#and that's my writing process!

[midnighteraser]

Just curious but what's your writing process? Like how do you come up with an idea and how do you start writing it and such

My writing process is a whirlwind, that's for sure! I'll put it under a read more because it's very long!

Usually, I'd get inspiration for something and instantly go to write the idea down in a Google Keep note I call the "Idea Bank". I'm very forgetful, so these help me brainstorm and add detail to ideas. I have an Idea Bank for all of my main AUs and ones for random stories/AUs I come up with, and at the moment I have 22 of the latter. (Thanks to Keep's word cap.) I often go back and add new ideas/little details if I think of them.

I recommend having wherever you keep ideas easily accessible so you can note ideas down the moment you get them! Google Keep has this cool widget you can access from your phone home page! (The line of Keep applications is because they removed the part of the widget that let you quickly go to the app. :( )

This is where my process changes dependent on my mood.

If I suddenly get inspiration, I tend to write in any important parts out and stick them in the idea bank. If this gets too long, I open a new Keep note and copy and paste it there for me to flesh out later.

If I have no inspiration, I jot down very briefly a description/summary of what the idea is about. It's often a summary then the notes are taken underneath the idea. For example, it could be something as simple as this:

Or a long-ish summary/scene with details underneath, like this:

Now onto the actual writing.

I said, onto the writing.

Why do I have so many empty Keep notes.

As you can see, I have a bad habit of starting a note, adding the title, and then imagining what happens rather than writing it down. It happens! Sometimes I get a cool title and then don't know what to do with it.

Most often than not, I start by opening up an Idea Bank and skimming through the ideas I have. If one sticks out, or if I already knew what I was writing from the start and just needed reference, I start to plan out what happens in my head. (Unless I already have a timeline of events or very vague notes on where the story goes, which makes life 10x easier.)

Sometimes, rarely, if a piece of writing is dialogue-heavy, I write up a script first.

Then, I flesh out some parts.

And I'd go back later to detail it. I often go back and flesh out parts I really like then revert back to script format for the parts later.

However, my main way of writing is what I like to call "Let's goooo". I have a vague idea, I kind of have an image in my head, I can wing this, surely! That's probably why half of my stories get stuck at a point and I don't know how to continue, but sometimes I get a streak of inspiration and write a whole story for me to edit and make sense of later!

I have a few Keep tabs open. These often include:

The Idea Bank for what I'm currently writing

The story I'm writing

The random ideas Idea Bank (in case I get inspo for something else)

Random other thing I'm using to procrastinate (Chatfic, other story, etc.)

Keep tab that isn't on a note, in case I need to use Keep for something and don't what to lose my place in my other tabs

So my window often looks something like this:

The issue with me is that I have a million ideas and can't stick to one for long enough to finish writing a story for it. It's a miracle if I finish one!

Sometimes I'm too lazy to swap tabs and have the description/script of what happens in the story in the same Keep note, separated by a divider of sorts. I may also have what comes next underneath what's already written.

But most often than not, I have random important scenes held together by dividers! When I feel more inspired, I go back to connect the scenes together with whatever happens in between.

This example is a sort of mix between those styles!

If I ever actually end up finishing something, I put it onto a Google Docs note to edit! Because the red lines under words doesn't appear on mobile Google Keep for some reason, if I'm writing on my phone I move to computer.

I'd usually check through with Grammarly to be extra safe (but I often have it off because it annoys me), then reread and add/remove words. Sometimes I end up adding entire paragraphs!

Then, I'd add the "Finished" tag on Google Keep, so I know the story is finished and I don't have to continue writing it. I also have "Ao3 Posted" so I know what I've posted and what I haven't.

Even then, sometimes I go back to finished stories to read and edit them! You can never be too thorough!

That should be everything regarding my writing process! The only other things I can think of mentioning is how I often write with music on! It gives me lots of inspiration, which is why I often write song fics! I also often write crossover and AU fics, but these never go posted because there's so much hidden lore that I can't explain it all with one fic! You see, I start in the MIDDLE of an AU, not the start. I have so many stories that are so far into the AU that they literally don't make sense to anyone else. (Which sucks D:)

I also tend to write at unholy hours of the night. For some reason, my brain decides the best time to come up with ideas is when I'm trying to get some sleep.

Brain please. I want to sleep.

Also sorry for the late answer! I've been thinking about this ask a lot and wanted to get everything about my writing process in!

[thirtysixsavefiles]

few things more humbling than the realization that you really do write the same fic(s) over and over again

[lu-inlondon]

source

[hinamie]

unconditionally

[inkskinned]

sure i find you in my hair and under my pillow and in the car. but i know in my heart you are picking me out of your teeth. i know i am burning through your sundays, sticking to your ceiling.

i hope i'm in every bitter cup of coffee and every candle wick and every bath. i hope my shadow flickers under your door so the empty hallway i have left behind is a swift dart of nothing more. i hope you find me in notebooks and stop signs and fleetwood mac - like i am marginalia on your life, i want my fingerprints burned into your days like acid.

i loved you, and you know i loved you, and for the rest of your life i will be the person you broke. for the rest of your life i hope the shame of that runs like a cattle dog, bites at your heels. i hope every time your cup is full or the moon is a toenail or a cat is purring or a laugh is in your belly or the sky turns pink while the sun is setting - i hope you remember that someone loved you, and you crushed them in your palms. you extinguished every future i lit. i hope that haunts you.

i hope you never fucking forget it.

[abstractfrog]

Happy 1 year anniversary to Mr Sherlock Holmes! Here's a litttleee celebratory comic from me

[hellenhighwater]

Best study tips?

Oh you don't want that advice from me. My law school professors are still using me as an example of don't do this (unless it works for you (but it won't unless you're crazy.)) I am an undisputed queen of the eleventh hour caffenated cram session, followed by a 90 minute REM cycle and fugue state exam.

I guess the only things I can say, in good conscience, is to give yourself a place to study where that is the ONLY thing you do. I learned really fast that I cannot study at home. I'm too easily distracted. So instead I would study at the lawbrary for as late as it was open, (usually 2 am) and then relocate to a 24 hour diner if I needed to keep going. Even a noisy diner was easier to study in, because there's nothing to do there but eat or whatever work you brought with. I'm not saying that's necessarily going to work for everyone, but having a physical location where Study Happens really helped me maintain focus.

On a similar note, if you're trying to retain huge quantities of information, physically mapping them out can help. Not just with fitting the info together, but in helping your brain network it together in a consistent and recallable way. When I was Bar prepping, I literally covered the walls of my lawbrary study room with outlines and flowcharts of all of the relevant material. And when I needed to recall it, I would find myself at the testing desk, looking up into the empty space where that information was logged, and I would know it.

But honestly studying is just a process of figuring out what works best for you.

[swordsmans]

ive gotten quite a few questions about this so i sat down and wrote it all out for a discord power point night. here it is. no mystery, only chaos, and if novellas have no fans then i am dead.

[ashleys-doodle-corner]

ACT 2 "You're... me?" "That's right, stardust!"

You know I've been drawing Loop as their Siffrin form so much that it's got me thinking. I've read and seen so many fics and artworks of Loop eventually getting back to looking like their old self, but I don't think I've seen any so far of Loop already being a mirror copy of Siffrin. So uh, yoink?

ISAT AU where the game plays out the same way (plot-wise at least) but Loop looks like Siffrin the whole time and while Siffrin is extremely perplexed that there's another him, he's still gotta accept their help because how else are they supposed to escape the loops? Good ol' Loop is here to help, helpful friendly Loop!

Siffrin is going through it still but Differently.

[vagueconfusion]

Feeling real ridiculous for not having realized that Baron's "stark father" was the Nightmare King until now

[yellowwwcrayon]

I feel like I'm making Logan softer and softer in my writing and I can't seem to stop lol. It's just I don't think the Logan that chose to stay with Wade would actively enjoy seriously hurting him once they were in a relationship unless Wade tries really really hard to wind him up. That look he gave Wade at the end of the movie was like Deadpool hung the moon and stars or some shit. That was pure love, dude was whipped for that dollar store Freddy Krueger. He's down so bad. Sorry for those that stayed for the messed up shit. Although that Age of Apocalypse violent prostitute variant would shred Wade's peen without a second thought, and Wade would probably be back for seconds.

This is why it's infinitely easier to write one shots lol. I just do a few thousand words of a snapshot in time and done in three hours.

(But anyway, the next installment is coming soon, hopefully.)

LOOK AT THE SOFT LONGING IN LOGAN'S EYES. I am not ok.

[nonbinary-vents]

Being a creative with adhd is so weird because you want to make things so badly but your brain is just refusing to, so you’re just stuck there replaying the exact scene or piece of dialogue or drawing or cinematic shot in your mind while not actually being able to do anything. But at the same time the adhd is actively giving you unique creative experiences and ideas and it feels like a fundamental part of you as an artist. It’s such an interesting dichotomy of feeling the thing that you want to make so strongly and wanting nothing more than to just pour it all out but also being completely unable to do it, and that coming from the same source. But then also you have to live through said dichotomy and it just becomes completely and overwhelmingly exhausting.

[stervrucht]

Robin steals Steve's phone and changes his auto-correct so 'good' gets changed to 'gay'.

Eddie texts Steve how he's doing and Steve, busy at work, quickly replies 'I'm good' before putting his phone away again until the end of his shift.

When he checks his phone a couple of hours later he has 22 new messages, all of them Eddie.

[vacantgodling]

ngl i get that people hype up hating writing for the bit but like. idk. yall i Do actually really like writing. it is so satisfying and fun and rewarding and i get to look back what i made over and over again and get joy every single time.

yes writing is hard but if you hate it more than you love it im kinda like. idk. find another hobby?

[mortysmith]

eye color hcs

[choccy-milky]

seb's 2 modes around clora 🥰👿