#a lot of it is like me half assing writing something 4 funsies

[transfemlogan]

I have multiple self insert fics. Do u guys want 2 read me making out w/ logan sanders (yes u do)

"Write that sanders sides fic!" I literally forget every single fic idea ive ever had after i have them so . I unfortunately Will Not be able 2 do that

[nanistar]

how do you organize info on all the cats in saltburns clan? im working on a wc fic and its so hard keeping the cast organized 🥲

this is such a hard question and i'm so sorry but the answer is that.. i just don't. my stuff is so unorganized and nightmarish but it's what works for me. i have a single long-ass google doc with all of my plot beats and anything that i've scripted, but i typically work out dialogue and scenes only a scene or two in advance unless i have a particularly good one in mind, and i typically write out a whole scene in just dialogue with little actual "screen direction".

this is mainly so that i make sure i actually cover what i want to cover in the scene, and so that i have something to look back to when i accidentally delete my sketch layer with the refined dialogue (happens often) but this is all something subject to change when i actually start boarding the pages. lots of times scenes completely change when i actually get to drawing them, either because they were too boring or bc i didn't like my first pass at dialogue.

i know what major story beats i want to happen, but i don't know when, or the exact details. most importantly; i don't know how this comic is going to end yet! this allows me to play around and try out concepts, as well as move scenes and ideas around before actually committing to them an locking in. and as ive said before, i don't want to be working on this comic forever, and i fully intend for it to be done in the next year, year and a half maybe. so 4-6 more chapters + epilogue. knowing this time table lets me throw out ideas that, while cool, would take too long to work with.

as for cast stuff, i honestly just remember it. lots of the little interpersonal details of the BG cast cats are just not important enough to bother writing down. i make my little family trees occasionally, but those are for funsies and to show off relations and less about me keeping track of stuff. it also helps that i posted my whole cast before getting into the bulk of the comic, so people asked questions about characters which gave me the opportunity to brainstorm stuff about them on the spot. i tag most asks i get by character and clan, so if i need to remember something, i can just go search for it on desktop tumblr. but my comic is specifically not very BG character focused because i don't care about having a big twisting web of cast members. you don't need a full family tree to make stuff work, and honestly you're better off without one. i also work by arc 1 warriors rules where queens dont have to say who the father is, and that helps a lot too

sorry that i can't be more helpful, but i'm at my best when i work in chaos, and sadly that does not work well for most people. i would suggest asking @/razmerry, who is much better at organization than i am lol

[nanostuffs]

Okay - so I have this idea for a book, it’s completely sane characters stuck inside really bad stories and they have to get of the bad fanfiction like story. The problem is that I would need to have an A plot and a stupidly fun B plot happening t the same time. Or maybe there doesn’t need to be a “B” plot. I mean, bad fanfics don’t really have a “plot” to speak of. I may just do an actual bad fanfic first for funsies.

So who are the leads?

I want there to be a male and female lead. I want them to be best friends and for the B plot to joke about them dating even though they are platonic.

So, a B plot?

Because I’m trash, I want to write a B plot myself and post it on AO3, then write the A plot or what I’m tentatively calling the “Oh God, stop” plot.

Tell me more about the B plot.

Well, okay. Like I either wrote or implied earlier, I want the B plot to either be bad fanfiction, or feel like it. I’m tempted to use Star Trek as the base, but I don’t know that Star Trek would make for a good first project. My Immortal would be fun, but I’m confident I want to write my own bad fanfic. I could use something I have already written, but honestly I want to write a new B plot. Though, since I’m thinking about it, I have a really old fanfic.net account that might have a story or two that could work for this. I should write the B plot for a fandom I’ve never written before, in the future, but one where absurdity isn’t the norm. What I mean is that Gintama would not be a good fandom for this, because Gintama already has good “B” plot, and any B plot I write for it would be more or less stupid in this instance.

So what would be a good fandom for the B plot?

Harry Potter, The Hobbit, and Twilight take themselves too seriously for the B plot to be common ground, thus would be fitting. I have never read Twilight in it’s entirety, and I don’t plan on it, so a B plot for it would be okay, but the A plot would be missing a plethora of in-jokes.

I could use Gravity Falls, but the fandom back lash scares me.

I’ve brought Star Trek up several times, but like I said, I don’t think it’d make for a good first project.

Code Geass could be fun, but doesn’t sound like a first project either.

Homestuck is something I’m comfortable with, and has an in cannon example of what I’m trying to do via Roxy, but I don't want people in the fandom to accuse me of stealing Husies’s idea, which is not what I’m attempting. While I’m positive my idea is not original, I find the execution to be unique, and I hope my A plot proves to be truly unique.

Oh dear, I went on a tangent there. I was supposed to be picking a fandom. The Adventure Zone could be fun, and the meta-ness of the A plot could be fun, but I know that sometimes the McElroy brothers read fanfics, and I would just about die if they put me on blast for the B plot before I have a chance to work on the A plot. But, I am still flirting with the idea of Taco being the one to help my A plot leads to figure out what’s going on. And I’m half in love with the idea of writing really bad Merle/Lucretia smut, and in the A plot having my male character freaking out about the age difference. If you are reading this and have no idea what I’m writing about, it’s major spoilers and go listen to The Adventure Zone either on Max Fun, or on Google Play, or wherever you download podcasts. Except sound cloud. I’m not sure they post stuff on sound cloud. Most people cite I-tunes, but I’m a google play user. In any case, even if you aren’t into RPGs or DND you should give it a listen to, because in truth Griffin McElroy wrote a fantastic story, and I believe good stories and goofs are better than any problem people may have with RPGs. I firmly believe that you can enjoy TAZ without being into DND or any RPG game.

Another fandom I’d like to work in is possibly X-men. But, since one version of the movie-verse set Wolverine and Saber-tooth up as brothers, anything I could create would pale in comparison. I could write an A plot about that alone.

I also kind of want to work in How To Train Your Dragon animated verse, but I seriously ship DagCup, and as a member of that row boat, I just couldn’t write a B plot involving them because that B plot could hurt the ship.

Enough about fandoms for B plots, talk about the leads.

My A plot leads are just shells right now. Currently they just have place holder names, just so that I can talk about them without having to cal them Male, and Female, which reads as just awkward for me. The female shall thus be called Mela, and the Male shall be called Giovanni. These names are just temporary, and are subject to change.

So, my basic idea is that Mela and Giovanni are BFFs, but often joke about being a couple. I just hate the idea of two characters of opposite genders to be a couple in one of my stories, because romance subplots are dumb, and there really aren’t enough opposite gender duos who are just friends. Before you point to Zootopia, I’ll remind you that Judy and Nick had a lot of romantic sub-text. I really just want the couple thing to be a joke for Mela and Geo. I might not even write any jokes about it, just so that the idea isn’t planted in anyone’s mind.

I know what sort of woman I want Mela to be. I want Mela to be compassionate, but stubborn. I want her to be the kind of person who knows exactly who and what they are, but still be insecure about making the right decisions. I want Mela to be bubbly, but smart. I still wonder if maybe I’m too impractical about my female lead. If it seems like I’m trying to hard please SJWs, while still trying to be unique. Ultimately, I’m fearful of being too traditional with Mela, but I’m worried that she comes across as too “main-stream.”

As for Mela’s appearance, I want her to have short hair, and I’m liking the idea of her being blonde. I think she should have dark brown eyes, but I’m still playing with how I want her to look. I think I want her to be pear-shaped, and tall for a woman (5′9″).

Giovanni is even less planned out. I like the idea of him being a mix of Deanna Troi, and Spock.  By that I mean I want Geo to have the presence of Deanna Troi, but to have the logical reasoning of Spock. In Homestuck terms, I want him to the the Sylph of Mind to Mela’s something (Maid?) of Heart.

As for Geo’s appearance, I’m flirting with him being 5′4″ and not having a complex about it. As fun as it is to write short bad-ass characters, it’s an overdone trope, and I don’t want to have my work be a cliche. I very much like the idea of Giovanni being being an appearance foil to Mela. If Mela has short blonde hair, Geo should have long, dark hair. If Mela has dark eyes, Geo should have light eyes.

Astute readers will notice that I haven’t given either Geo or Mela a race. Traditionally Mela is a Polish name, and Giovanni is Italian. But Mela and Giovanni are place holder names. What this means is that I haven’t planned either’s race. Because of the wonderful world of human genetics, I could decide they are both Mexican or Hispanic and real life would be fine with that. Before you argue genetics with me, I beg you do do your own research into the shear ridiculousness of human genetics. It’s expansive and there’s a reason why some geneticists believe humans will all look Brazilian at some point in the future. In any case, giving Mela and Geo a race isn’t something I consider necessary. My personal belief is that if you give your characters enough detail, letting the reader decide what race they want the characters to be is perfectly fine.

So, how bad would the B plot be?

If I’m going to pre-post the B plot by itself, sort of as a prelude, then you can expect bad spelling, no grammar, and Mary-Sues. Expect the B plot to be simple and poorly executed. It’ll be the fanficiton version of a botched Mac’n’cheese, or burned and frozen fish fingers a’la Lisa Simpson having a mental breakdown. In contrast, the A plot should have zero spelling and grammar issues. The A plot leads need to be complex and well developed in comparison to the botched B plot characters. If the B plot is dumb, the A plot needs to be brilliant. If the B plot has a major dose of Miller Time, the A plot has to be the fix it.

The issue with not having a B plot written and posted prior to the A plot, is that there won’t be a true comparison. A way to reconcile this is to write a B plot chapter, write a comparison A plot chapter, and post both on the same day. I do not like this idea. It sounds needlessly complicated and messy AF.

Tell us more about the A plot!

Well currently I’m planning it to be first person while the B plot will be 3rd person. I plan on alternating between Mela and Giovanni's point of view. I want this because I write a lot of 3rd person limited, and have learnt that I have a hard time describing my lead unless someone else talks about them. I do not like the idea of someone talking to either Mela or Giovanni about how they look. Here’s my example for why:

“Damn Mela, why is your blonde hair so short?”

“Mela, I love your brown eyes.”

“Your pear shaped body is banging!”

Those lines sound forced, and I’d like to think I can write better dialogue than that. Writing alternating first person allows me to give both Mela and Geo well rounded descriptions without being obnoxious about it. Geo in his chapters can describe Mela’s blonde bed-head, and think about her eyes sparkling in joy, while Mela in hers can think about how bothersome Geo's long hair must be, and about how his [insert colour] eyes look when he concentrates on something. Making the descriptions sound natural would be challenge, but certainly wouldn’t have the issues that 3rd person limited has.

The more I think about it, the more sense it makes for the B plot to also be first person, so that my Mary Sue can talk about how she looks, a’la My Immortal and Forbiden Fruit. I also like the idea of playing with some Gary Stu's for fun, because I’ve noticed a distinct lack of them in bad fanfiction.

Basic Plot Summary, please!

Mela and Giovanni are two humans who find themselves thrown into bad stories with no logic or reason. In these stories there are poorly written characters, purple prose, and dumb plots. Mela and Geo must attempt to escape the B plot taking place before them.

Any closing thoughts?

Umm... expect a bad fanfic from me in the future? Currently I’m hoping to write some short bad fics, just because those take less time to write than entire multi-chapter plots, but my first two projects are going to have multiple chapters. I mentioned earlier that I have a really old FF.net account. I won’t share the name of it just yet, but after writing the rough draft of this post, I went looking for it and found it almost immediately. I am so embarrassed that it exists, as I wrote the two stories on it when I was in the 8th grade and they are so freaking bad, but I kind of want to work with them anyway, just to show how much I’ve improved my writing over the years. I’m thinking of it as a critique of what I did wrong as a child. All in all, it should be fun.