#I've already started planning out the skeleton of things basically lol

[pigeonstab]

Me showing up in your inbox every other day to ask about the vampire and werewolf au lol

Are there people who know about vampires and werewolves and shifters? Like is it a known and normal thing or are they trying to keep it secret? If it is/was known would it be dangerous for them? Like people hunting them?

Also you said they know Killer’s been hurt before, what happened to him? :o

Also also do you have any ideas about what Killer and Cross are studying at college?

AND— how are you?? I hope you’re having a nice day \(^-^)/

Thank u!!! Very nice getting these hehe

1) This is like THE world building element I wasn't really sure about. I've thought about it and I think like, people know about vampires and werewolves and there are still some modern day hunters but they're a minority? (In a drawing I made you can see Killer has a AHAB (all hunters are bastards) sticker lol). I really don't know yet. I think society accepting them is like out of the question lol, you lose a lot of adversity and interest doing that I think. It's also just sort of weird to me? Idk that's just not a story I'd like to read.

Maybe it's more of a 'we saw a werewolf attack in this little village outback' and people are worried and stuff but it's always out in the middle of nowhere and it's not happening to them so they don't really give it that much thought. It's the news you see horrors all the time right? Mostly they just... Don't think anyone in their college classes would even be a vampire/werewolf. Maybe there aren't that many creatures out in the city at all. Like a hiding in plain sight thing. i think that's something I like more already. It's probably not going to be a huge part of the story at all. Maybe a few mentions that can leave the characters feeling like outsiders or a little anxious but not a major plot point y'know?

2) I Imagine someone who's like twenty something and already a vampire hasn't had the best circumstances lol. He definitely was not turned with his consent, I haven't really thought of specifics yet but when Nightmare found him he was not laughing and being cute. He was closed off and depressed. Didn't talk much at all. (He's better now y'all

3) wahhh I haven't thought about that! That's a good question. I don't... Actually know how American colleges work but I think Killer would probably be in like history or english? Cross maybe in computer science? Maybe audio-visual stuff. Is that cinematography? Idk what it's called. Maybe they can be like. History of arts+cinematography so they have classes together maybe. Again this is without knowledge of how any of it works. I'll get back to you on that.

I'm good! Pretty tired. College maybe isn't.......... As cool.... As I first thought....... But it's chill! some of my classes are still super interesting and I love learning. And anyway I have plans and ideas and stuff on the side that make me happy! And my Kitty is drooling on me so really what more can I ask for?

And how are youuuu?

[disgruntleddemon]

i though i'd try and do designs for the better world from J3 as fun lil challenge! i went w middle age-ish, since we don't rly see that in canon.

McGucket gets to be fun and silly. he gets into eccentric button ups (i firmly believe the Hawaiian shirt Stan puts on the skeleton was McGucket's), and just generally enjoys getting ridiculous with his outfits. also, return on the mustache! and a ponytail for the hell of it. kind of a fun uncle vibe.

i think Ford just likes plain colored button ups. that's basically all he wears in flashbacks lol. besides that, he's a bit more outdoorsy. best believe he has a shit ton of random things in the vest pockets. he also doesn't have any tattoos from Bill, so that's nice

for Stan i basically just went w his sea grunk look. his hair is just starting to thin out a bit. his chin is also scruffier since i'm still not sure how to give a dog stubble. idk, his design was the trickiest to figure out.

Stan and Ford's matching earrings were from an incident where they were drunk and one of them thought it would be a great idea. both of them insist it was the other's idea. they never got rid of the earrings though lmao. McGucket teases them about it sometimes.

anyway, long ramblings on my timeline headcannons under the cut:

so, the main thing that ended up changing the timeline, was Ford reaching out to Stan Sooner. things had just started to go bad, like in cannon, but Bill played one of his cards too soon.

he did the zombie possession thing, and that's enough to scare Ford into contacting Stan. the idea that even death wouldn't be enough to escape Bill was pretty terrifying y'know?

he hadn't yet come up with the plan to hide the journals, so primarily he wants Stan to help buy him some time. basically, he needed someone who could babysit him and make sure he was restrained if he fell asleep.

given his goal, he has more time to just sit down with Stan and explain the whole situation. he's a bit more trusting than cannon Ford, but in a "this is a last ditch effort, idk what to do if this fails" way. obviously, Stan agrees to help, which also means they're now living together and forced to work through their issues. it does go a bit smoother than would have in cannon tho. at some point during this time period, they do hide the journals. they're basically throwing anything at the wall trying to see what sticks.

Ford believes they REALLY need McGucket. with some convincing from Stan, he works up the nerve to call Fiddleford's home. only to be met with Emma saying he hadn't come back, and not to call her anymore. i kinda picture a scenario where Ford and Stan desperately try to find McGucket, only to, ironically, get snatched by the blind eye after seeing something supernatural

i'm not entirely sure how i'd have the confrontation play out. i do think this gets to be a moment where Ford is the one to excel in a social situation. like, i think it'd be a chance to see some of him and McGucket's friendship, and show how much Ford does actually care.

either way, McGucket agrees to help at the end. idk what to do with the blind eye, but i'm thinking similar to the ending of the episode in the show. except maybe more open ended if all the members got their mind erased in case i want the blind eye to make a reappearance as antagonists later.

i've seen a couple different ways people go about protecting Ford's mind from Bill in mystery trio aus. unicorn hair, metal plate surgery but riskier, metal helmet, etc, but i'm surprised no one ever uses project mentem!

for one thing, it just SCREAMS fiddleford to me. i already headcannoned better world McGucket gave cannon Ford the blueprints for it, so of course i'm gonna use it as part of my better world timeline. i mean, if he made the memory gun, i can def see him making the brain protector too lol.

after that is a couple various events:

Ford and Stan have to help McGucket recover from his memory gun addiction. while not as pronounced as cannon obviously, he still has memory issues left over

they start dismantling the portal

Ford publishes his research like McGucket originally suggested, and does get quite a bit of money from that

Mcgucket and Emma get divorced and have to figure out their situation. i think it'd be awhile before Fiddleford gets proper custody, but i do think Emma moves closer, and Fiddleford gets to see Tate

the trio opens something similar to the mystery shack, but an actual anomaly natural history museum. Stan ends up doing tours, while Ford and McGucket do the displays + research for that. it's around this point those two officially get together. they'd been kind of dancing around it for awhile lol

surprising everyone, it's Fiddleford who thinks they should revisit the portal, and that he has ideas on how to get it to work safely. still not entirely sure how to have that play out, but obviously they do figure it out in the end

at some point the institute is founded

when the portal is actually finished, and dimensional travel becomes more of a thing, Ford and Stan start exploring together. they don't go sailing, but the do get to go on adventures as brothers :]

at some point, shifty is revisited. having seen a few aus where he ends up as Ford and McGucket's kid, i'm kinda leaning in that direction. haven't decided what to do with him yet

now, when cannon Ford shows up, and gets some of the basics of what happened in this world he asks Fiddleford something to the effect of "so, did Stan hide the journals?" and he technically did hide them, WITH Ford, so McGucket is like "yeah, i guess so, but-" before cannon Ford cuts him off and changes the subject.

i think cannon ford was already overwhelmed by seeing what was essentially his dream world, that finding out what happened to Stan would be too painful. if they reconnected, that would hurt, if they never saw each other again, that would also hurt. so, cannon Ford, king of repressing his feelings, just avoided the topic.

[deadn30n-arch]

ok well, now that i've organized my thoughts and had a few days to myself to marinate, here's what i'm planning on doing with my blog. because let's face it; i overwhelmed myself, and i know it may not have looked that way bc i haven't been all that active ( but that's thanks to my wrist ) but every time i looked at my drafts and asks, i wanted to explode. so

i'm doing a complete cleanup

i'll be clearing up some of my followers, mostly people who've not shown interest, and people that are inactive. i'll be sb'ing just in case there's someone i do sb who wants to interact, they're free to refollow. so if i break mutuals but you wanna write, just refollow i really don't mind.

i'm going to be focusing primarily on plotted interactions from here on out. i think i made mention of this before but just in case, plotted is the best way to go. as well as that, asks will also be the best method of writing with me. i don't necessarily mind spontaneous stuff  ( unless i've specifically asked for it, like i liked a starter call for example )  but i definitely function better when it's pre-plotted, even if it's just a skeleton outline of a plot. something basic to get the ball rolling, it doesn't have to be anything extravagent or heavily thought out.

i've cleaned up my askbox and deleted things i didn't feel i had muse for. there's still plenty in there, but i'll be reblogging memes and stuff periodically. feel free to send me memes even if we've never written before, or already have multiple threads. i literally Do Not Care i love answering asks. just specify muse(s) if needed!

likewise, i'm going to be dropping a good chunk of threads, mostly stuff that wasn't plotted ahead of time. there's some exceptions of course, which i've already messaged people about, but ye. if i dropped something we had this doesn't mean i don't want to write with you, it just means that i wasn't feeling what we had going but i'm open to starting something new. also, as a note, i'd really prefer shorter stuff if possible just bc long threads take the wind out of me but i'm still very much open to writing longer stuff as long as you don't mind it taking me more time to reply.

i'll be making more effort to make the first move. more than likely just sending in memes whenever i see you reblog some, that sort of stuff. if you aren't ok with that, i'd recommend sb'ing me! ( or hb'ing if that's ur thing )

i'm making minor adjustments to my writing style  &&  formatting. so if it seems a little odd from time to time, it's just bc i'm experimenting.

i think it's safe to say that at the moment, my heaviest muses are my SVSSS characters ( Shen Qingqiu, Luo Binghe, Yue Qingyuan, Liu Qingge ), and my HSR characters  ( Welt, Aventurine, Dan Feng, Phainon, Jiaoqiu ). i'm absolutely open to plotting with other characters of mine, this is just something to keep in mind. i know it sounds bad i just can't help it sadflkjghdslfjk they're the loudest right now i fear

i think that's it? i'm making some minor adjustments to my muse list in a few, taking away some characters  &&  adding in some that i didn't have listed before. i've got to update links and shit too but i'll worry about that tomorrow LOL.

if this change of mine doesn't tickle your vibe feel free to sb / hb as desired, i just want to be transparent and straightforward with how i'm handling my blog so i don't overwhelm myself again !

[time-to-write-and-suffer]

Hi Eff! I've been following your blog for a while and I love hearing about your writing process and your characters; they all seem great. I am really curious as to your process on outlining your wips and how you turn your ideas into a plot, because I love writing, but I get so many ideas that I want to write about that I end up losing focus of the actual point of the story if that makes sense. Keep up the great work! You're doing great and I can't wait to see more of your wips! <33

Oh man, I relate do this so hard!

Most of my ideas die on the initial brainstorming stage, it's very rare that one gets through to outlining or writing, and I finish things only once in a blue moon, so I can't say I'm the right person to give advice on this, lol, though I'm flattered you still asked me.

To me it sounds like you're having issues with losing focus when you're already in the middle of writing something? So that's what I'll try to respond to, sorry if you meant something else!

I used to have a lot of problems finishing WIPs because I'd start hot and strong and then it fizzled out when I'd realize that I'm just writing shit without knowing where it's going. I wrote like 80k of the first draft of Princess Machine (it was so cursed), and I still thought I'd only written maybe half of it at that point? This basically taught me that I'm not a pantser and work better as a planner/plotter, at least in some aspects. I think figuring out where you exist on the pantser/planner spectrum could help a lot, because what gets me writing is usually knowing a beginning and an end, and pantsing only results in sadness and lots of first chapters being abandoned forever, so maybe you're similar?

Once you have a beginning and an end, outlining becomes a process of filling that time between those two points. Your genre can help decide how it gets filled and what sort of scenes and catalysts you have.

For me, I ask myself things like "what am I trying to say?" or "what would I want to read?" If I have a specific genre I'm working on, like romance, then it's easier to know where I'm going. I write out the most basic plot structure and then slap on the details, the fun concepts, the neat worldbuilding ideas in a later draft. For a planner, that's basically like building a skeleton, a frame for your house, and then putting the rest of it that frame. When I'm only starting out a WIP, I try to keep the plan as simple and mechanical as I can, literally just concerned with the plot progression and movement. Character arcs and symbolism and themes will come after, or maybe while you're writing, and will usually only solidify in your second draft at the earliest, so there's no point in wasting time on them now, you'll just get overwhelmed and distracted by details. Keep them in mind or write them down if you come up with something you think is neat, but don't try to get everything right or put every concept in from the start, because you'll just end up losing focus on getting to the end. (I sometimes do a thing where, if I come up with something good while writing but it requires rewrites, I just pretend that I've already done the rewrites from that point on and include the new concept as if it was always there. That's more of a pantser thing, but everyone has their own approach to their writing method, so this is me saying you don't need to adhere strictly to either one and it's ok to do things sloppily, since you can fix stuff later on once you have something to fix.)

So basically if you have an idea or a protag and you have some inciting incident that you're eager to start writing, you could try taking a step back and thinking "but where does this go? how do I want to end this?" and once you have an answer, you can slap that ending down and start trying to connect the two together into what some might call a plot, without the distractions of nebulous shiny things.

It will inevitably change and morph and become different and that's fine, nothing is set in stone with art, but having an end goal in mind might help you keep your focus and also help you figure out how you want to get there. It's like, uh, being adrift at sea and you're paddling in a random direction hoping for solid ground versus paddling toward a distant island. Like you're still struggling, but in one of them you're at least sure you'll get to shore. Ya know?

Hope any of this made sense and helps you figure it out! Good luck and thank you for the nice ask! <3