#a shorter filler fic to add more characters

[alittlemelody716]

Another Ever After: *Sideline* with Aurore and Mireille

Thank you to @/charme-de-malchan for beta reading for me!

“Once upon a hi, Ever After High! I’m Aurore Beauréal, daughter of The First Princess in The Queen Bee. With me is my wonderlandiful co-host Mireille,” Aurore gestured to her fellow fairy tale character and roybel.

“Thank you, Aurore. Hello everyone, I’m Mireille Caquet, daughter of The Duck in The Queen Bee. Welcome to a new segment of Sideline, where we interview the students on their side of a story. Today we will-” Mireille was cut off by a chicken with Headmaster Grimm’s head sprinting down the hallway, receiving multiple questioning looks.

The two stared in disbelief for a moment before Aurore awkwardly turned back to the camera.

"W-Well then, moving on. Today we will be getting input from this year's legacy group on their hopes for legacy day," Aurore quickly informed.

"Excuse me, would you be able to answer a quick question?" Mireille questioned.

"Oh Mireille! Aurore! It's been forever after," Mylene greeted.

Mylene Haprèle, daughter of Sally from She Sells Seashells. She comes from a village that relies on her ability to find special seashells to create beautiful crafts and products. 

Standing beside her is Ivan Bruel, son of Peter from Peter Piper. His attendance at Ever After High is more of an obligation than a wish, but he still believes in destiny all the same.

“It has Mylene, could I ask you about your expectations for legacy day?” Mireille chirped.

“Legacy day is the biggest event ever after. I’m really hexcited. Surely Headmaster Grimm will ensure everything happens just as scripted,” Mylene cheerfully answered.

"Truely charming, what about you Ivan?"

"Not sure, we can only wait and see what the pages have in store," Ivan bluntly stated.

—

“Hi, I’m Aurore, may I ask you about your expectations for legacy day?” Aurore questioned a girl with white hair.

“Oh, sure. Since this is the biggest legacy day in generations, I believe that it would go perfectly well. Though I am worried, the royal and rebel conflict has really been stirring up some trouble as of late. I wouldn’t be surprised if something were to happen,” Darling Charming answered calmly.

“Are you afraid that something will happen?” Mireille followed.

Darling gently shook her head. “There is no way of knowing for sure, I am merely making an observation.”

“I see, thank you for your time,” Aurore smiled.

—

“Oh Ondine!”

“Hm? Aurore, Mireille, hi! How have you two been?” Ondine gleefully said.

“It’s great to see you again, Ondine. We’re the same as ever after, we are currently interviewing students about their expectations for legacy day. Care to give your input?” Aurore laughed.

“For legacy day? I know Meeshell is fairy nervous, she hasn’t gotten used to dry land yet,” Ondine commented.

Ondine Sirène is the daughter of one of the sisters in The Little Mermaid. A rebel at heart, she stands by the fact that everyone has a choice and that no one should have to go through incredible hardship to achieve a predetermined destiny with the same ending, no matter the amount of effort given.

“As for me, I wish that there was a way to alter our stories, even by a little. Maybe that way, facing destiny will be easier and rewarding than what has been written for us. I wonder if the storybook of legends is able to alter some of the pages, I mean there was that whole scandal two years ago with the next Emperor of The Emperor’s New Clothes,” Ondine thought out loud.

“Interesting, that truly would be a page turner, huh. Thank you, Ondine. We’ll see you in Crownculus,” Mireille waved.

—

“Hello, could you spare some time for a quick question?”

“Uhh sure, go ahead” Raven Queen nervously answered.

“Thank you, we’re going around asking students what are their expectations for legacy day?” Mireille calmly asked.

“I’m sorry, but I’m not really comfortable answering that. You know, with everything that’s going on and who I am,” Raven denied.

“Ah I see, thank you for your time though” Aurore smiled.

—

"Hello, could we ask about your expectations for legacy day?"

"Me?! Uhhh, I guess I hope nothing happens? I mean, there are a lot of hexpectations. I'm pretty sure everyone will flip their crowns if things went off page," stammered a very surprised boy wearing glasses.

Jonathan Kent, son of The Emperor in The Emperor's New Clothes. He dreads the day his destiny begins. His father has been trying to prepare him for it ever since they found out, but it wasn’t enough. There was a huge scandal when his brother, Conner, went to sign the book only to find that he didn’t carry on the family’s legacy. His pages were blank. Now there was a lot of pressure put on Jon to be the next Emperor.

Aurore and Mireille seemed satisfied by that answer as they thanked him and continued down the hallway. Jon watched them leave, sighing to himself before making his way towards his kingdom management class.

Tag List: @the-witches-you-couldnt-burn  @folk-ever-lore  @nightlychaotic  @shamrockace @starpony999  

[aidontdraw]

The thing that's helped me the most with editing my fics is color coding their speech. It allows me to ensure that each character has a distinct voice pattern.

Like with Gaara, I try hard to keep his sentences short and sweet. He's a man of little words. So if I notice that something he says can be shorter, I make it shorter. With Naruto, I do the oppisitse, I'll make his sentences longer and add more filler words.

It also lets me know if I'm using "said" too much. Or if I'm using the same speach tag order too much.

Another good thing, is just having a calendar I can refrence. Especially in longer fics.

[sankyeom]

hi!! i saw you were online i think i did or maybe you just queued the ask and i want to ask tips on how to make an smau, like the plot the profiles all that please?

hi!! I was indeed online but i’m online very sporadically and oftentimes just for five minutes to check my inbox lol, so this is coming a little later then you may have expected it!

I have written so many smaus and I definitely have tips that work for me, but if they don’t work for you that’s okay because everyone writes definitely 💛

here are my tips:

the number one tip i give anyone who asks for advice on writing smaus is to plan your plot carefully! this doesn’t mean that you have to have every single chapter planned out in advance, but you should have the general plot as well as the big conflicts or plot twists planned out so that you have an understanding of the timeline of your story.

this is because a lot of smaus that I have read (and written in the past) have a lot of filler chapters that don’t necessarily add anything to the plot or character development. I am also guilty of this in the first couple smaus i ever wrote! it just takes some getting used to. from my experience, if you plan out your plot and big events before you start the story, it is a lot more cohesive and enjoyable to read.

EXAMPLE: when i planned children of divorce, i wrote out the plot like this: (SPOILER ALERT FOR THE FIC I HAVE LINKED)

“exes to lovers. the friends want to get reader and heeseung back together so they plan several ways to do so. big events: sunoo accidentally adds heeseung to group chat and he secretly listens in on their plans, heeseung accidentally reveals himself after a while and joins in on trying to get reader back, reader is betrayed when they find out because their friends did everything behind her back.”

like i said, you don’t need to plan out every detail/chapter! just have the big ideas ready so that you can plan the general timeline and pace of the story

ALSO IMPORTANT: social media aus are often shorter chapters that cover less information than a written series and a lot of people will stop reading if they are bored or don’t feel like the story is moving along. try to spread your plot across several chapters. make little reveals in one chapter and don’t cover too many topics or conversations at once! if your character just found out something exciting or dramatic, don’t drag it out for three chapters. on the other hand, don’t cover it in one text and then move on to another plot in the same chapter. make sure the reader will understand your intentions without dragging it along too much. i know that sounds vague but you will get the hang of it with some practice!!

my second tip is not to sacrifice the story for humour. even though I really like reading smaus, I have a really hard time finding ones that I like to read because they often times have so much humour and drama in them that I lose sense of the story.

this is not to say that my own smaus are in any way perfect or better than anyone else’s, i just feel like i have read stories where five chapters in a row are all jokes and the plot hasn’t moved along. this doesn’t work for me personally as a writer and reader, but you may love that style!! if that is the case, don’t be discouraged and don’t stop writing that way. this is just advice based on my own preferences ☺️

my final piece of advice on writing the story is to approach it like any written fic you might sit down and write traditionally as a 2,000 word one shot. i know smaus are known to be witty and quick, but think about the story you want to tell as a whole. if you’re thinking “i really want my story to be about the reader becoming more confident,” then make sure to include that in the smau through texts to friends or social media posts!!

even though writing smaus is different, you should think of the general plot and story as any other fic. it makes smaus way less intimidating and, for me personally, makes it just as rewarding as written one shots!

my advice to do the profiles is to have fun and be free with it!! make the username something that can be easily identified, don’t name someone “ilovepancakes” or something that makes it hard for the reader to know who is texting/tweeting/posting. also, make the icons for the profiles easy to identify for the same reason.

in terms of profiles like instagram or making twitter bios, try to make them relevant to your story!! the reader will know who the idol is so you have more room for creativity here. you can also use profiles to show which characters are close friends by having them post pictures together or tweet at each other

unfortunately the app store removed all apps that make fake messages and twitter/instagram posts so if you’re never downloaded one then you won’t have access to any. i really like the app “social dummy” or “social maker.” if you downloaded them in the past you can re-download, but if you haven’t heard of them then they won’t exist in your app store, unfortunately

i make texts on those apps and take screenshots, but for instagram and twitter posts i have my own photoshop templates that i like using. it’s a lot of trial and error, you just have to make a couple test posts and see what you like/how you like to make them

i hope this was helpful anon!! happy smau writing 🥰🥰

you can find my other writing tips here if you had other questions that weren’t answered in this post

[ez-cookie]

Hi cookie, you’re my favorite author ever! I started writing recently and wanted to ask for your advice. Basically I’ve gotten pretty good at writing outlines for what seem like long-ish plotlines. However when I go to write, I’m always surprised that my fic is like max 10k words. Makes me wonder if my pacing is off.

Do you have any advice on how to write longer fics?

Hi! Sorry for the late response, anon!

It's hard to know exactly what advice to give abstractly when trying to make your writing longer, but I remember I had this same problem when I started writing fic many years ago.

I would say if it feels like your writing overall moves too fast, I'd start by reading a few of your paragraphs in isolation, then stepping back and thinking about what each one accomplishes. How fast are you moving? How often to you stop to describe the setting, or an emotion, or a moment in time?

When making your outline, I'd try adding more information in between plot points so you can chart other things as well. How is the main character feeling at the beginning of the story vs the middle vs the end? What changes have occurred that might effect the mood of the characters?

Thinking about what's going on internally as well as externally should help a lot with fleshing out your prose and increasing your word count.

Lastly, I'll leave you with a small piece of wisdom. I think it's largely agreed that shorter writing is often more entertaining, thought-provoking and easy to read, "brevity is the soul of wit" and all that. Most writers spend their time learning to trim the fat on their stories (god knows I need to practice that!).

More than anything, don't beat yourself up trying to drag out scenes and add filler, especially if its more to hit a word count goal than it is to have fun. I'm a firm believer that if an author is bored writing something, the audience will be bored reading it, so I'd advise you to start with a scene that's vivid in your mind, explore every angle of it in your prose, and then see how you feel about what you wrote.

Thanks so much for your message, and I hope that something in my rambling resembled some helpful advice!

[seromreven]

title: blue velvet | chapter one.

pairings: john lennon/male!reader & paul mccartney/reader | various pairings both including and not including the reader.

summary: it’s the turn of the new decade; you’re the leader of a band that has its residency in a popular nightclub in Hamburg. One fateful night you meet The Beatles, a band new in town, and things take a turn as your relationship with two of the members of the band evolves.

also on ao3!

The punch hit you hard. Square in the eye too. Fuck, did it hurt. It hadn’t been enough to knock you to the floor but you still found yourself clinging to the wooden tabletop of the bar with one hand while the other had gone straight to your eye. To cover it or… something, you didn’t know. It had been pure reflex.

Fortunately, it was the only punch you got. And as you still had no plans on fighting; you did no such endeavour on punching back. God but did the stinging pain in your eye wish you weren’t such a pacifist.

You muttered an array of curses as you tried to get back up, a hard thing to do as you saw stars and weird circles float and flutter all around you. A beautiful, painful distraction. Your steps wavered and you felt a thin hand wrap around your arm in an attempt to help you up.

You looked up and saw an incredibly young looking man. Or just a boy. Looked a lot like one of The Beatles from earlier. Hell, you were just hit by one so this one might as well be one too. But why was he helping you then? You were carefully positioned on a barstool and sighed as someone handed you a cold object. A beer can you realised and looked up to your young helper.

“...For your eye. We don’t have any ice,” he sounded… remorseful and you slowly nodded and placed it over your eye with a wince as the cooled surface hit the heated swelling. You found yourself unable to look anywhere but on your helper, probably due to an incoming cramp or some shit from the fall, and decided to make some small talk before the silence got awkward.

“So… what’s your name, pal?” You asked the kid.

“Uh, George,” he seemed nervous which could be from multiple reasons you supposed.

You nodded and looked him over now that he was so close.

His dark hair was wild from the hair products giving up after a long day and was matched with thick dark eyebrows. His ears protruded noticeably away from his head; an adorable look which only served to remind you of Dumbo. A thought of which you lowly snickered at.

“You okay?” He asked with furrowed brows. Hopefully because of concern and not because he had noticed your staring and snickering. Him, hopefully, not being a mind reader couldn’t have known you just compared him to a cartoon elephant.

You shrugged, “I’ve had worse.”

That wasn’t a lie. And anyhow; the pain and warm stinging were slowly letting up. And, hey, you would have a can of beer once it was done. It would be at room temperature but, whatever.

You turned your head with a loud crack coming from your neck. You winced but moved on. Your assaulter had vanished and as you looked at the spot of where he had been; babyface suddenly appeared. He introduced himself as Paul. Which made more sense than what you had been beginning to call him.

“I’m really sorry about John,” you lightly shook your head at him as he began in a way to tell him not to be as he continued, “he had been in a fight with Stu earlier and I suppose he was still tense, y’know.”

“Who the fuck is Stu?”

Geez, the guy is cute and all but what’s with the familiarity? Were you supposed to know this Stu guy? You narrowed your eyes at the guy.

“Oh… right,” Paul muttered and glanced at George next to you. He decided to explain instead of this Paul guy who did seem a little jittery. “He’s our bassist,” Paul nodded at what George had said. Right, as if you could’ve known that.

“Is there much infighting in your band?” You said hoping it would come off as something lighthearted rather than a genuine quest. Not that you had conveyed that any well in your question. You shrugged to yourself and looked around, finally taking in the area around you. The people around the bar had dispersed. They probably moved away from expecting a brawl but at the disappointment of the lack of it; just proceeded to stay away from the mess. You saw the bartender looking rather unfaced and unimpressed. Fair enough.

Paul shook his head with a small laugh. “Not really, no.” Though George shot in with a, “well, kinda.” You looked to and from them with a raised eyebrow. “... Anyway,” you sighed and stood up with a hand steadying yourself on the bar.

You cracked open the beer now that your eye felt much better. Most of the pain would probably first really hit you tomorrow anyway. You let out a contented sigh as finished your sip and looked at Paul and George, both staring at you. They seemed… puzzled. Perhaps at your lack of rage from having been… y’know, punched. But, really? What good would that do? It wasn’t like that John fellow was around anyway.

You placed the can on the bar and wiped your damp hand on your trousers. “I realise I never introduced myself,” you reached out a hand to Paul, “I’m [first name].” You shook hands. It was surprisingly soft.

Paul’s eyes were wide as he asked, “... [Last name]?”

You blinked, taken aback by his knowledge. He knew who you were? … What?

“How d’you…?” You still had a hold on his hand, though he seemed as willing as you to let go. He smiled, rather charmingly, with a small laugh. “I’m… We’re,” he glanced to George, “fans of your band... The Eight Wonder!” He finally let go and you kinda missed the touch as you flexed the hand as it came back to your side.

“You’re great!” Oh, now you were going to blush, weren’t you?. Not only had he heard of you, but he liked it? You shouldn’t really be all too surprised. You were doing well. But Paul and his friends didn’t exactly… fit the crowd that were regular at the club you played at. It was a very bougie place.

“We heard you play at The Bunker back when we first got to Hamburg. It was great!” Paul continued added praises and out of the corner of your eye, you could see that George nodding along. You hadn’t recognised them. So it was either a long time ago or you simply didn’t notice three… five? leather-clad young men.

“Well,” you shallowed harshly as you felt your face getting warmer, “I’m glad to hear that.” You glanced shortly at your feet; not every day you get praised. Especially not from cute men. Lucky you. You moved slightly at your feet and looked at Paul again, hopefully not feeling so bashful.

“We play at Der Palast Des Beethoven now. Have been for the last few months… I would invite you to come and see us but… well, it’s got a strict dress code and the guests there can be rather… stuck up. Entry is expensive but,” you laughed, “it pays well too!” You had really lucked out in securing a gig there… Or, well, your manager had. Ernst Scherer. Weird dude but great at his job. You took your, almost, forgotten beer to your mouth to hide your rather smug smirk that was forming.

“Hey!” You quickly wiped your mouth. “You could come through the backdoor and be in the green room!” You nodded to yourself at that. You wanted to thank them somehow. Most would’ve just gone after their friend or, y’know, beaten you along with him.

“You can take the John guy with you too, if he feels like it,” you took another sip. Paul smiled though looked a little confused; so did George.

“But… he hit you,” George looked at you with furrowed brows and glanced to his friends. You shrugged.

“Yeah, but he’s your friend and yet you helped me instead of running after him or… worse,” where were you going with this… um, “so you don’t seem all too bad, and I can always do with more friends. And, don’t worry, I’m not planning an ambush,” you laughed and patted George on his shoulder. He laughed, nervously, but still- laughed.

“No, but,” you licked your lips slightly, tasting the bitter taste of your canned lager, “‘suppose I just wanted to thank you in some way. And I,” you pointed slightly to the stage, ”I did really enjoy your set.”

Paul laughed and got closer to you to pat you on your bicep. His touch was soft and warm. Well, this boy seemed to have to qualms about showing how he felt, eh? You too stepped closer and looked at him with heavy eyes.

George coughed, awkwardly for sure, and you remembered his presence and snickered with a pitying glance to his direction. “Anyway,” you scratched your neck slightly and glanced away from the young men. You hated that you had to cut this short but you really had to go.

“You’re welcome to come whenever you have the time. But, now, I really should be going.”

You patted George gently on his shoulder as you said your goodbyes and hurried out of the bar. It was nearing the early morning and the air chill, forcing you to embrace your coat close to you as you worked down the empty streets back home.

[storiesofsvu]

Need so advice. I really wanna try writing my on fanfic but not even sure how to start. I have written before on various other site but not here. Like how to made make the header and what’s the different between HC and one shot. Do I need to make a master list and the biggest question is how do I get ppl to actually see my stories. Like I enjoy writing very much and I want to stop being scared to post some of my works or ideas so any advice at all would help

Hey nonny!! Writing and actually posting can be quite intimidating, and honestly tumblr is a fucking hellsite, so it’s annoying as fuck a lot of the time when it comes to posting work and getting it seen/shared.

The difference between a HC/drabble/imagine/one shot is really all up to the writer’s discrepancy. A head canon is more of like an “idea” like, “I headcanon that Alex Cabot cannot cook whatsoever.” But you can also flesh those out into longer things like “between Casey & Alex, who does the cooking/cleaning, how do they work the domestic part of their lives?” And put it into longer thoughts. Things like “how do you think each of the SVU characters would react to a tattoo?” Kind of things

MORE UNDER THE CUT!! KEEP GOING!!

Personally, I do HC’s as a bullet list, and usually don’t include dialogue. Other people write them as tiny little stories. Either way, they are usually on the shorter side.

A drabble (IMO) is a shorter story, it has a beg/middle/end, but usually not with as much of a wrap up/introduction as a full one shot sometimes does. They’re under 1000 words (roughly) and kind of seem a bit like a filler piece, or something that is part of a larger collection, but is read/written on its own (and never let people pressure you into writing more/a second piece if you don’t want to. Same goes for one shots, drabble & one shots are exactly that. ONE thing. A PIECE of those character’s lives. If you wanted to write a series, you’d write a series. (Though yes, sometimes one shots can inspire an entire series)

A one shot is a more concrete story, it has a defined relationship, or the start of exploring a relationship (ie, first date, etc) of characters. It has a very clear beginning, middle and end. They range anywhere between 1000-4000 words. (Roughly) sometimes they can jump around in time, I’ve had some where they start in present, flashback to a year or so ago, to explain the history/relationship, and then jump back to the present to have the characters cope with what they’ve currently got going around.

A masterlist is a VERY good idea to have. Especially if you plan on writing lots of things, or having multiple fandoms. If I’m scrolling the tags and find a bomb fic/chapter of a fic and then go to try and find it on the author’s page but I can’t see a masterlist/find a masterlist, I usually just scroll away and end up forgetting about it. I do tag all of my series with the series name so if ppl somehow don’t see my masterlist they can usually find it that way, BUT. (I also suggest having your masterlist linked in your pinned post, if it’s not actually your pinned post)

In order for people to see your stories: TAG THEM, and tag EFFICIENTLY!!! For example; Playing With Fire is a Rita Calhoun x reader story. My tags for ch 1 of it were : “rita calhoun, rita calhoun x reader, rita calhoun series, law and order svu, playing with fire.” If it’s a one shot, you should include “rita calhoun smut/angst/fluff” whichever genre it is. Do NOT tag minor characters in the chapter, do NOT clog the tags of other ships if they are background, people will go in looking for those ships/characters and get disappointed when it’s like, a tiny mention of say, alex & casey out on a date instead of an actual Calex story.

With tags: if you have a new account, or a new side blog, you MUST get through the “I’m not a bot” stage before stuff will show up on the tags on this site. Once you’ve created the blog, reblog as much as you can, and with each reblog, GO INTO THE TAGS, AND ADD TAGS of what’s in that post (ie, a gif of Superman, you tag “Superman”) and then reblog it onto your own page.

Otherwise for getting people to see it: just fucking tag people. A lot of my tag lists earlier on weren’t people who had asked to be on them, instead, I had been cruising the site/tags, and had been reading their works and reblogging them. I paid attention to who they wrote for, and added them into the tag lists of characters that I thought they would enjoy (and would always but an AN at the top being alll “just tagging who i thought might like this, lmk if you want to be taken off!”)

As for the header: i usually put the title in, and then upload a gif that I’ve previously saved/made/an image/moodboard that I’ve made. Tumblr has a million and a half gifs out there but for some reason will only show you a fucking third and they;re the shitty ones when you search for them while making a post. I usually save the ones i like to my phone and then use them to upload when I upload the fic.

THAT BEING SAID: IF THEY ARE NOT YOUR OWN IMAGES, MAKE SURE TO STATE THAT. *not my gif* or *not my images* right under it go a long way. A lot of gif makers out there don’t seem to mind *too much* as long as you’re not claiming that they ARE your gifs, but as a photographer, I get super pissy when people share my photos without a credit, cause it takes two damn seconds to do.

Also be aware of your warnings. If it is a smut fic, make sure you say it is a smut fic, and if things are getting kinky/racy/including something that everyone might not enjoy, tag that shit!!! Also tag other things that might trigger people. — smut, sex, language, r*pe/non-con, mentions of assault, graphic descriptions of assault, alcohol consumption, drug consumption, drug overdose, graphic description of drug consumption, angst, fighting, abuse, physical abuse, domestic violence, past assault, past sexual trauma, conversations about any of the above, PTSD/flashbacks to any of the above. For the smut specifics: i usually just say “smut” i won’t specify for things like “oral” unless there’s face sitting or face fucking involved. But things like impact play, temperature play, bondage, blindfolds, dirty talk (specifically derogatory talk), mommy/daddy kinks, fluids being exchanged(spitting in mouths, snowballing, etc), anything involving more risqué toys, anything involving butt stuff. AND, please, mention safe words. ESP within the SVU fandom, things like consent, safe words, being comfortable and the like, are ALWAYS important. Some writers when writing smut also always specify “unprotected sex, they’re established relationship, don’t be dumb, wrap it.” Cause there are lots of younger consumers of fic out there, and do as we can to try to weed out the minors, we can’t catch all of them, and they’re impressionable and need to realize that smut in fics is not what it’s like IRL.

Example: ch 18 of Serendipitous Secrets and Surprises. We had previously discovered Rita had been assaulted in high school, but the case was coming to play in a current case now. Y/n had yet to truly confront Rita about it, so the upload went something like this:

SSS Ch 18

^gif of rita^

*not my gif*

Rita Calhoun x fem reader

Warnings: language, alcohol consumption, marijuana consumption, conversation of sexual and physical assault and rape, angst, emotions, past trauma becoming present trauma.

**

ALWAYS put a keep reading into your works, ESP if they’re over 1000 words. NOTHING is fucking worse than scrolling past something that’s like 5000 fucking words and doesn’t have a keep reading. THERE IS AN OPTION TO DO IT ON MOBILE FOR THE LOVE OF FUCKING GOD DO IT.

And lastly!!! Make friends, make mutuals, REBLOG AND SHARE OTHER PEOPLE’S WORK!! Get out there and comment on it, share their stuff, and they’re going to be much more likely to share yours. I have mutuals who reblog/read basically everything I write, so in return, I do that to there’s, even if the character isn’t my number one. Like, i reblog Mayan’s stuff despite never having watched it, and not really being a Danny Pino thirst-er, because supporting other writers is important. Also get out there and hype up the people who make gifs of your fave characters (esp if you’re using them in your posts/headers). Reblog that shit, scream about shit it in the tags, thank them for taking the time to make & post gifs!

Anyway. That got long. Lmk if you have more questions!! 😊

[today-only-happens-once]

Hiiii! Sorry you’re feeling stressed out, that sucks :( I’ve always struggled with character descriptions, especially their physical characteristics. That and finding their unique voices. Any advice? Hope you feel better ❤️

Sure! Here’s my advice on character descriptions and character voice. Some of this is just a personal preference, so feel free to pick and choose what works best for you and your writing style.

Character descriptions

Personally, I try to avoid blocks of physical character description in my writing. I think blocks of descriptions of what people look like just... aren’t very interesting to read, to be honest. 

Consider instead trying to find ways to work clues of what your character looks like in the narrative itself. 

For example, I try to AVOID this kind of writing: “he was tall, about 6′2″, with medium length brown hair and dark brown eyes. He wore square glasses. He was pale, and had some freckles on his nose. He wore blue jeans, a red t-shirt, and black converse shoes.” 

INSTEAD, I might do things like: “He leveled an unimpressed look at me over the top of his glasses”, then later on in the scene, maybe add something like ‘ “When are you ever going to get that hair cut, Steven? Honestly, it’s almost to your shoulders!’ Mom rambled as she set the groceries down.” Just find ways to work in the details of what your character naturally as it may come up. 

It takes some practice. I have actually found fanfiction helpful with that (as well as character voice but I’ll explain more on that in a moment). Fanfiction especially doesn’t need you to describe what characters look like--they already know. And believe it or not, regular fiction doesn’t have to require significantly more description of what characters look like than you might find in fic. 

Character voice

Character voice is hard, especially if you’re starting from scratch (i.e. original characters). But it’s a writing skill that fanfiction has helped me with yet again.

What has helped me with finding and developing character voice is by paying very close attention to how characters you are familiar with speak--especially in non-print fandoms (tv shows, podcasts, youtube, etc.) Characters tend to have distinct speaking cadences, tendencies, phrases, etc. that help set them apart from other characters in the room. 

In Sanders Sides, for example, this is extremely clear if you pay very close attention. Logan tends to speak with complex syntax and advanced vocabulary. Virgil tends to speak in shorter, snarkier quips. Patton uses “kiddo”, Logan uses “falsehood”, etc. 

Understand that these details you may pick up on when you pay close attention to how different characters sound in the words they use and how they phrase things tells us something about that character.

The first Avengers movie is another great example. Tony Stark speaks intelligently and with lots of scientific jargon, which tells us that he is a very intelligent person. But he is also perhaps the snarkiest character in the movie (e.g. “when you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?” “last night.”) Captain America in that movie is very direct and straightforward (e.g. “So. Thor. What’s his play?”). This tells us that he is all-business, and also may be a result of his military background.

Think about your characters and who they are. Consider how “who they are” will impact “what they say and how they say it”. 

A timid or nervous character may apologize a lot and use a lot of filler words like “um”/”uh”/”er”. A character from a very posh and polite upbringing is less likely to use slang than a character with a more traditional (or maybe even rougher) background. A character that is used to lots of danger on a regular basis might be more brazen in their response to being threatened than one who has been very protected and sheltered (i.e. the difference between “please don’t hurt me! Take my money!” and “you wanna mug me? I mean, you can try. It won’t end well for you, man.”) A lawyer may be able to hold their own in an infuriaing debate with a colleague than someone who doesn’t have lots of public speaking and experience arguing (”actually, to counter your point, the stipulation states that...” vs “wh--you can’t just say stuff like that!”)

Who we are, where we come from, what we do--it all impacts how we sound. Paying close attention to how other people speak (in media and in real life) can go a long way to developing unique character voices! 

This is a long answer but I hope something here helps you out!

[missmungoe]

I absolutely ADORE your writings, and your passion tempts me to write something myself. So I wanted to ask, do you have everything planned from the start, or is it born from the spur of the moment? Because you create such wonderful scenes and characters with depth in them, that canon can not ever reach. I was wondering how in the world are you so amazing; and while I'm at it thank you for sharing a part of yourself with all of us.

I loved this message, and I can’t believe how sweet you are about both me and my writing, but thank you

To answer your question: it’s a bit of both! I’ve always had an active imagination and it rarely (if ever) takes a break, but I’m also painfully organised as a person, and it’s through my writing that I combine the two. And I apply the same strategy to my standalone fics and chapters as I do to my longer stories, although in slightly different ways. On that note, plot-heavy fics aren’t really what I’m about. More than anything else, I love exploring characters and their relationships (although sometimes against the backdrop of a greater plot―war, amnesia, and crashing someone’s execution are all rich environments for character exploration), but even in shorter fics without plot, there’s always a theme to give it structure. I’ll have an idea for a scene that’s not set in any specific timeline, but thinking about which themes it explores, I can easily build a story around it. So with the scene in mind, I determine the theme (e.g. marriage, to take an example from my most recent update), before I decide what I want to say with the fic (in this case, the mutual pining of two idiots wanting a future together but who are both afraid to admit it to the other), giving it direction. Then I allow the scenes to grow organically from there, while keeping in mind the overarching theme. I’m a wordy writer; I never write just to get to the point, or cut away scenes or descriptions for a more streamlined narrative, but the scenes I include aren’t meant to be fillers, either. They always have a purpose: to say something about the characters or their relationship, or both. Most of what I write is romance, but even if there’s no other plot than two people falling in love (or being in love), having a theme adds narrativity even to random scenes dreamed up in the spur of the moment. It’s not just two characters interacting; in doing it, they’re revealing something about their relationship that expands beyond the scene itself. You often have romance stories where you are told two characters love each other, but I want my stories to show the reader why.

It’s a little different with longer fics, which can be more thematically (not to mention narratively) complex, although the essence is the same: I have an idea of certain scenes I want to include, and things I want to happen in getting from point A to point B, but I always leave enough room for spur of the moment ideas. I find it’s good to have a plan so you don’t get lost or write yourself into a corner, but I’m more of a gardener than an architect, so the plan can’t be too rigid for my imagination to grow (I like to think of it as a wooden trellis directing a plant: it’s got room to grow, but it shapes itself around the structure of the trellis). I’ll get questions for fics like Mnemosyne and Charybdis asking what was planned and what wasn’t, and a lot of it wasn’t―it’s ideas that took shape as I wrote but that still worked within the latticework structure of the story: they didn’t alter the structure, but they found new (sometimes more creative) ways to get from point A to point B.

I’ve found it also has a lot to do with the balance between giving the characters space and agency to influence the path the story takes, but without giving them too much agency (Blackbeard is one of my favourite characters to write for this very reason, because I can have a plan in mind for him, but it always ends up going a little differently that I first imagined, and always in a more interesting direction. But I’m still mindful of that balance: he has an active role in the story, but he’s not controlling the narrative). But in giving your characters some influence, and room to grow organically (and maybe not the way you first planned), you can give them more depth and complexity than if you never allow them to move outside their designated path. The villain can still be The Villain even if you allow them to be human.

But unplanned ideas and rogue characters aside, there’s one thing I always have planned from the onset, and that never changes no matter much the story does, and that’s the ending. I’m an extremely predictable writer: my stories always end happily (at least as long as you’re not rooting for the villain). So no matter how big my ideas grow or how many winding paths they take, they’re all ultimately rooted in the same soil.

[spnfanficpond]

December 2019 Pond LiveChat Recap - Structuring Longer Plots

We had a great time chatting with @jhoomwrites​, today! Thank you so much for joining us and sharing your wisdom and experience!

Our chat was all about structuring longer plots, filler vs plot, and the different types of structures that are out there. (Mostly, we talked about how we don’t always have a structure in mind when we’re writing, and how we deal with it when a story breaks apart the structure we’d so carefully constructed.) A rundown of the chat, as well as general Pond news, is below the cut!

For those who don’t know her, Ashley is an avid writer, not just of fan fiction. She’s popular on Tumblr and AO3 for Destiel stories of all lengths, from little emoji ficlets she bangs out from requests (where followers send her a short string of emojis and she writes a story using them all) up to epic stories. She’s currently working on a hockey fan fiction that was her NaNoWriMo project, but with 120 SPN works on AO3, we’ve got plenty to read while she’s distracted with her hockey boys! (I’ve convinced her to be a member of the Pond, so hopefully we’ll see her around a lot in the future!)

We started off talking about how long our fics can get ( @katehuntington​ won with her Sullivan Series, which is currently at 570k), and whether we’re planners or pansters or a mix. Kate and Ashley are both kind of mixed, while @mrswhozeewhatsis​ has never successfully outlined a story, yet. 

Q: Was My Liege Lord (her longest at around 80k) planned or pansted?

Ashley: It was both. I had planned out some things, but then I got new ideas as I went that I wanted to explore and it padded out the length. I had a whole fic worth of plans, but just the amount of time in their lives I ended up covering necessitated adding things. Kate: I do that too. I stick to the plan, but I add soooooo much stuff along the way.

Q: When you write, and plan out a story, do you use a particular structure?

Ashley: I haven't written out a plan for a fic in some time, but I was really consistent with the style I used for a while. I would do a chart with the main plot points to the left, and then details (excerpt of dialogues, notes about specific scenes, etc) to the right. Here’s an example:

Ashley: It helps me when I get ideas later, I can find parts in the story by looking to the left and then add notes. It's my favorite way to plan out a story, especially if I know it will be multiple chapters and if I might not be starting it any time soon. This is much nicer than the outline for the story I'm working on now, which is just a list of events in chronological order (and another list of "things i could add but i don't know where this goes"). I wrote the outline about a day before I started so I didn't need as much structure.

Q: Having a plan helps, then?

Ashley: I didn't used to plan, but then I started a multi-chapter fic and realized...... I don't have an ending. So, I like to plan that out to make sure I have an actual beginning, middle, and end. Michelle: When I start, I have an idea and an ending. That’s it. All my stories have the same ending, though: And then they kissed and lived happily ever after!

Kate: It does give freedom, not having a detailed outline.

Ashley: That is true, it does make me sad when I get somewhere in the outline and there's something I'd liked, that I'd wanted to include, but it doesn't work anymore and I have to scrap it. Gotta balance sticking to the outline vs adapting to how the tone/characters have developed.

Q: Is your planning method something you learned, or something you developed? And do you use the same structure for all of your stories?

Ashley: Something I developed. I haven't had any real training or instruction in writing. I was struggling with longer fics being unorganized and not coming together at the end, so I needed something for myself. I like making charts, so I figured that was a good way to start! lol It's not something I do as much, anymore. It was a great tool when I started doing it, and I did it for years... but possibly because I've gained more writing experience with longer stories, I don't need to do it anymore. I start a fic with a general idea, I figure out where that idea is going, and start writing. I do more of a mental checklist now. Of course, for original stories, things I hope to one day publish, I will still outline.

Q: Do parts of your structure have names? A quick Google search on how to structure novels brought back about a lot of different methods for structuring a novel, all with different numbers of steps. Each step had a general idea, like rising action, climax, falling action, etc. I guess I mean, what parts of a story do you feel need to be there for it to work? What are the parts of your structure?

Ashley: Having never paid particular attention in my English classes, I would be hard pressed to put names on different parts of my story structure. I view it as beginning (set up, putting things in place), middle (the actual story more or less, all of the action), and ending (wrapping things up, resolution).

Q: When you half wing it and the story is coming along, and then you hit a plot hole, how do you handle that? 

Ashley: Well uh... **points vaguely towards abandoned WIPs** it can be rough. I do have some people I work with in terms of brainstorming. And if I get stuck with a fic I'm committed to, that I'm enjoying writing, then I talk it through with them. Sometimes, those issues are coming up--not because the story wasn't outlined--but more because I've just lost that spark of interest that I had before, and it's time to move on, anyway.

Q: There was a question submitted to the Pond by @kittenofdoomage​ about filler vs. plot.

Ashley: I think that's a real issue I face, filler vs plot. For some stories, I feel like I write a chapter and then can't really see what it adds to the story except maybe giving more characterization. My Liege Lord, I can think of some examples... and sometimes those things are cool, they're fun little ideas to explore and that's the only universe you could do it in, so you do it maybe for your own sake more than the story's. I think there's also a difference between reader and writer perceptions of what's filler. For my current project, there are scenes I wanted to include because I felt they were necessary to the plot, but I got the impression from people I'd polled that they would not be interested in those scenes (basically it's a romance and I was going to include things that were not directly related to the romance aspect and they said if it was more than a few paragraphs or so they didn't care). Michelle: I struggled with that with The Babysitter. Almost half of that fic is flashbacks to when the brothers were growing up and how their relationship with the reader developed. I considered cutting them all, but the fic felt thin. Sometimes, I'd pop a flashback chapter in there just to slow down the action in the present a bit, if you know what I mean. Like, chapter X is the night before the big battle, and chapter Y is the big battle, but it felt rushed to just go from X to Y, so I stuck D in between them. Ashley: Yeah, pacing is important, so the "filler" can help regulate that. It might also depend on if you view stories as about the plot or about the characters. If you view it as plot, then yes, you don't want that non-plot filler. If you view it as characters, then the filler doesn't necessarily move the story, but it adds depth and dimension to the characters and makes you appreciate them more. (I mean... I love the characters so much, I'd watch an episode of them just doing chores around the bunker...no plot, just them.) Kate: I just write what I feel like is right. Plus, I’m a sucker for a slow burn myself, so I’m not scared to let the readers wait.  I like to use fillers as a stairway to the big reveal or moment. What I love even more is to put a lot of foreshadowing in there, so when they read it the second time, they go: oh! Rhi: The thing is that I've found is that filler serves a lot of purposes. As mentioned above it's great for dropping a bit of foreshadowing. It's also great for expanding your background and making your characters more than two dimensional. It also gives your readers a breather. Especially if it's a heavy plot. I often find myself rambling in filler, which is where rereading is key. With longer stories, I have a brief outline of what I want. Sometimes I'll write the major points first, the ending etc then follow up with the filler. On occasion, your filler will end up imploding your plans but that's cool. That's when you either roll with it or take a break and neither of those are bad choices. It depends on the individual.

Q: (In one of the articles linked below) Peter Behrens mentioned a novel idea. He basically said he doesn’t worry about structure until the revision stage. He writes what he wants to, and then when he’s revising, he tweaks the story to fit whatever structure it fits to best.

Ashley: I do like that, and that's something that @unforth-ninawaters​ has mentioned. We're working on shorter stories that would need to be under 7.5k and I said I don't know if I could hit that. She said to write the whole story, even if it's longer, and then have someone edit it with an eye to shorten it, if necessary, and you'll probably end up with a tighter story that way. So, basically, that's how I view writing things, now. I write what I want to write for the story, and if it needs to go, it'll disappear later in the editing process. But what if it does belong? Well, then it's there, already. And yes on slow burns... for fic, it's a staple, and for WIPs, it's part of the lure, the draw in, as a reader--knowing that maybe they will maybe they won't hook up this week.

To close out the chat, we talked about the story structures listed in the following two links:

How to find your novel’s structure - This article discusses the traditional 5-stage plot structure (exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution) and the 3-act structure (setup, confrontation, resolution), as well as some other points, like how characterization can affect structure.

Writing Cooperative -  Use a story structure to make writing your novel a lot easier - This article lists several structures, and includes links to read more about each one and their strengths and weaknesses. Different stories might do better under different structures, too. A romance novel wouldn’t necessarily need the 12 steps in The Hero’s Journey.

These links are definitely worth checking out if you have any fears or concerns about your story’s structure!

Next month we’re going to talk about Real People Fiction! We’re still looking for a guest speaker, so if anyone is interested, send a message to @mrswhozeewhatsis​!! Date and time to be announced!

General Pond Updates and Reminders

What we’ve got cooking up next: Not much, at the moment, since everyone is busy, so we’re just trying to keep up with the day-to-day at the moment! Our to do list is still long, though, and will not be neglected forever! Next up is organizing the tagging system on the blog to make it easier for readers to find the stories they’re interesting in and for writers to find the help they’re looking for!

Reminders:

Angel Fish Award nominations are accepted all month long! No need to wait to tell us how much you liked a fellow Fish’s work!  IF YOU HAVE SENT IN A NOMINATION, BUT HAVE NOT RECEIVED A PRIVATE MESSAGE CONFIRMING WE RECEIVED IT, WE DIDN’T GET IT. Be sure to use Submit instead of Ask!

Don’t forget to submit your stories to be posted to the blog! When your stories are on the blog, then they are easier to nominate for Angel Fish Awards!

Say hi to November’s New Members! (If we missed someone, let us know!)

Check the Pond CALENDAR to see when Big Fish will be in the Skype chat room/discord general channel and other Pond and SPN events are happening! Know of something that’s not on the calendar, send us an ask or submission with the deets info details!  The calendar offers a lot of features, such as showing you when things are in your own timezone! Since we’re an international group, that’s a definite plus!!

We’re looking for a guest speaker for January to talk about RPF! If you know of an RPF writer that you’d like to hear from, let us know!!

[raspberryparker]

Hi!! So can I just say how much in love I am with your blog? My theme was very old so I updated it thanks to your help! That really means a lot to me and your fic recs are always so spot on for me! I also write a Tom Holland x Reader fanfic named "Starstruck on the Red Carpet" and it honestly would be like a dream come true to hear your opinions&thoughts on it. Thank you so much!!

Hello my love! First of all, thank you so much for your lovely and kind words! I’m so glad you find my recs helpful and it’s great that I was able to help you with your theme (which is gorgeous, by the way. Nice job).

I’m so sorry it took me so long to answer this ask but I wanted to read the entire fic and the sequel before I did so you got my full thoughts on it, so here we go! (It’s incredibly long and for that I’m sorry.)

In terms of storytelling and plot, I loved it! I think you did great with the conflict, the main plot and the sub plot/sub conflict(s), and the progression of the story as a whole. I really enjoyed the whole Cinderella thing and the way you spun it. I don’t think I’ve read a Cinderella story like that before so you’re definitely original, but I also enjoyed how that wasn’t the main point of the story and how it grew from there. Also, you’re really good at staying in character for the actors that you were writing for. It’s always important to be able to picture them saying what you’ve written if you’re writing someone who actually exists, and during the after-party scenes, I definitely could.I also really loved your OC’s. Blake made a really good point of conflict that enhanced the story in a great way, and Elijah just made me really happy, as did Nathalie. All good stories need an equally good cast of supporting characters and you executed it really well, so good job!That last part of the final chapter of the sequel was both funny and loving, and it’s hands down my favourite chapter. I always love when things come together, and the whole dating thing made me laugh out loud.The only criticism I have is that of structure, which every writer has struggled with at some point or continues to struggle with. I know I sure as Hell have. I’ve been writing fanfic since I was 12 and I’m 18 now. I’ve written a lot and I’ve read a lot and now that I’m an English major in university, I know what works and what doesn’t to keep people reading.Firstly, it would be so much easier on the reader and keep them engaged in the story regardless of what the story even is if you adjusted the way you structure paragraphs first and foremost. I noticed this especially in the first few chapters of your fic but less and less as I read on (Meaning you’ve improved on your own! Which is amazing!) but it was still quite choppy and hard to grasp what was happening, especially with dialogue. I don’t want to say there are “rules” for paragraph structure for fics, because fanfic is technically fanart and art is subjective, but there are guidelines to follow when you’re writing for school, for work, or professionally. These are in place because it makes your work flow better and makes it easier to read and take in. Some of these include making a new paragraph every time someone new speaks, every time the “camera angle” changes, when you’re starting a new idea, etc. It’s incredibly daunting to see a huge block of text instead of the same text broken down into smaller paragraphs. Seeing one big page of words makes people not want to read it. It’s harsh, like judging books by their covers rather than content, but it’s the truth and everyone is guilty of this whether they know it or not.Something you tend to do a lot is have multiple people (up to three or four at some points) talking during the same paragraph. When this happens, it’s easy for the reader to lose track of who is talking and what’s happening and often leads to them being confused and having to reread the paragraph just to know what’s going on. Fixing this would take your already wonderful plot and give it an extra something to appeal to readers even more.Here are some helpful posts for you if you want to read more in depth on paragraph structure !! 

1  2  3  4My other point is about how you broke up the chapters. I am a writer myself and I know how hard it is to write lots at a time (especially considering I’m a uni student too so I have, like, no time) but I try to make my chapters anywhere between 4k and 7k words. However, a lot of people don’t do this and make their chapters way shorter. But ultimately it all comes down to scene breakdown and length, which I will explain. Especially in the first 5 or 6 parts of your fic, I felt like that could have been condensed into about 3. This is because you spread the same scene out over multiple chapters. This is fine; again fanworks are artistic works and you can write however you want, but another thing I do is try to keep the consumer of my fanworks in mind as I create them. It’s a little bit jarring to jump from chapter to chapter (or wait a week between chapters, if someone is keeping up with the fic as it’s updated) even though it’s still the same setting, the same characters, and essentially the same thing happening. My chapters are longer because they’re usually one or two scenes depending on the length of the scene, but they’re entire scenes regardless. And I’m not saying you should cut stuff out, that’s not what I mean by “condense”. I mean you could have copy and pasted a chapter into the chapter before it and just made it longer. Sometimes, a higher word count is fine if the story flows.For example, and this is just off the top of my head, let’s say a character is going to hang out with a friend. The scene begins with them meeting up, and ends with them parting ways. even if you don’t want to write the ENTIRE scene or think some of it is pointless filler that doesn’t contribute to the plot and you want to cut some parts out, you can put time cuts within the chapter as long as that one scene remains within that one chapter. Again, these aren’t rules. But as both a fanfic reader and writer, it’s easy to notice these things. You actually did this very well once, when you made a time cut where you didn’t write the interviews themselves in chapter five, I believe. You were right in your endnote on that chapter; it would have made it far too long. That’s the kind of thing I’m talking about. But I still thought you could have put that time cut in the middle of a chapter rather than between chapters. And when I say time cut, I don’t mean something in bold like ****Time Skip**** placed between paragraphs, because that’s just jolting. It takes the reader out of their immersed state. To make an adequate time cut, just make the space between paragraphs larger, or put a horizontal line that you can copy and paste from google or something (like I did) to separate the pieces without making it look messy.A helpful tip I read a while back while writing my first fic on tumblr was to use the “A and B therefore C” method, or the Incentive, Action and Result method. I forget where I read this tip and I’ve been trying to find it for you but I haven’t been able to, I’m sorry. Here’s an example using a scene from the first chapter of my fic:A or Incentive: Peter is failing EnglishandB or Action: Ned doesn’t want him to fail English; Ned wants him to do well so he doesn’t get kicked out of schoolthereforeC or Result: Ned gets the reader to tutor Peter, which kicks off the plotThat’s the scene! Altogether, the scene written out was about 3,000 words but I made it into half of a chapter because I had more to add to it (if you’ve read my fic you’ll know what I mean, but you don’t have to).Here’s the other half of the chapter broken down like this:A: Peter is struggling with English and it’s distracting him during his hero workandB: He has a nasty run-in with Hammerhead that leaves him injured beyond beliefthereforeC: The reader witnesses him coming back to their dorm building bloody and bruised, and she becomes suspicious I would say the only time that people can get away with ending a chapter in the middle of a scene is when there is a huge cliffhanger they want to incorporate and leave their readers hanging in suspense for a week before the next chapter release. Other than that, it’s better if one scene is confined to one chapter. And my last point is tenses! Oh boy tenses, those horrible, awful tenses. They suck but they’re so so so important. I often found that you randomly switch between present tense and past tense in the middle of your chapter when there isn’t any actual time difference in the scene. Going from “says” to “said” is a little bit confusing, but everyone does it. EVERYONE. Hell, I still do. The important thing is catching yourself when you do. I know I have a few times where it’s slipped through the cracks and I’ve published a chapter where there are a few slip-ups, but again, everyone does it. That’s why I’m not making a huge deal out of it.These are a few reasons why having someone to beta read or edit your fic before you publish it is super important! I’m lucky I have my close friends to do it for me, but a lot of fic writers hide the fact that they write fics from their friends because, let’s be honest, it can be kind of embarrassing. If you ever need someone to beta read or edit for you, don’t hesitate to reach out to me or any other fic writer that you know! I’m more than willing to help you improve your writing (as you can probably tell by this long winded response to your ask) and finally put all this studying for my English degree to good use. I plan to become an English teacher, so the more experience I get the better! I’m always here for you!I really hope you don’t think I’m being rude or pretentious because that is not at all what was meant by this review of your fic. I think you’re incredibly talented and creative, and the idea of your story is a great one that I enjoyed following as I read it. Basically, my main point of this is to say that even if you have an amazing story, if the structure isn’t appealing, chances are people won’t read it. Again, it’s a sad truth but we’re all guilty of it. All in all, it was a wonderful story that was well written and well planned, and I really enjoyed it! I hope you continue writing because you have so much potential, and maybe even take some of my advice. I’m so happy you’re open to opinions, thoughts and constructive criticism on your writing. But remember that you don’t have to do what I say. You art is is just that: YOUR art. And my advice is just advice. At the end of the day, just keep doing you, love.- Gabi  ps. YOUR ART IS LOVELY!! I really love that you added illustrations for the last two parts of the sequel, really helps envision what is happening better. I might start drawing for my fics too ;)

[icypantherwrites]

Hello Icy! I used to write really bad fanfiction, but have improved my writing skills through school and reading. Do you have any tips for getting back into the fanfiction game?

Whoot, yeah! Welcome back to the world of fanfiction! (blink twice if you need help ;p)

As someone who went on a very, very, very extended hiatus myself and then came back in a brand new fandom, I’m going to pull from my own experiences for this one. If anyone else has something to add please do chime in in the comments! 

1. Write what you want to write. It can be easy to want to write something “popular” so you get a lot of hits and comments, but if your heart isn’t in it then it’s going to show. I have a number of older fandoms that I enjoyed writing it and while the audience was never really there it was something for me to look back on (and cringe, really now, but at the time I thought I was God’s gift to that fandom XD Shoot me) and read and enjoy myself. 

2. Have an update schedule! This one is really important. Whether that means you pre-write the entire fic or you buckle down and commit to a regular posting (which is how Color was for me for the first couple months until I pre-wrote enough to kick back and relax a bit xD) be it weekly or bi weekly or every two weeks (the other bi weekly? Such a weird word) you do that. 

When you get people on a schedule and they are more likely to come back and comment with something other than the dreaded “update soon!” because they know you are going to update soon and when exactly that is. Give readers something to plan and look forward to, just like a favorite TV show that airs weekly. 

3. Respond to comments. Whether you write giant-ass paragraph responses (cough, I really need to tone myself down sometimes xD) or even a simple “thank you ♥” it goes a long way. I know I always am more inclined to really keep up on a fic where the author has shown to appreciate their readers (although if I read your fic and like it I will comment regardless ♥)

4. Read other authors’ works you enjoy but do not self-promote. Please don’t do that. I hate it when I see that and it makes me even less inclined to check out a fic (I’m already very picky with what I read and don’t read much at all). By all means comment on the fic and be like “I headcanon Keith is a good cook too!” because those personal details are lovely and maybe that’ll inspire that other author to click on your profile to see if you’ve got a fic with such a theme to go read.

But otherwise, keep your comments about their fic (or your reaction to it) and show your excitement and passion for that fic. Bookmark too (and Ao3 lets you add comments; you can bet if I see a nice comment on a bookmark tag I’m clicking on that author to see a; what else they’ve bookmarked and b; if they’ve written anything). Well written and passionate comments tell a lot about a person and if they can write a nice review they likely can write a nice fic and could be worth an extra click to see their profile. That is indeed how I’ve found several authors and fics I now read :)

5. Write an engaging summary! Simple in concept, but believe me, it’s hard. Especially if you’re on FF with their character limit (although it does force you to be concise and I prefer that over the sometimes 300 plus word summaries you see on AO3). Use that paragraph as your hook, line and sinker all in one. Make people want to click on your story. Stuck? An engaging piece of dialogue is always my go-to and I craft the rest around it. Do not ask for reviews in the summary or go “this is a crack story that I thought you all might like” etc; save those for author’s notes in the fic please.

6. Cliffhangers are your friend (even if readers curse you out over them ;p). They are an amazing writing tool that builds up that suspense and tension and makes people keep coming back because they need to know how it ends. Use that to your advantage :D But not every chapter as no one’s heart can take that kind of stress ;p

7. Chapter length. This I have noticed over time but shorter chapters (for me around 3k-4k) tend to get more comments than longer ones because people have “more time” upon finishing to leave a comment. It doesn’t always work but it is something I’ve witnessed on more than one occasion. That said, don’t write a chapter of only 1k words and think they’ll pour in because it’s short. Leading on to…

8. Whatever your chapter is, make sure it has content that people will want to respond to. Not every chapter has to have explosions and action and intense heart-to-hearts, but every chapter should have something memorable. Filler chapters are unavoidable, especially in longer fics, but do what you can to make them not quite so “blah” and give them some heart. 

9. Tag appropriately (if applicable, i.e. Ao3) and also put warnings/tags at the top of chapter one. There is nothing worse than reading a story and enjoying it and then boom; character death. Boom; unexpected romance. I will still never forgive this One Piece fic I was reading that was all about Sanji and Usopp friendship and was really well written with a great plot and then I kid you not walked right into a Zoro x Sanji sex scene that I have no interest in reading. Ugh. Legit thought I had somehow clicked to another story, but nope xD  Don’t do that to your readers. If you are going to have a relationship, mark it as such. If you’re going to kill someone, mark or note a major character death (you of course do not have to say who).

Also, do not fill up the tag space with every tag known to man. Just because you can does not mean you should. I know I skip over any story where the tags extended more than a few lines down (taking into account tagged characters and relationships as depending on that it can fill up quick xD)

10. A good number to end on ;p And this one I really relate to. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket, meaning really write multiple things. I came off my hiatus with Color and knew from the start it was going to be around 25-30 chapters (how naive I was). I also knew that I was going to be a Lance whore and there was no prying me from that part of the fandom. That said, I did make the decision to branch out to a few other fics (Over the Edge, my Burning/Shining series, Sin) to explore different facets and characters because different people like different things, even if all of them (cept for Keith’s backstory fic) relate back to Lance.

Having a mix of a longer running chapter fic (for those “episodes” back in bullet point two) to keep people coming back and having a few shorter fics (be one-shots, two-shorts or shorter chapters) to draw in new people and help you out when you get stuck on your other fic is invaluable. I have never been much of a one-shot person outside of challenges, but writing a whole host of them this year (i’m up to what now, 25? Something like that) definitely expanded my audience and brought in new readers and gave me little boosts of support whenever I uploaded one. 

I hope some of this sort of helped! It got a little long winded, apologies. Welcome back to the fanfiction world and happy writing!

[chipotlepepperspokemonandother]

AHHH KINDA IMPORTANT MESSAGE!!!!

I’ve posted about my fanfiction ‘The Journal: I am Jezz’ on here before, usually providing a link. If you liked/reblogged/have any interest in this fic, do me a favor and don’t read or reread it until I have some major edits done to it. Basically, I’m telling people to NOT read my fic. (Not yet, anyway). I want to make it the best version I can. I am shortening it by erasing fillers words/ unnecessary info. I’ve fixed up to chapter 4 and I already deleted about 3,000 unnecessary words. I also fixed dialogue tags, used better (more accurate) vocab, reworded stuff, and put slightly more emphasis on the foreshadowing. My fic is almost done. Updates are several times a month. It’s long but after edits, it will be shorter. The ending is already written. Almost there!

I want to add that because my beta is only a part-time unpaid worker, I would love constructive criticism, WORDED KINDLY WITH NO COPYPASTA. 

I have already been told to:

use more canon characters

use fewer italics

don’t center text

reduce fic size

work on tenses

less infodump

edit title (now it’s called The Journal: Jezz)

I’ve been working hard to do all of this for y’all. It’s far from perfect but it’s better than it was before. 

Most if not all of the edits will be finished by mid-summer 2018. Please follow, like, do whatever if you are interested and please revisit in July. 

Thank you my rocketshippers, OC lovers, and random internet-goers who leave those reviews that make my heart flip. 

a link for safekeeping: 

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12468220/1/The-Journal-Jezz 

Please help me out by reblogging even if you don’t plan on reading my fic. Thank you all:) 

[aidontdraw]

The thing that's helped me the most with editing my fics is color coding their speech. It allows me to ensure that each character has a distinct voice pattern.

Like with Gaara, I try hard to keep his sentences short and sweet. He's a man of little words. So if I notice that something he says can be shorter, I make it shorter. With Naruto, I do the oppisitse, I'll make his sentences longer and add more filler words.

It also lets me know if I'm using "said" too much. Or if I'm using the same speach tag order too much.

Another good thing, is just having a calendar I can refrence. Especially in longer fics.

[lizardbeths]

How'd you find IW?

Spoiler free: I found it long. And repetitive. 

I’m kinda used to MCU audiences who applaud or cheer for at least one scene in a movie - in this one, the only thing that got that was the SOLO trailer. So, it was overall not a happy showing.

More specifics/spoilers under the read more…

SPOILERS AHOY 

KEEP ON SCROLLING

 IF YOU’RE STILL SPOILER FREE

So yeah not a fan. Had I not already known what was going to happen, I’d probably be more upset by the surprise of it all, but knowing most of it meant I was prepared. I was hoping the visuals would overcome what I already knew – as I’ve said before, if a movie doesn’t add something to knowing the written narrative, it’s pretty much a crap film. But honestly there were only a few visuals I thought added anything– Thor’s arrival in Wakanda, some of Titan scenery, and the wipe effect on Knowhere I thought were well done. 

The battles were mostly pretty meh. A few were blurry and poorly staged. And if I see one more “we’re running at each other” fight scene it’ll be too soon. It’s too obviously to give the non-flyers something to do, and it’s stupid EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. Does Wakanda – technically advanced Wakanda - really just throw spears at shit? They have no air capability to drop/launch explosives, like Rhodey was doing? ugh

And since we’re on the subject of the fighters…  My god, what a waste of Natasha. She whacked some bad folks with some sticks, TWICE! much wow.  What a waste of ScarJo’s time, tbh. 

Loki - also a waste, obviously. Before this I suspected they were going to write out Hiddleston!Loki in Av4, and now I’m fairly sure of it. He’s either not going to emerge at all/dead for good, or we’ll get some kind of AoA!Loki reset, is my guess, as the MCU transitions to the next gen. He’s one of the few characters who can easily get re-cast into a different canonical version, so I think that’s what they’ll do (as opposed to a Cap-style mantle pass). 

Other people have already given opinions on Gamora and Thanos, whcih I agree with. That whole plotline was some kinda creepy bullshit, which would’ve been okay if they’d treated it as creepy bullshit, but they didn’t, mostly. Thanos has stupid malthusian philosophy, though I think the real problem with that was he was obviously a nutter about it, his dialogue is pretty over-the-top, but the photography and music were trying to take him seriously, so it was an odd disconnect.  (I still don’t get why they didn’t use Hela in there, it was just the movie before come on!, but oh well) 

Oh, right, Other Things That Made No Sense… Red Skull. When I heard something about it, it didn’t make any sense so I was all “I must be missing some other context” – but no, he was just… there. like, okay, I guess the universe really is that small. What a weird choice. Literally thousands of characters in Marvel that could’ve been a nod to, and it was Red Skull. also his weird Nazgul look was really off-putting.

For a guy who was basically a god in Ultron, Vision sure was a weakass chump. I’m sure there’s some handwaving to explain it all, but eh. Also, I feel like he should have just ripped the fucking stone out of his head to force Wanda to destroy it. But instead it was put off to the last possible second and of course it failed. A lot of the final act comes from him not doing anything, and it’s so annoying.

But nerfing Vision so hard makes me very afraid for Thor in the next installment -- seems like they either have to de-power him somehow, send him off to a reborn Asgard as king and pay no attention to Midgard, or dead. (so the theory that goes the surviving Avengers reset the universe by sacrificing themselves

is pretty .. plausible to me. poor Thor) 

Things What I Actually Liked: 

- Thor in general (though I think the Stormbreaker sequence should’ve been much shorter. The “struggle” on Nidavellir was just filler). I also enjoyed Peter Dinklage being the tallest person in the room for a change that was great.

- Tony and Spidey. I wonder if that’s what RDJ is like as a dad, because those were some hardcore dad vibes he was giving off. Tugs on my parental heartstrings quite nicely. also yay Pepper was back. thank god they undid that stupid choice.

- i  also liked how Maw sounds so much like Loki’s big speech in Stuttgart. That’s where he got his bullshit I suspect. 

- Rhodey is my forever fave. He’s just so tired of everyone’s bullshit lol

-  wanda. despite my frustrations with the Vision side of things, I liked their relationship and that she was pretty tough. Poor bb at the end.

- There were some funny lines that thankfully didn’t sink to the jokey ones for Ragnarok

- oh, I was pleasantly surprised that the after-credits sequence was longer than i expected, letting us see more of the Snap.

- I didn’t really miss Clint or Scott, tbh. And at least their absence was noted. I presume someone has already written some horribly sad fic where the rest of the Barton clan goes in the Snap and not Clint, because i was totally thinking that afterward. :(   (the MIssion Impossible franchise uses Renner better, so that’s why I don’t really care all that much, go forth and be in MI:Fallout, my dude.) But it’s pretty clear having brought in Goliath for Civil War they didn’t want to deal with it on the battlefield, and Clint didn’t have a lot of high-ground options to shoot things, so from that perspective it was ... not upsetting. Better reason to be written out than GETTING MURDERED IN THE FIRST FIVE MINUTES.

- OH, yes, the other surprise was that Carrie Coon was Proxima Midnight (at least in part, lol, I think there were like four credits between stunts, standins, etc) but she was in there somehow. She was so great in the Leftovers.

um what else? If I failed to cover something you want to know about, feel free to ask, otherwise i probably blathered on long enough! 

[the-kings-tail-fin]

Have you ever considered writing a fan fiction on cars with chapters and stuff, because your writing is really good and it seems as you would just be good at writing any book in general

Thanks, friend!

So let me tell you about a thing.

It’s 2009-ish. I’m in high school, going through some crap, obsessed with Cars as ever, and I need to vent. But no, there’s no one I can vent or ramble my thoughts to, because I’m ashamed of my love for Cars at that point, and most of my preoccupied thoughts are Cars related. I’ve had this AU I’ve spun up in my head since early 2007 that I’m dying to get down on paper. I think about it and add to it every night before I go to sleep.

That Christmas, I get a laptop. This is the greatest thing that’s ever happened to me, because now I can type out all these things in my head and get them down. I do it in private of course. And I change the names of the characters enough so that if someone (parents) ever did go looking through my files, they wouldn’t know what they found.

Five years, 625 pages, 360,000+ words, and 147 chapters later, I’ve basically created what I consider the most poorly written Cars AU fan fic ever. I never even wrapped it up and finished it. I still have it sitting in the depths of my documents folder here on this computer. Occasionally I’ll go back through and read parts of it, and it’s absolutely cringe worthy. The plot was okay, I just sucked at putting sentences together and painting pictures with words.

But it’s what got me to where I am today. That fic exists because I was teaching myself to write. It exists in it’s terrible state so that the things I write here on this blog can be halfway decent. 

I’ve considered going through it, rewriting it and making it shorter (because there’s a heck of a lot of filler material) and putting it on fanfiction or ao3, but I just haven’t had the time and inspiration to do so. Also I’m a bit self conscious about it now because it’s so far fetched and detached from canon.

But yeah! I’m getting more practice with the short fics I’ve been posting on here, and have been considering putting them on another site, I just haven’t felt the need to do so yet. I’ve also got a few multi-chapter Transformers fics that I wrote up a year or so ago that are actually decent, and I wanna eventually share those with the internet world too. But idk. Still got decisions to make and I’m in no hurry.

[alexenglish]

Hiii Alex. I'm trying to write long fic and it's not... going well.. I was wondering if you had any advice?? If you have the time. Feel free to ignore me 😩😩😩

Mm okay, I’ll give it a shot! Under a cut bc I just ended up talking a lot.

Cultivating your idea: Ideas for long fic are far more involved than ideas for shorter fic. There should be something resembling a plot – a buildup, a climax, a resolution. It doesn’t have to be super formulaic, but it does help with plotting. If you have a prompt or idea, great! Usually prompts are short, one scenario things, you gotta think about how to stretch it and give it depth.

Outlining: Do an outline. Outlines help you get from point a to point b to point c, d, f without – mind the pun – losing the plot. It lets you see how many scenes you might need to really round out your story, and allows you to change/rearrange before you write everything out.

My v first long fic I wrote without an outline, and ended up scraping about 40k of it because I was all over the place. It was a massive waste of time, you don’t want to be me. 

Outlines will probably change as you write, but you can adjust everything else so much easier in that case. It allows you to see where your characters need to go and what you might need to include to get them there. You can include foreshadowing and hints and overarching character traits super easily this way. 

Pacing: Focus on pacing. Don’t skip over fillers. Make the in-between moments count. With shorter fic, the main moments are the focus. With longer fic, it’s the main moments and the moments connecting them and everything else.. 

Instead of writing something like: ‘They drove to the cafe, exchanging words on the way. When they got there…’ , have them have a conversation. Doesn’t have to be long or drawn out, but it should be useful. What can you use this conversation for? Foreshadowing? Characterization? Revealing new details about the relationship? It might not seem like much, but paying attention to these small moments can up your word count and keep your fic moving along without it being rushed. 

Scenes:  Planning individual scenes is super helpful. Usually I just think about what where I want to go, and decide how I’m going to get there: “okay, this happens, this happens, this character says this, this character responds, and it’s over, next.”

The more you write, the more you’ll be able to anticipate how long a scene might be depending on what you have planned. I know that if it’s dialogue or a filler scene where I’m moving the plot along, I’ll hover between 2 and 3k, but if it’s action or smut, I’ll probably hit 4 or 5k easily. 

That can help me calculate my approx. end word count pretty easily. Rn, I’m working on my big bang. I have 14k written, 7 more scenes planned. One of which is action, two are smutty, so closer to 25k than 21k. After fleshing out vague scenes, I’m anticipating this fic to end up somewhere around 40-50k unless things change. 

A good way to draw out a scene is to involve all the characters in the room. Are there four or five characters doing something together, but you only have two people talking? Depending on the emotions and what you’re trying to accomplish, have the other characters speak or have your characters keep track of what they’re doing. 

Is Person A nervous about this conversation? Have their mind wonder to what Person C and D are doing – this includes other characters in the scene, makes the setting seem more lived in, and manages to show that Person A is distracted without saying ‘Person A was distracted, but Person B kept talking’.

Stuff that will make your fic longer:

Multiple characters - your POV character will have to develop and maintain some semblance of a relationship with every character they interact with, so the more there are, the more padding you have. Now that’s not to say add like 15 just for giggles, there should def be a reason why they’re there, and they should help your story in some way, whether it’s advancing the plot or revealing things about characterization or whatever – they should be there for a reason.

Multiple relationships - I’m not a huge fan of background relationships just for the sake of bg relationships. I feel like if they’re there, they should be decently developed or, again, be there for a reason. If your POV character is focused on their friend’s relationship development, it not only shows what kind of relationship they have with their friend, but allows you to get more storytelling in. This can also be a plot device: Person A helps Person B with their relationship woes and meets Person D (their love interest) through Person C (B’s love interest). Then you have characters, relationship, and plot, all in one!

Incorporating character background into the plot. Did something happen in the past that’s affecting how the characters act, their emotions, their willingness to be involved with other characters. Expanding on background adds content and depth and allows the reader, and yourself, to get to know the characters better.

I think the biggest thing for long fic is: The better you know your world and your characters, the more you have to write about. You can write an entire scene dedicated to the time chara A fell out of a tree when they were five and broke their arm, and that’s why they’re wary of heights, and it’s really just a metaphor for how they’re afraid to fall in love. 

The best thing to do is just go for it! Best of luck. Lmk if this is too vague or you want more. I love talking about writing lol