever done for my process.

i switch tenses, i write how i chat (no capitals etc) and just word vomit the scene without focusing on prose. ATWS came quite easily at first, and i didn't need to use stage 3 until i got to chapter 4 and hadn't written in a few days.

stage 4:

this is writing the actual prose, but i wanted to include it so you can see the differences, to help better understand my notes/planning/outlining stages:

and this is what a scene looks like with stage three bridging the gap:

[screebyy]

hi this is a crowlyon dump

I'm just sharing my whole comic outline for this whole crowlyon AU I've created bc I really like it but we're just kinda moving past this part of the story in canon w/ TFS coming out so. Woe, hurt/comfort be upon ye.

I'm planning on finishing the first "arc" of the comic but I actually wrote stuff starting from the starcrossed radio message in december all the way through Crow going into the portal. Incomprehensibly, there are a whole 27 chapters that I have written out beyond the first arc and I still have plans for more! The AO3 fic starts w/ the most recently posted comic (The Summit), since it's a 3 part scene and I've only finished part 1 of the comic.

Hopefully the format is fairly easy to understand! my comic planning is kinda chaotic in that "it makes sense to me" kind of way but I tried to clean it up a bit. Also, exactly one (1) actual fic is present (chapter 5: stakeout) and I really like it, if that's more your vibe. Also also I uploaded most of this from my phone so uhhhh sorry for any copy/paste errors please lmk if you see any clownery.

There's just no way I'll ever be able to draw all of this out but I may still adapt some of it into comics or more fleshed out fic stuff? Idk. I think my perfect world would be to write it all out as a polished fic and have mini-comics of key scenes to go along w/ it but. The wheel of time, ceaselessly turning.

[gallus-rising]

ok so question since i think you'd know. should i join flight rising. i need a new petsim style game in my life. if so what should i do when i start flight rising???

cracks knuckles ok i'll try my best. first off i'm one of the crazies with a dedicated Gen 1 lair, which means i'm not using one of the game's main mechanics: breeding pretty dragons. normal people will spend months searching the for sales, borrowing and loaning dragons with other people, all to find the perfect pair(s) to create the perfect baby. i'm fully at the mercy of RNG and buying dragons with mediocre colors for exorbitant prices because the fact it doesn't have parents is a status symbol lmao

ok things to do

incredibly customizable. idk if i've every played something else that let's me fancy up my pngs this much. as a few examples here is: Dexdee, on over-dressed nightmare with her familiar, cute background, and user made accent. Coco Jumbo, he's wearing an invisibility cloak so you can't actually see the dragon only the clothes it's wearing and his named familiar Polnareff. Nina Tucker who is not wearing anything, doesn't have a familiar and is permanently in the baby pose

all dragons have 3 poses: baby, male, and female. and there's items to let you lock them into the baby pose, freely swap between the M and F poses, and make them face the other direction. they even recently added animated effects to layer over dragons! oh and eye types! back to Dexdee and Nina up there you can see Dexdee has totally normal eyes but i gave Nina spooky glowy eyes. there is also a Lot of apparel. just tons of clothes to dress these things with

dragons also have bios to customize via html. stick a meme in in, put together some fancy Aesthetic™ shit, join the masses of us with cool bio layouts full of unwritten lore orz

if you wanna do fancy stuff but don't know what to do there's tons of user made guides and bio templates

the rest of the game:

(hopefully i've labeled this coherently) in the "play" tab you've got the main ways of making money. earn 75000 treasure a day at the fairgrounds doing minigames. Flight Rising's economy isn't crazy so 75kt a day is actually enough to let you enjoy the game lol. especially since one game specifically, Glitter & Gloom, is busted and can be used to max out your treasure cap in about 30-40 minutes. coliseum is the second primary mechanic. make your dragons fight the local wildlife at one of the 23 venues for unique items. it's unfortunately the grind-est part of the game while also being the best money maker and biases of most on-site events 😔

next thing to do: the forums

Flight Rising has a very active community. my main topic hangouts are dragon share which is dedicated entirely to fawning over each other's pngs and asking for advice on how to dress or improve them or whatever, all the topics where people sell art, and the Light dominance topic (i'll get to that next). but there's site discussions, RP, art and writing, The Economy. etc etc

i outlined the spot where your chosen factions' private discussions are. if you sign up i highly recommend checking those out because they'll have pinned guides and user run resources

final thing to do. this one is totally ignorable but it's one of the Big community things

to stop lairs from completely filling up you can "exalt" your dragons, which lorewise means they've been sent off to serve your faction's deity. when you exalt a dragon it gives you a little money, and you can level it up to get even more money! people have it fully down to a science how to best level dragons and when to exalt to optimize payouts. i've even participated in some of the experiments lol

the faction that exalts the most cumulative levels (relative to faction population size so the smaller flight's have a chance) in one week wins and gets special bonus for the week (second and third too) these things are fully scheduled community run events. i mean like people coordinate these things a year out to set up raffles, art sales, fun games, badges and adoptables, make the whole thing themed, and even coordinate with other factions to fight each other for first place! flights do not get first place accidentally because there's always one pushing to take it. we've got a community run newsletter for this shit. i promise dom is more fun then it sounds >.>

dominance is definitely something you're gonna wanna read up in your flight's private discussions (some flights are more into dom than others) and is not something you wanna do when first joining, but while you're getting the ropes of the site it's one thing to keep an eye on as something to do

this is not an actively but it's a widely beloved feature of the site. gems, the premium currency, and be earned in small amounts doing site stuff and freely sold and traded between players. it's entirely possible to enjoy all site features (mostly buying special gem-only items and skins/accents(cool player made art your dragons can wear(that's an entire creative and economy communities of it's own but this post is getting to long lol)) without spending a cent 😎👌

and finally a Site Culture Thing: it's pretty inclusive! there's a few pride items that cover a variety of identities and multiple trans NPCs. instead of fantasy world ""Christmas"" our winter event is Halloween....... 2! Valentine's Day explicitly includes platonic relationships, also the Valentine's Day shopkeeper is a wheelchair user! another shopkeeper uses a cane :] Big Deal Updates have slowed down because the staff wants to focus on making the full site screen-reader compatible. and they started running new Dragon Breed Lore thru sensitive reading

ok and if any of that has convinced you to give Flight Rising a shot some advice for starting out:

send me a friend request so it's easier for me to give you stuff ;D

fiddle around with your account settings. i highly recommend setting "Feed Style" to "Selective" because it let's you more easily control what those hungry bastards eat

i believe for new players the Which Waystone is on automatically for new players, but if it's not then check it out on the sidebar. it'll tell you basic stuff to do

check out the Dragon Customization and Activities sections of the encyclopedia for more info on how to do stuff

when gathering prioritize Hunting, Fishing, Insect Catching, and Foraging for now. you get daily bonus for keeping your dragons well fed!

use the achievements tab. not only are there some fun items to earn via it, almost all of the achievements are stuff you will just do normally while playing which helps figure out what to do! on the top right of achievement's you'll see this button

that's an extra way of earning Achievement Tokens. there are daily, weekly, and monthly tasks to complete to get more tokens. these are all smaller things done during normal gameplay and will help point you in the right direction(s)

there's a big ol' user guide for Tomo's Trivia Tablet (one of the dailies) so you can just ctrl+f that for the answers instead of having to memorize a bunch of shit

Grimmer & Gloom game guide. this is where you make money

bond with your dragon's familiars everyday to get a lil extra money, but more importantly, because they give you chests for hitting Friendship Milestones. DO NOT OPEN THE GOLD CHESTS you can sell them for about 30g in the auction house which is a much better deal than what you'd get rolling the RNG dice by opening it yourself 👌

you get one free faction change if you find you're not enjoying your flight

Roundsey is evil. do not trust her

no really, i will give you stuff. i'm rich. i'm solidly a member of the dragon upper middle class. i'll buy you stuff, give you items needed for achievements and/or to expand your lair space, send you extra food, straight up give you money for things, fully level a team of dragons so you've got some dudes to go coil grinding with. this is a longstanding open invitation to all FR mutuals

oh god this is so long. i'm sorry. uuuuh feel free to hmu if you need any pointers or i explained something poorly. i can find something written by people more knowledgeable and articulate than me

[midnight-mourning]

Good morning, mourning! is it possible for you to show us how you make an outline for writing a chapter sometime in the future? like what does your first rough rough draft look like?🤔

also whats your favorite vine/meme at the moment?🫣

Hi pip!!

I can actually show you RIGHT NOW as I keep all my outlines (for the most part) saved in their respective chapters

*added a read more post-answering bc this got LONG lol*

So, it's sometimes a bit dependent on the fic, what I'm writing at the time, and where I'm at in the process. I usually have two different methods I stick to and typically combine in some manner:

bulleted list of important scenes/ideas to expand out upon from there (typically how I start out ideas for oneshots)

big blurb paragraph of a flow of ideas from start to finish (typically how I start out chapter-based fics, and what I do for Confused Spirit)

From there, I'll then combine the two methods in some way if it's a oneshot, and if I'm struggling to get the words flowing for a chapter-based fic, I'll use the list to expand out upon things I wrote originally. For example, this was ch. 34's outline (spoilers for those who haven't read it yet):

and then the list I added once I got started properly, which I crosssed out as I went along. Fun fact, you can see where I hit a moment of greatness in that last bullet and the chapter came together as a whole from there:

the blacked out is things I've pushed back for later (or just general spoiler stuff), so you can see that inital plans and even those I make WHILE writing the chapter are still subject to change as I go into actually writing it. Another good example would be from ch. 32:

in this case, I went back and added to the original outline (I think you can tell where lmao) and didn't utilize a list

I'd love to find chekov's gun, bc that one was REALLY good if I'm remembering correctly but I think it's buried somewhere in the Dialogue Dump unfortunately 😔

Adding on to that, I write a lot of scene ideas/mainly dialogue for things that happen in the future as the ideas don't typically come to me in chronological order. the party from 33? like a month into writing the story. the team meeting Michael? mid-arc 2. Chekov's gun? the start to midway point in the first couple days of writing and then basically finished within by the middle of august (started in July for those that don't know)

My point being that there's a lot of things that I have saved for certain arcs/plot points that I then insert into their proper place in the story once I find where that is. For arc 3 in particular I took the approach of gathering all the dialogue i KNOW was going to be in the arc, wrote my lil blurbs for all the chapters, and then started placing them accordingly. stuff has (and probably will continue to) gotten shuffled around, but for the most part has stayed in their original places.

a rough rough draft beyond that is basically adding to those base scene ideas (sometimes in order, sometimes not) typically writing dialogue and then filling in the blanks from there! sometimes if I'm lucky I can write a chapter from (mostly) start to finish in a span of four hours or so but that's only when i'm REALLY cookin'

Sorry for the super long winded response, didn't realize how much I wrote until I did it 😅

TL;DR, blurb of ideas, organize those ideas/add to them or adjust, full send it from there (with the potential help of some dialogue along the way)

As for my fav vine/meme currently? Probably the lump fish guy, everytime someone says 'very mindful, very demure' (I am not on tiktok so I do NOT understand this one) I instantly think 'very beautiful, very powerful'

thanks so much for the lovely ask!!! <3 <3 <3

[ginnyzero]

Tips for ADHD Writers

(From an ADHD Writer & Spoonie)

As an ADHD author, and a spoonie (migraines) I know that a lot of typical writing "guidelines" can feel overwhelming and often don't work. I taught myself to write (results may vary) and after several decades of this; here's some of what I've learned to keep the dopamine and words going.

Throw out Genre Conventions & Boxes; Discover what stories you enjoy & write those.

There's nothing more restricting as an ADHD writer being told "this genre has to be this way." See those boxes. Break them. Find what type of stories and tropes and archetypes you enjoy writing in the types of worlds you find fun and exciting and write those. This should be fun. Writing may be hard, so give your brain the things it craves to snack on.

For example, I love writing romantic comedy with action. I love scifi and I love fantasy. I love shoving the two together. So, if I told you I feel my style is a blend of Jim Butcher action and Anne Bishop family dynamics, you might not get it. But if I said, I love the Mummy/Van Helsing, the Adam's Family, The Ocean's Series/St. Trinian's, and the Expendables, you might be getting closer. Oh, and Star Wars. Particularly the Wraith Squadron EU stuff of Star Wars. Han Solo and Bounty Hunter Wars.

2. Tackle Writing Craft Issues One Thing at a Time

All the writing guidelines and 'how to write' can be overwhelming. Turn off the noise, and choose one thing you want to work on in your story. Dialog. Description. Character Interactions. Conflict. Pacing. Whatever it is you want to work on, focus on it and only it. If you're working on dialog, then don't worry about description. If you're working on character interactions and group dynamics, don't worry about conflict.

The first "Craft" thing I remember trying to tackle was dialog. I wanted to write fun, snappy, dialog and not do question and answer responses like you see on sitcoms. It was the era of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and hopefully I made it my own later. Then I was like "I love characters, let's have fun characters." Plot and description came last for me. But I wouldn't be where I am today if I'd tried to do it all at once.

Go ahead and tackle this post bit by bit if you need to! I get it!

3. Write down all your Ideas into a paragraph synopsis outline.

Hyper fixation is great when you first get an idea. The juices are flowing, the dopamine is high and everything is all coming together. Or so you think. However, from painful experience, I know hyper fixation may not last between the 360K to 495K words of a trilogy, it might not even last past the first 80K. That's when having this synopsis paragraph outline filled with summaries and dialog snippets will be your savior. It will be able to rekindle your focus and make connections in your brain on what you were trying to do. And yes, it's okay if it's messy. You're the only one who is going to see it, and part of the dopamine thing can be making it less messy.

For example, I'm working on a vamp romcom trilogy right now. I got through the first two books and like the first 20K of the third book before my brain went "we need a break, write something else, PLEASE." then refused to focus on it for seven months. (I wrote a 'proto first draft for something else that I've been poking at for at least 10 years.) Sometimes, your brain won't want to focus on a story for years after you started it. Paragraph summary notes are your friend. And might be more important to do while you have this hyper fixation than the actual story itself. (Do what you can.)

4. Ditch word counts

There's nothing more depressing then trying to set a daily word count goal and not meeting it. Or seeing other people posting their daily word counts. Especially when you might write 50 words one day and 6000 another. Ditch this whole idea you have to write every day, because it's not feasible, and won't make your dopamine go up if you feel you 'failed' the goal or 'failed' in comparison to other people.

Writing is not about your word count all the time. It's about research. It's about idea gathering. It's about making that lore book. It's about getting all those pictures into a folder, and then sorting that folder. It's about day dreaming, and shower thoughts and the story you tell yourself before you go to bed. Or that music playlist you need to trigger your writing. Or buying the perfect candle. Making a map. It can even be scrolling tumblr b/c you might not be able to advance that story until you see something that triggers 'oh, that's what I want.' (I had this happen to a third book in a trilogy of a fairy tale sword and sorcery fantasy I was writing, it was a bit frustrating. But it's written and pubbed now.)

5. Copy and Paste what you might think is Half Assed Description

You've described something like a room or a person in your story, and you need to go back to that room (these are called key places) or person later or in the next book and you don't want to rewrite the description b/c that's not making you happy (unless description writing does that, then go you) go ahead and copy and paste it. It will save you time, and headaches trying to keep details straight.

Because as someone who doesn't see things when I close my eyes and I must define everything into words, people who can see things when they close their eyes probably think you have too much description. (Don't listen to them.) And it's okay to repeat yourself, because you are describing for you, and others like you, who need the description and reminder every once in a while what color hair and eyes and possibly skin, all these characters have and what the room looks like.

And don't be too hard on yourself. Go read Brian Jacques. If you can create a description even a third as well as Brian Jacques, you are winning. Okay, Brian Jacques wrote his books for blind children and thus described everything three times as he tried to include as many senses as possible. (Very important.) If you can hit one third of it, you are golden. (Also, he's fun. Long, as description eats up words, but fun. Err... formative years reading. Oops.)

6. Embrace writing the multiple stories/fanfics/short stories before figuring out what story you really want to tell.

Sometimes, it's not straight forward. Oh, how I wish it was. Sometimes, you end up writing what feels like thousands and thousands of words before you find in those stories kernels and ideas of the story you really want to write that you hope will make your brain shut up about that particular set of characters for a while. (Or not. Or not is okay too.) And this isn't wasted writing. There's no such thing as wasted writing. This can be part of the process.

So, the thing I wrote the proto first draft of, yeah, well, it's probably the third proto first draft and half a dozen other short stories where I figure things out. We are talking about 100s of thousands of words, at least two or three different change ups of where I want it to take place and genre types, but I would not get to the story I want to write without those other stories. And that is honestly, the most important bit, finding the story you want to tell in these bits of other stories you're writing, even if those stories never make it off your disk drive or no further than your closest beta reader.

The upside of this is, you get to know your setting and your characters really well. And so when you get to the story you want to tell, you can write that dynamic really well! On the other hand, you know them really well, and you might forget to show that dynamic in your story because you've forgotten other people haven't read the 300K words you've written over the years and don't know them very well. (This is when you need fresh eyes who have never read any of these other stories.)

7. Remember your readers are not in your head with you, and sometimes your future self isn't either.

It's okay to spell shit out. Especially if you're going for that YA audience or using a limited POV like first or 3rd limited. You can hit people over the head with the hammer. It's not 'show, don't tell,' it's show AND tell. You want to say the characters are good friends. Great! Now, go ahead and write out those fun character chewing the scenery scenes where they interact with each other and show me. If your character doesn't like interacting with other people, then you got to show me that. (Good read for this: Murderbot Diaries.) Tell emotions, write feelings. (How is their body reacting?)

This is good for you too, because you might not touch this story for months, have to go back and reread and are going "who are these people and why is the main character interacting with them?" And it might take a few paragraphs to go "Oh." So, go ahead and write it out for your future self too. (Been there. Done that. Expounded on it.)

I have had convos with my editor as I'm writing and giving her chapters, where she's like reacting emotionally and we're talking about this or that and some of it, I can't put in b/c it's limited third (and sometimes this happens with my 3rd omni stuff too,) but other stuff we end up saying, I go back to the scene and am like "okay, I should spell this out b/c obviously, I wasn't clear enough." And that's okay. I have a good relationship with my editor and really trust her, so this happens.

8. Don't worry about making it coherent for other people, unless you're going to publish (in any way shape or form.)

Look, if you are writing for yourself firstly, don't worry about structure, or pacing, or "Why do we care" stakes type of thing. Get the story out you want to tell and have fun with it.

However, if you want to publish, suddenly, all of this matters. Your story has to have some type of structure, some arc to it, a 'why do we care' type of stakes for the readers to latch onto very early on and it needs to be coherent for other readers who are again, not in your head with you. (This is why paragraph outlining can help. It can reveal the lack of this stuff before you get writing.) This is when I recommend strongly getting a development editor to help you find the beginning of your story and what the stakes/conflicts are for your characters and keep the story within your vision. (If they don't ask what your vision is, run.) And your structure just needs to exist, it doesn't have to be any 'defined' structure out of guidebooks.

9. When you get stuck have your handy 3 questions ready. What could reasonably happen next, aka what are the characters going to do? What could go wrong? And Does this Work for the Tone of my Story?

If you have trouble coming up with plots and you have no idea how to do conflicts, murphy's law is your friend. What can go wrong, will go wrong. You might come up with multiple ways things they can do and the ways they can go wrong and be like "but does this fit the outcome I want for my story, the ending I have in mind?" You might need to write them out. You might have to sit there and go "is this feasible or do I have to turn the story into pretzels to get it to work?"

Sincerely, watch the Emperor's New Groove. It didn't go through the Disney Process and every turn is "What can go wrong?" For both the protags, and the villains. At some point, generally in the third act, your characters will no longer feel as compelling if things keep going wrong for them. But in the first and second acts things can go wrong or appear to go wrong for the reader. (And then you get the dramatic reveal such as an Ocean's movie or Lucky Number Slevin.)

10. If you find it boring to write, your reader is probably going to find it boring to read. Summarize. Time Skip. It's okay!

This one is hard for me. Your story doesn't have to tell every minute of every day. Time skipping is your friend. Summarizing something that happens that isn't really plot important, they're doing this but you really don't need to show it, go ahead and summarize it. They were busy doing this, but we're at plot now!

Sometimes, that character interaction or fun going to a festival bit, or going on a date is the plot! This is called character development and your readers need to see it! Remember the type of story you're writing and figure out what the plot means for that type of story. (Hey, a romance without dates, is it really a romance?)

There's going to be times where you are going to be info dumping something you went and learned to write the book. And maybe on your third read through you realize, it's dull. And it's okay to summarize or take it out. Or sometimes, given you've read it six times, you might need to ask a beta reader "Was this boring, do I need to break this up?" Just to be sure. Because you know, yes, you will start to skim your own description and exposition. You are the one reading this book 10 times before publishing. Ack!

Or, maybe you've got the entire layout of the city/country in your head and why it is the way it is and all the politics, look, it might be relevant information, is it relevant right this second? No. Keep the story moving and put that information in context when it's important where it belongs! (See making plot paragraph summaries and writing lore books.)

Ten is a good number. In general, I also strongly recommend reading in your genres, and um, if you're writing a trilogy or a series, finish the trilogy, and write as many in the series as feasibly possible (more if they're say 50K words or so) before publishing them. This way if you find you've written yourself into a corner, or you need to make a call back but the call back you want isn't really there, you can go in and add those details or fix an ending without reader confusion issues. It can be something as simple as a plane going by overhead, or setting up foreshadowing for a later book. And you might not come up with that detail until 3 books in or know you need it and be like "crap" if you've already published. So, before you learn the hard way.

Most importantly, one spoonie to another. REST. If you need to rest, take it.

Bless and Happy writing ~ Ginny O.

[blueskiesrry]

2024 writing evaluation :)

thank you lizzzz for tagging me

1. Number of stories posted to AO3: 5!!!

2. Word count posted for the year: 199,325

3. Fandoms I wrote for: One Direction

4. Pairings: Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson

5. Story with the most:

Kudos: everything of mine is yours

Bookmarks: everything of mine is yours

Comments: where we landed

6. Work I’m most proud of (and why): I'm most proud of everything of mine is yours because it really was just written purely based on what i wanted to write and was full of self indulgence. the writing style is one that i'm always trying to somehow replicate with my other works.

7. Work I’m least proud of (and why): to be honest, i'm not entirely sure. i wish i would've put more time into if we were butterflies but i wouldn't say i'm not proud of it. i love beige as well but there was hardly any thought put into it so maybe that's the one i'm least proud of. but not bc i don't love it haha

8. Share or describe a favorite review you received: any time i get a comment about a reread or someone going to read my other fics because they liked one of them is a different kind of special to me. to be specific though, i got a comment on where we landed from the person who submitted the prompt, and i still go back and read it when i'm struggling with writing. just know if you've ever left a comment or sent me a message about my fics, even if it's the smallest thing, i've held it close.

9. A time when writing was really, really hard: i found writing hard in late spring through the summer. i went really hard the first few months of the year (wrote four fics by may 😃) and i think it burnt me out a bit. there were some things i started and put to the side when i realized i was forcing myself to write them even though they weren't going how i wanted. this is the first year i've been serious and disciplined with my writing so i'm taking that as a learning experience.

10. A scene or character you wrote that surprised you: there is a scene in you, in every color where louis and harry have their first disagreement of the fic that acts as a sort of indication that things are getting rocky, and it was surprising to me how difficult it was to get right. i ended up writing it a few times before i finally felt like in emulated what i was going for. the first draft was a large screaming match which ultimately didn't feel right for the characters.

11. A favorite excerpt of your writing: oh boy, i'm just going to post the first one i can think of lolol. i have nothing to say about it. this is from if we were butterflies

There’s many times in an artist’s life when they must decide whether to savor the moment with their eyes or in their art. To watch a sunset sky turn from purple to pink or to dip a brush in watercolor paint. To snap the picture of a lover lying in the moonlight or to lie with them across cool sheets. To put the pencil down when Harry parts his lips, Louis’ name on his tongue, or to capture his expression forever. “Lou,” Harry says in a voice he’s never heard before, hands shaking in his lap. Louis’ gaze snaps to his, and he must decide—to keep this to himself or to never go another day without the reminder of exactly how Harry is looking at him. And any other time it would feel easy. If it was anyone else, there might be the promise of another moment. But now? With Harry, here, like this, and so, so beautiful?

12. How did you grow as a writer this year: as i said above, this is the first year i've been intentional with my writing, so i think i grew in a lot of ways. most notably, i learned how to outline in a way that works for me which has been HUGE in actually finishing projects. i also learned that writing scenes in order is a lot easier for me and makes it more likely that i'll finish something.

13. How do you hope to grow next year: i'd like to get better at editing. i kind of despise editing after the first read through which leads to sloppiness. i'd like to do better at being intentional with editing and keeping an eye out for specific things.

14. Who was your greatest positive influence this year as a writer (could be another writer or beta or cheerleader or muse etc etc): this is also the first year that i've really had writer friends who i can talk about writing with so everyone that i've done this with has been a huge influence. specificallyyyyyy though, @harruandlou ofc. i've learned a lot from her about the technical side of writing from plotting to editing and everything in between. and obvs she's been incredible in putting up with my whining and scattered ideas during beta reading 🙂‍↕️

15. Anything from your real life show up in your writing this year: always. the first one i can think of is the place in chicago that harry goes in eomiy are places i also went for a conference during undergrad. i'm always pulling things from real life though, i couldn't possibly tell you all of them.

16. Any new wisdom you can share with other writers: know your characters before anything else. while plot is important, people will come for the plot but stay for the characters so make sure you know exactly who they are, where they came from, and where they're going. i promise you it will make all the difference in how real your writing feels.

17. Any projects you’re looking forward to starting (or finishing) in the new year: i recently finished writing my longest (!!!!!) fic yet (over 100k!!!!) that will come out soon into the new year. i'm looking forward to finishing up editing and sharing it with everyone :) i also do have some things planned that i can't wait to get started on!

18. Tag some writers whose answers you’d like to read.

ik you may have already been tagged but @petitommo @wishingforloushair @28goldens @insightfulinsomniac @louieshalo

[sincerely-sofie]

Hi! This may come across as a dumb question, but I wanted to write my own PMD:EoS fic, but I’m kind of lost on how I want to organize my thoughts and the plot. Additionally, I get new ideas and then I end up struggling with what I want to do. How did you organize things for your story?

This isn't a dumb question at all! It's something I've struggled with for a long time as a writer, and I'd be happy to share what I've come up with to solve my fight with story organization! I’ll try to speak coherently, but this is something I’m really passionate about, so I might ramble a bit, haha. Keep in mind that this is what works for me, and what will work for you may be very different. Take from this post what serves you well and ditch the rest :> 

Organizational Tools

You can use pretty much anything to organize your story— I’ve used everything from loose printer paper in storage clipboards to expansive Google Docs that are hundreds of pages long in the past. But what I’ve found that really works for me is an app called Notion. You may have heard of it— it’s really popular with productivity enthusiasts and small business owners, but it works like a dream for organizing creative projects! There’s a bit of a learning curve, but you can find a lot of templates out there for free that work really well if you don’t want to set things up yourself.

This is how my Notion page for TPiaG was set up:

The “Cheat Sheets” dropdown list was full of character sheets, links to Bulbapedia articles I’d refer to while outlining or writing, and also my completed outline. “Fun Stuff” was full of memes and jokes about the characters, an empty page that I’d start filling once I received kind comments on my fic, as well as ideas for additional stories relating to the AU— stuff like oneshots and possible sequels or diverging AUs. Fun fact: this is where I first wrote down my idea for The Present is a Gift: Paradox Edition AU!

“Chapters to Write” and “Chapters I’ve Written” were dropdown lists where I divided my outline into little sub-dropdown lists in “Chapters to Write”, and everytime I wrote a chapter, I would move it over to “Chapters I’ve Written”. Nothing is as reassuring when you’re stuck in the middle of writing a nearly 60k word fanfic as seeing the chapters slowly migrate to the right.

Organizing the Story

Outlining is a big part of my organization process, so I’ll be talking a fair bit about it. The first part of any story is your premise / core idea (it sounds like you’ve already got some of your own, so I won’t discuss coming up with those). The next step is brainstorming what you want to revolve around that premise. I already knew the characters fairly well, so what I did for TPiaG is write out a bunch of ideas for scenes on scraps of notebook paper and start arranging them on a table in different ways. I eventually settled on an order of events (many of which ended up cut for clarity in the actual fic), and then I started structuring them into chapters. 

How I structure chapters is inspired by the Kishotenketsu structure that is used fairly often in Asian storytelling. I divide each chapter into 5 parts: an Introduction that provides a starting point for the chapter, Development that builds on and adds context or tension to the introduction, a Twist that causes a new perspective on either the situation, characters, or something else in the story, a Resolution that helps wrap things up in a satisfying way, and then a Hook that leads the reader to want to read the next chapter. This is a structuring method that works way better for me than the Three Acts or the Hero’s Journey— I prefer the stronger focus on character vs. plot— and so I try to use it as often as possible. Here’s an example from my outline (if you’ve read TPiaG, you may notice some differences between it and the actual published chapters of the fic! It’s chapter 4 instead of chapter 3, for one thing!)

Organizing Characters

I’ll be honest— I didn’t fill out character sheets like I should have for this project. I kind of just went with the flow as I wrote them. Twig and Grovyle are the only characters who got sheets at all, and Grovyle still only got a half of one. However, I do have a blank copy of a character sheet I can share as reference!

I think most of this is pretty self-explanatory— but if anyone wants clarification on anything or what goes into the individual note sections, let me know! This is what the topmost part of Twig’s character sheet bio looks like: 

The Torment of the Human Mind, or: How to Deal with Idea Overload

This is an ongoing struggle for me. I’ve mentioned having ADHD in the past, but it really turns idea generation and shiny object syndrome into a purgatory of unspeakable proportions. Before TPiaG, I had never finished a creative project because I would constantly ping-pong back and forth between newer and funner ideas, inevitably abandoning WIPs, come back to them for a few weeks at a time, and then dart off to the next thing. This feels awful because you never finish anything when you’re stuck in this cycle, and having all those ideas as open tabs in your brain is exhausting. 

My greatest advice for figuring out what you want to do and then doing it? Figure out a fun idea— maybe not the funnest idea, but an idea you enjoy and can create with your current skills and a good helping of hard work— and then commit to it with a story priority hierarchy. Every time you want to work on another idea, you have to work on the idea you committed to first for 30 minutes (or a different block of time, whatever works for you!). After that allotted time is up, you’re free to work on whatever other projects you like— but you have to start at the top of the priority hierarchy. That way, you still get work done on your #1 project, but you’re not restricted to it. 

Alternatively: Write until that priority project is done. You can make notes on ideas, you can make Pinterest boards for them, and you can make playlists— but you can only write for your priority project. I’d recommend doing this with a deadline in mind. Something like Camp NaNoWriMo or a similar month-long challenge. Novelty is an important part of my workflow! I get it. But for some people, bouncing back and forth between ideas is detrimental to their ability to focus / write, and committing to a single project at a time is extremely beneficial. I thought that I was someone who needed total freedom to work on any of my projects, but it turns out that being handcuffed to a project and a word count goal for a month was exactly what I needed to finish my first ever complete manuscript.

Yikes, this was a lot. I hope I answered your question well enough. If not, ask again and give me another shot! I love talking about creativity, and I would be overjoyed to help you create however I can.

[kogarashi-art]

Writing Tips: How I Outline

(Or: How I turn a list of random ideas into a plot outline.)

Saw this question pop up elsewhere and thought I'd put together my method, as someone who doesn't necessarily write her outlines the way your middle school English teacher probably taught, but I get something workable out of it in the end.

This goes for both fanfiction and original fiction.

Step 1: Throw Ideas at the Paper

I don't start out by trying to write an outline, beginning to end. Very rarely do I actually know the story start-to-finish already at this point, and even if I do (for example, a fairy tale adaptation I've been working on since college), I'm more likely to get hung up on what comes next and forget important details I want to remember.

So instead, just like those people who write individual scenes of their stories out of order and worry about maybe stringing them together later, I just write down ideas. I don't even necessarily try to keep them in rough plot order. The most important part of this step is just getting those ideas written down so I don't forget them.

To this end, I make a new document. I write a 1-2 paragraph summary at the top of what the basic idea is. Then I start a bullet list. Each idea gets its own bullet. Sometimes I'll have more to say on one idea, or have related ideas, and use sub-bullets to group them together visually. Every idea goes on the paper so it doesn't get forgotten.

(It's also worth noting that I say "paper," but I actually do this in Google Docs so I can add to it on the go via my phone if I have an idea away from my PC.)

Step 2: Start Grouping Related Ideas Together

This is still in the "throw ideas at the paper" phase, technically, but was worth its own step in the list.

Once the document starts getting long enough, it's time to start grouping things together. I add in section headers to make things easier to sort. I'll group ideas together that are related. I'll refine ideas via further sub-bullets. I may even start figuring out a rough plot order at this point—acts, narrative arcs, subplots, what have you. I still don't delete any ideas. Everything is valid (for now, at least).

You don't need to know things like story structure at this point. You only need to be able to recognize which ideas are related to each other.

Step 3: Organize Everything by Plot Order

This may have already been happening bit by bit leading up to this point, just by me grouping related ideas together or dropping new ideas into the list in their relative plot-position, but this is the point where I focus on really figuring out the order everything is going to go in.

Sometimes, my idea list is short enough that I can just cut-and-paste everything into a new plot order. More likely, though, I'll have to type it all up anew. When I do, I open a new document and move the old one to my other monitor (but you can also group the two windows side-by-side on a single monitor, or one-above-the-other on a phone/tablet screen, at least on Android). Then in the new document, I start re-typing all my ideas, but this time in strict plot order.

This means I need to figure out which idea makes for a good start to the story, or happens the earliest chronologically. That becomes the first bullet in the list. Then the next bullet is the next plot beat from the ideas list. Sub-bullets refine each beat. Ideas that don't work get left out. I end with the conclusion to the story (the climax and denouement).

This is where it's a good idea to have an idea of good story structure, but there are lots of articles on the internet about what makes for a good story, and there are a lot of different ways to go about planning one out. For the purposes of this guide, I would just suggest putting the events in chronological order. What makes sense happening first? What makes sense as the wrap-up to everything else? Would a specific event work better if it happened earlier in the story, before the other ideas, or does it work better if it comes after the other ideas?

Another important note is that I don't stress about breaking this into chapters yet, if it's a story that is intended to be long enough to have chapter breaks. I don't worry about word counts either. The only thing that matters here is that everything is in plot order so I can get to work on writing it (because I write in chronological order).

Step 4: Create a Chapter-by-Chapter Outline (Optional)

It needs to be said, I don't always do this for every story idea.

I've got two fanfic WIPs right now. One has a chapter-by-chapter outline, and the other doesn't.

For the one that doesn't, it's written more like a Wikipedia-style plot summary, with section headers to separate each major event, and when I write it, I just work my way through that outline and put chapter breaks where it makes the most sense to me (going off of rough word count as well as each chapter's individual arc).

For the one that does, I have a rough idea of how much plot fits into a given chapter of the length I'm writing for the story. Like Step 3, I put my plot-order outline on my second monitor, and started the chapter breakdown in a new document, but this time, instead of bullet points, I put the chapter numbers as section headers. Under each, I write a 1-2 paragraph summary of the events of the chapter based on the bulleted outline.

This is not set in stone, by the way. As I write my way through the story, I may think of another event to slot into a chapter, or may realize I want two events to happen in a different order than I planned. I may realize I don't have enough content for a chapter the way I thought I did, and need to combine two. I may realize I have too much content for a single chapter, and need to split it. The outline is always flexible.

Step 5: Write an Outline for the Current Chapter (Optional, but Helpful)

I'm ready to start writing after either Step 3 or Step 4, but I will frequently do this as well before I actually start writing.

If I have a chapter-by-chapter outline, I'll look at the chapter I'm ready to write, and then create a quick bullet list of the events of just that chapter. Any specific scenes or images I want to remember to include go on the list, and I write this list in chronological order.

If my outline is more general (the "Wikipedia summary" style or a bullet list not divided by chapters already), I'll start writing the chapter outline wherever I intend it to start, and include events until it seems like enough content for the chapter (or an event sounds like it would be a good end to the chapter).

In either case, I may not end up writing everything I've included in this outline in the chapter, rolling some of it over to the next one instead, but this essentially gives me a checklist to work through as I write the chapter to make sure I don't forget things I wanted to include (in case my characters go off the rails a little).

Step 6: Write the Story

Now just write the story.

Hopefully this helps anyone who didn't already have an idea on how to turn random ideas into an outline. Full disclosure: this is also how I write other things (such as lesson plans or talks for church). I throw random ideas at the paper, then worry about sorting them into a coherent order and figuring out what my thesis is.