#and then it changed into a Franken/Rai fic

[earl-of-221b]

Having just binged all of your fics available I am intensely craving more of your flair and style… just curious, do you have any favorite authors, fics, and/or books that you recommend?

I think you are into Noblesse - so here are some recs.

Noblesse:

Fleeting Vapor's 'Broken Glass' for a character-led, slowpaced and deeply introspective look into Franken and Rai's early days. This is a masterful character study, where every line matters. Hidden meanings behind everything. Keep in mind the author wrote this work before Franken and Rai's backstory was revealed coming up to ch 295.

Quarra and Xantissa's Right Here Waiting - a short, sexy character study with a really cool outsider pov. A Vassalord vampire tries to puzzle out - and appease - an ancient human. Frankenstein. Don't fear the new characters, the central themes deal with Franken and his relationship with Rai.

@laryna6's Bonded of Cadis Etrama di Raizel - all about building the world of Noblesse, how it works, how nobles came to be, how humans evolved, what the Union did in the background, and a nice found-family oriented drama with long discussions between characters. The entire Noblesse cast gets to shine somewhere - especially the members of the Frankenhouse.

For style:

Peradi's Have You Heard - the sense of scale, tension, unspoken realities, umcomfortable truths, all building to a powerkeg about to blow is such an arresting read. This is a Star Wars fic about normal people. Normal, umremarkable people in both the Empire and the Rebellion, who make individual choices that change everything.

@yellowocaballero's Good Luck Jake. A very memorable thing that this Moon Knight fic utterly nails is how people, in real life, speak. Or - perhaps that's not right. It is stylised. The dialogue is the snappiest, wittiest, realist, uncomfortablest, most engaging thing ever. When people verbally fight, they fight. The story and characters - both emotionally devastating. The way this fic uses POV changes is astonishing.

Astolat's Royal Flush. This story is one of my fav's of theirs -- a Game of Thrones fic. It is always the Plot that carries every story from this excellent writer - complex character motivations, political machinations, machiavellian schemes - plot, plot, plot. There is so much plot to get through - and yet everything is paced LIGHTNING fast. It's incredible.

I trust you'll find any and all of these fics an excellent read. If you enjoyed these stories, please consider leaving a review for the writers.

[earl-of-221b]

Hi! I love your writing, so i wanted to ask you for writing advice, if its okay with you. I regularly see writers say stuff like "the story just went there" "the character took over" or things in that vein which basically mean that they let the story flow. I have never felt that. My story doesnt flow, it goes specifically where i want it to go. My characters feel what i feel, they say what i would say. Which is to say that i'm having trouble separating me and the character, but in a bad way. How should i go about fixing this issue?

Hi, hope this reply doesn't come too late! I can share my thoughts on this below, but you have your own writing style, and you know what you want best from your work!

'Going with the flow'

I understand both instances when writing. I frequently feel "the story just went there" or that even "the character took over" and write what comes flowing. This happened to me in most of my earlier pieces of writing, but less often now that I - at least compared to before - have a better grasp on the kinds of stories I want to tell, including what themes, subtext, and dialogue I want to show. I think that letting the story flow was easier for me when writing things where I didn't have a clear goal in mind, or a set ending, and that's why things are able to meander. What's really happening is that we're making it up very fast as we go, according to what we think characters will say or do.

'Directing the story'

While letting the story just flow is a great exercise and it's good to write anything to progress a story, I think I see much more value in the other way. My ongoing fics right now (Noblesse and Ruroni Kenshin) are all products of extensive planning. This is because I had a clear narrative in mind I wanted to tell, even a pace to the story where major reveals need to be unveiled before going onto the next part. My more recent chapters have a beginning, middle and end (Strangers), or try to balance multiple povs with equal weight (12 Knight). Some may find this writing style too prescriptive, but it's that prescriptiveness that lets me direct exactly where I want to go and what I want to say. Each chapter must progress either the plot (things are Happening) or character (characters must change or learn something new). Or both! Every scene break must have a point, convey something useful to the reader.

What type of work are you trying to do?

Drabbles and oneshots - shorter works - lend themselves more easily to going with the flow. I find longer chaptered works do need some level of planning and forethought in order to be well-structured. What I mean to say is that both writing styles have their merits, and it's fine to favour one or the other. You may also find you adapt writing styles according to what you are writing - an introspective character piece in someone's head - or something thick with plot.

Examples

Time when going with the flow was helpful.

When I wrote ch 1 of Pair of Strangers (I have a feeling you're on the Noblesse side of things, but let me know!) I did not have clear ending in sight. So most of chapter 1 is actually 'go with the flow,' with only a vague plot (find the missing nobles) and character goals (Franken and Rai are able to understand each other). It was only until ch 3, once I had mapped out the rest of the story, that I could begin really driving the story. So going with the flow certainly helped start things off, towards directing a long story.

Time when directing the story improved on going with the flow

In ch 12, the final scene just came flowing out of me, but the key points are entirely different from the version that was posted. In fact, all the major choices in the final scene were changed. For example, both Franken and Elena are hit by the foreman. I changed this to ensure Franken shoves Elena, thus saving her from the foreman. This is more consequential because it tells us something about Franken - he chooses to save Elena, despite what happened in earlier chapters.

In the go-with-the-flow draft, Rai frees Franken and then commands him to leave Elena and save the child. Upon review, why would Franken even hesitate to save the child over Elena? And why should Rai make this decision? This occurs right after their 'argument,' where Franken's faith in Rai is at his lowest. So I changed the choice. The choice in the final version is between the Alderman -- and the child. Now Franken has a huge stake to go and kill the Alderman -- a choice he previously would have no issue making. Fix the root of the problem, do preventative action, instead of going for the short-term, sentimental choice.

But he reacts differently, he goes to save the victim. Moreover, it's Franken that makes this choice. He isn't commanded by Rai. Rai doesn't successfully command Franken in the final scene of ch 12. This is to show the consequences of their 'argument' the scene before. They're all split second decisions - Franken makes every single one to show how things have changed.

That he, at his heart, loves and cares for fellow humans. But Rai...has lost his trust.

All of this was much weaker when I just went with what first flowed out on the page. Now the chapter reinforces the main themes and demonstrates the characters new headspace.

Happy writing

"Which is to say that i'm having trouble separating me and the character."

I hope to lighten your mind on this one, because we are all writing from our own experiences, unique points of view, likes and dislikes. All the characters you write are ultimately voiced by you, the writer. It's the great illusion that writers do - to give life to these characters, as though they are speaking themselves. But don't worry so much if it sounds like you. Why should that be a flaw? It probably sounds like you because you are behind the Wizard of Oz contraption seeing all the bits and bobs behind the scenes. When we read other people's work, we are quite happy to suspend our own disbelief. You don't have any trouble separating you and the character, the character can only be because of you.

I hope this helps you enjoy your writing and not feel afraid to experiment and write bad stuff to get to the good stuff. Happy writing.

[earl-of-221b]

Tagged by @laryna6 to say what I’m working on/ have been working on/ should probably stop procrastinating on

1) supernatural fic

 I’ve been working on this one supernatural fic (working title ‘Tripwire’) that has three arcs (I think.) It’s a destiel fic.  I’ve only written one arc in about half a year last year and haven’t done anything with it since. First chapter deals with how Cas meets Dean in random circumstances. By second chapter, there’s a big time skip wherein Dean wakes up with no memory and Cas has already fallen in love with him.

The following chapter, it goes straight back to where chapter one ends off. And then goes back to the timeskip next chapter. Yeah - both timelines are running concurrently - past Dean meeting Cas for the first time and getting into shit, and then present Dean not understanding why this Castiel cares about him so much and trying to figure out what happened. The timelines get closer and closer together (reveal/back up information at the same time) to the point where it converges - Dean loses his memory/Dean is about to find out why he lost his memory. The end of timeline one should fit immediately to the beginning of timeline 2, chapter 2. So it’s a pretty different structure I’m trying out, instead of just spamming flashbacks like in Monster lol. 

The actual story I might be a little cliched - Cas is in a Shadowy Organisation, has been indoctrinated into it his entire life, has Super Spy Powers. Goes into a fancy black tie event To Kill A Man. Meets Dean, a guy who stole a suit and snuck into the party For Funsies. Things happen and Bad Guys mistakes Dean for Cas, kidnaps wrong guy.

(CUE TIME SKIP.)

Dean wakes up. There is a bullet hole in him. Apparently, he’s officially dead on paper. His brother has finished law school. Mysterious guy Cas nurses him back to health and then leaves. Bad Guys are (still) after him, though he has no idea why. Tries to find Cas, while Cas is shooting down people who try to catch him. (violence! action movie vibes!! cliches, probably!) (I’m actually really proud with the concurrent timelines but not sure if I have the motivation to do the full three arcs....) (There’s 14 chapters but I haven’t worked on it in months and months.)

2) Noblesse time travel.

An entire year and only three chapters to show for it: That Noblesse Time travel fic I said I was going to do. I have the ideas but not the motivation ugh.

Three main storylines:

1 - For Reasons Not That Important, Just An Excuse To Do The Premise - Rai goes back the past to find a Frankenstein who has not yet met him. A Frankenstein who is hunting nobles and mutants. (HOly shoot I just got the idea to add Tesamu in this omg maybe I should.......get on that.....)

2 - Tao, M-21 and Takeo wind up in Lukedonia. Like near a thousand years ago. When Franken and Rai are living together, but not bonded. Frankenstein is very suspicious of them. (Actually....this might be a little ‘parent trap’ ish if I can pull it off hahahahaha.)

3 - Frankenstein goes to the future, where he meets Regis and Seira grown up. In the future, there is no Noblesse.

Then the characters start time jumping to each other’s timelines before going back to present day.

3) Rurouni Kenshin and Shakespeare fic 

Gosh this could have been good if I wasn’t such a fuck. I’m four chapters into this Rurouni Kenshin fic. Except, it’s Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, and I named it “Twelfth Knight.” !!! 

(Also probably blatant indulgent fic but fight me.) It’s a crime mystery. Kenshin and Kaoru (married) and co. go back to Kyoto because Saitou told them to Come See This Shit. Which is - a lot of murders that were definitely done by Kenshin’s Hiten Mitsurugi ryu, because Saitou knows his rival’s style too well. 

Meanwhile in The Past, a hardened samurai woman- an onnabugeisha - is searching for her disciple who ran away. A thing happens and she ends up in Kenshin and co’s present. 

Meanwhile Hiko Seijuro has also come across these clearly-Hiten-mitsurugi-murders. So. Because there are only two living practitioners of the Mitsurugi ryu, and Kenshin and Saitou know that it’s not Kenshin who lives in Tokyo, they think Hiko Seijuro did the murders. Hiko Seijuro, who hasn’t had to kill anyone in years, thinks it’s Kenshin who’s gone awol. They try to track each other down.

The samurai woman, of course, turns out to be the third Hiten Mitsurugi user. But she came from the past. Making her the twelfth heir of the style. Meaning she was the master of Hiko Seijuro 13 - she’s Hiko Seijuro 12. Who is looking for her missing kid disciple in Meji era 1880, wherein he would be 40+ years old. Thus, “Twelfth Knight!”

Based on Shakespeare’s best comedy imo 

4) “embers, smog, cinder, ella.” About Cinderella. And the demon who lives in the walls of the house she cleans.

Exactly how it sounds. Everyone treats Cinderella like a servant. The demon that lives in the old wood of her family’s country home sees everything. The role of the fairy god mother is given to Mr. Demon, who never shows up, but is always there, watching, lurking, helping Cinderella clean the house and get to the ball. Never really planned on posting lol purely aesthetic and indulgent XD, a character study more than a fic. I named it.

5) “A Magnolia Rides to War” Mulan character piece

Don’t know if I’m going to post this lol not really a fic. Totally for my own indulgence. Just a character study - full of oodles and oodles of pretty metaphors and purple prose. Magnolia flower is the eng translation of ‘mulan.’ 

6) An Unadmitted Defeat

Ah yes, one day I decided to, you know. Rewrite the entirely of the Lotus Lantern myth. (???) This was so spontaneous I don’t know hahaha. 

About the story of Chen Xiang, a young boy who lived in mostly mountain isolation with his loving parents. One day, family he didn’t know he had rocks up. It turns out his parents were trying to raise him away from celestial gods and magic, because his Uncle is the Heavenly Law Enforcer, Erlang Shen. Who quickly destroys their house, steal’s his mother Sanseng Mu’s powerful Lotus Lantern weapon, and traps her under a mountain after a big fight. 

Chen Xiang learns this happened because he is a demigod - his dad was human and mum was a goddess. Human-god intermarriage is outlawed and Chen Xiang is a Heretic. After stealing back the Lantern and escaping from Erlang Shen’s cold fifth layer palace, Chen Xiang has one singular objective: Save Mum. To save Mum, he has to defeat God Erlang Shen, who has never lost a fight in recorded history.

But just because he never lost a fight doesn’t mean he’s won every single one. Who is the person Erlang Shen could not win? -- Heavenly rebel, Sun Wukong, who is just what Chen Xiang needs. 

8) Two and Three

Character piece on the Yang twins before their heavenly fallout - goddess Sanseng Mu and Erlang Shen. 

7) Who is the Monster

Of course, my long running Noblesse fic!! A rift comes between Frankenstein and Raizel when an enemy from Frankenstein’s past comes back to enact a grand plan. 

(minor spoilers - First adopted child is terribly jealous and mad at adopted father’s new partner and new adopted children, thinks dad deserves better, so does most logical thing - destroy everything he loves.) 

8) A man with no mother 

An ongoing naruto fic.....that I have not updated for a long time :( 

An excuse for Kakashi to hang out with Kushina and get motherly vibes from her. Minato, Konoha’s best, goes missing. Kushina goes out of retirement to go Find Him. Outside the KOnoha boarders, she finds young ANBU Kakashi, who has broken rank to also go Find Him. Hijinks ensue. 

(One of the early fics looking back now I’m a little...eugh...but I will try -- try-- to finish it.) 

Tagging: @kurasaika, @daylight-star, @qdeanna, @pizza-with-me-okay, @whiteplum

[earl-of-221b]

Chapter 7 is a dreamscape completely made of Franken's most inner thoughts. Filtered through some Dark Spear hahah. Rai saw himself being mean/hurt, which was up there with the most terrible parts of Fnraken's life. 

As the writer here’s low-key my favourite quiet part - the decision Franken made (when Rai revealed himself and he realised that Rai had seen everything, all his secrets, and offered to make Franken forget.) If Franken had forgotten this incident - forgot that Rai saw his inner most feelings on how much he Cared, it would save his pride. It would save the entire image of himself that he'd worked so hard to build. 

Franken asks Rai if he wanted him to forget and Rai says yes. Because Rai most definitely wants to save Franken's pride, he doesn't want him to feel ashamed. he doesn't want to be the cause of Franken's shame and he doesn't want Franken to feel indebted to him.  

But Franken says he wants to remember when Rai gives his answer. Would it have been different if Rai had answered 'no, I want you to remember, I want you to remember who saved ur guts u owe me, Frank.'?? I think that because Rai said 'forget,' he relinquished any hold he had against Franken. He can't use those secrets against him, he can't say Franken owes him. Franken would be totally free if he forgot that Rai saw/ if he forgot that specific dream. Franken gives that up because he want to remember what Rai was willing to do, what he was really offering him. In that scene, Franken gets that Rai cares too. 

@laryna6

[earl-of-221b]

Ah um just wanted to talk about how much I loved your writing? I think it was a few years ago, I only read noblesse as a casual sort of thing if I remembered every Tuesday. And after reading “who is the monster” it became an absolute hyperfixation and it’s definitely what kept me hooked onto noblesse until the final chapter.

So “who is the monster” is my favorite piece of fiction ever, and I still remember all of it despite not having read in so long. All of it was so well-written, poetic but not over-flowery, and emotional, it had clear direction, and the tension building up to each big moment was just amazing. I still look for that quality in fanfics today and I just can’t find it?? I think it’s what defined my taste in reading after that, I almost can’t enjoy serious fics without a subtle build-ups like yours.

I started writing and drawing a lot more too? I have pages and pages of old sketches of your tesamu and random scenes from “who is the monster.” It made Frankenstein my favorite character too, and gave so much personality to raizel.

It’s a hard to explain, but this fic was really important to me back then besides everything else I said above. I can’t really say the exact reason? I still think about it today, four years later which I can’t say for anything else I’ve read.

You’re kind of like an idol to me so it definitely feels novel to see you still active and kicking about in the noblesse fandom ahhh

Hey @a-h-li, thanks for this message. Who is the Monster was my first long, serious fic and still the biggest fic I’ve written today. I was obsessed with Noblesse when I wrote it, but I took a dip in 2018 when canon was on a downwards spiral that never recovered, haha! Even so, Noblesse is such a fun and special story for me and I loved Monster while I was writing it :)) I’m so happy the story meant something to you too. 

I was younger when I wrote it, so I used it to flex all the nice words I ever learned and developed my writing style. Thanks for commenting about the tension -- it was a long fic (that certainly dragged at times) because I wanted to build up to emotional reveals and major plot points. The fic filled in emotional gaps I felt reading noblesse before it evolved into a Franken/Rai. 

Omg, I also have old sketches of oc Tesamu, each of the faceless monsters and Franken and Rai!!!! It’s funny because I look back and go ‘hmm, that is Too Corny and Too Cheesy, How VerboseTM..hmm’ but honestly, no matter what I think now (what does my opinion matter, anyhow?) I wouldn’t change a thing. (Not even my embarassing teenage review responses...I could blab a Lot about Noblesse.) I needed that absolute unabashed corny, cheesy, loving and emotional fic. The plot was heavy and convoluted because later Noblesse had no plot and I was mad about it. The secondary characters worked together and won fights because canon shifted focus away from the Frankenhouse and their familial relationships and I was starved for more. The factions in the Union actually manage to trip each other up because that never went anywhere in canon. Tesamu was the juiciest plotline never used. And of course, I loved writing Franken and Rai being Franken and Rai :D 

I’m more than happy this fic could inspire you to write and draw and create. That really is the highest praise. And yes, I am still obsessed with Noblesse...I will probably never know what about Noblesse activates my feral mind, but it’s one of those stories I will always come back to :) 

It’s great to hear from you a-h-li!! It’s my pleasure to have shared this story with you.

[earl-of-221b]

Hello, you have been identified as An Awesome Fic Writer™. Congrats, you rock! So that all of your readers can shower you with some extra love today, please tell us your favourite five stories of yours and why you like them and then send this to another five fic authors you think deserve this title!

Thank you for this!! There’s-

Who is the Monster - I started planning this fic in 2015 and now it’s 42 chapters long and still going. This fic is the biggest fic I’ve ever done and I love it! Reading noblesse just made me absolutely rabid about Franken and Rai, who they were, and how they got this way. I had the idea for this fic for so long it was so good to get it out. The response I got from this fic was just…amazing, it made writing so worthwhile and so fun. Thank you to everyone.  I was also one of the ‘Tesamu is First Elder’ theorists and feverishly wrote a bit of this into the fic. It turned out to be wrong but - oh wells. He might still turn up. Maybe.

Six Worlds Down - The noblesse fic I did that was not really about plot but about capturing a feeling. I wanted to do something with a huge sense of foreboding and unease. Where things happen because there aren’t any rules and the world is surreal. When I was writing this fic I was super inspired by the FF15 Omens trailer with those freaky but seamless scene changes. Just like my old childhood nightmares. I ended up really liking this - at the end I could even pop in FrankenRai!

Dishevelled - For noblesse. My first attempt at something sexy. It wasn’t all that sexy but there was lots of Sexual Tension in there. Franken will kiss anything that is Rai. 

An Unadmitted Defeat - I tagged this as Journey to the West fic because the pov starts off with Sun Wukong, but it’s actually a retelling of the Lotus Lantern story. Character really is everything - I mix and match all jttw/LL I have ever consumed in order to flesh out my ideal version of Sun Wukong, Erlang Shen, and Chen Xiang. Featuring Midlife Crisis Erlang Shen, do-I-have-a-disciple-now?-crisis Sun Wukong, and rebels-against-heaven-for-my-mum Chen Xiang. 

How the Black Sheep Breathe - Lotus Lantern fic where Chen Xiang’s mother Sanseng Mu may end up under a mountain, but she does not get inside a fridge. ft Erlang Shen who is written like a man who has siblings. Got very attached to this and now keep adding chapters despite the fact it was supposed to be a one-shot. Sanseng Mu and Erlang Shen are just so interesting when they’re written as twins, and as equals. 

I’m very happy with my recent fics but wish my old 2015 fics could perish in a fire. I’ve gotten a lot better since 2015 lol, but it’s hard to look back on those early things! 

[earl-of-221b]

what about a reverse version of @kyogre-blue‘s Valentine fic about Franken realising he Loves Rai but of course he can’t tell him because Rai doesn’t know how to say No to him so he’s got to be cautious about it so Rai doesn’t feel obliged to be with him. So it’s now it’s Franken who’s doing the flirting but like. He’s 24/7 always Good and Nice to Rai. He’s extra for Rai all day every day. Where does the Being Frankenstein end and the Newly-Trying-to-Flirt start? And of course Rai doesn’t get it at all. Because he’s Rai. Frankenstein’s being great and beautiful. What’s changed?