#OK FINE maybe i AM methodological???? idk

[inyoursheets]

11. Describe your writing process from scratch to finish.

oh my goodness i WISH i had clear insight into my own writing process from start to finish, but honestly? im not that methodological, i think.

i usually start out with a collection of ideas -- and these ideas can be VERY vague. it can be a collection of random objects to scene ideas to themes. i throw them in one document and keep adding things until something of a plot emerges.

it depends on the nature of the fic a little -- most of my PWPs just start out from three bullet points, for example something like this:

jealous!rio

beth showing up without panties

rio’s chain makes an appearance

and then i just start writing, wherever, whatever. but warm water in particular started out with a list of descriptions of their apartment! that entire fic was inspired by me seeing an illustration of an apartment with a lot of blues, but it somehow still conveyed a lot of warmth. that made my mind go *bing* ROOMMATES FIC. so i started out by thinking about the apartment itself. the initial apartment list included:

Floor pillows (beth insisted)

Lots of blues

Long standing mirror (scene)

Tiny, messy kitchen with a fridge filled w/ left-over takeout and Greek yoghurt (for protein), cupboards full w/ rio’s protein shakes

Plants on stacks of books

Big windows, lots of light, one window that creaks

Lights draped places, definitely candles around

One leather couch, kinda worn, needs blankets

some of these things changed -- no floor pillows made it to the final cut, the greek yoghurt has become skyr, idk if draped lights are a thing or not but later on i realized it would clash too much with rio’s aesthetic. so it’s really just a collection of random details that helped me get a sense of the space.

then i made a list of scene ideas. mind you, at this point i had 0 plot in mind besides “ok so it’s gonna be friends-to-lovers”. some examples:

Beth getting ready for a date, standing in front of the long mirror, Rio helping her get her necklace on (top-tier romance)

Working on the couch together, Beth’s legs in Rio’s lap, him rubbing her feet at some point?

rio coming home w/ a pierced nose and beth driving him mad by not even mentioning it

beth lotioning her legs while rio bursts into her room to ask something but getting distracted by All That Leg

falling asleep together on the couch?

again, some of these never made the cut, and some of these grew way beyond their initial idea. then i made a list of plot points, which includes zero actual plot points, a list of “symbols/motifs” -- demonstrating that idk what those mean -- which has only two things on it:

Blue -- the apartment; the hottest part of the flame like the romance inside their friendship

Windows and doors – cracked open, closed off, indicating their closeness? Movement? Transformation?

and a list of phrases i wanted to use in the fic; and a list for each OC. aria’s original list was:

Likable pls

Great humor – maybe her and beth already have a good thing going before she asks rio out?

Never connected how well beth and rio knew each other bc they never show up to the coffee shop together

that first bullet point was very important to me hahaha, as ive talked about here, tho i wanna emphasize again that likeability is not that important.

from then on, i just started working on whichever scene idea sparked the most inspiration that day, kept adding onto different scenes until it started to come together a bit more, and then as i was working on the scenes i suddenly drew connections between them and could build the bigger story.

THEN i listened to hozier while the sun set in my apartment and i wrote the final scene in one go, which changed the ENTIRE fic. i initially wrote this fic as beth not being in love with rio yet, but with the final scene i realized -- nope, wait, actually i want the feeling to be mutual from the start, but they’re both just not gonna know and not talk about it and miscommunicate for chapters on end. this whole incident made me consider the emotional truths of the story instead of just the fluffy, rom-com-esque scene ideas i had, which forced me to do a lot of rewriting and planning and thinking that, as you can probably tell, i hadn’t done from the start. the start was just “omg big windows!!! floor pillows!!!! let’s go!!!!!”

the oh-i-should-consider-emotional-truth realization made me write with a lot more depth and throw in a bunch of reflections in different scenes. i went back to different scenes to look at: ok but how can i add some more... depth here? how can i show where beth’s at, here, in terms of headspace? bc initially it was just “haha, he sees her in panties and is AmazedTM” whereas now it’s also about...idk. friendship. communication. boundaries. the fear of being known, whatever.

im still in the process of writing this fic -- it terrifies me, but there’s a gap somewhere at the end of the fic where i need to justify something else ive written later in the fic -- so this isn’t start to finish, but here’s how it goes for me! there’s ofc also a very tedious editing phase for each chapter which is NOT my favorite part, lemme tell you.

the instigator had a pretty similar process, though warm water takes the cake bc it is not as “contained” as the instigator. the instigator had a clear prompt and then developed much like warm water -- it started out with a list of random lines/interactions/details/sex positions i wanted in the fic, then i made the infamous sex schedule, then i just started working on whichever position i felt like working on, and every now and then work on the prelude to the sex (which was, of course, the hardest, bc how does one get from point one to point threesome?) and the aftermath.

so yeah! that’s how i do! it has a hint of chaos, but i like it, bc i just go with what sparks the most for me in the moment, then figure out the connections later. sometimes that part of the process is less fun bc i don’t always know how to connect all the random writing i did, but once i do figure it out, it’s sooooo satisfying!

thank you for asking!!!!!! writer ask game