#bc i THINK the other one got auto shortened

[apollos-boyfriend]

new cbedwars centric fic out….. it’s finally time to spread my revived cboomer propaganda to the masses

[thegeminisage]

how the hell on earth do you plot out a story. i feel like im beating my head against a wall. please help me thank you thank you xx

hi bestie don’t worry i got you. this is a pretty open ended question so my answer is also gonna be pretty open ended. cuz i dont know if you have a plot problem youre stuck on or if youre just starting out and totally blanking. (i suspect the latter but it’s a fun mystery.) BUT if you want to specify what it is about plotting that is killing your crops and manifesting snakes in ur house, ur welcome back in the askbox anytime, i enjoy talking about this stuff <3 im not gonna put this under a cut bc tumblr is auto-shortening posts these days sorry to anyone who has that feature turned off lol

first if you want to you can read this and this. these are asks i got w/ similar questions which may help! the first one is me detailing the fic writing process from start to finish, including how i put all of my ideas in order once i have a basic idea of all the things i want to happen in a fic which is important if you’re just starting out. the second talks about solving plotholes, and how to get used to thinking of the plot of your story, and the events, and the mechanics of the world, as tiny moving pieces under your control instead of rigid obstacles to write around. i think that’s a big part of what makes plot Work instead of fight with you

ok, with that out of the way, here is the big question: what do you WANT from this fanfic? this one is easy enough, usually. we are writing fic for a reason! most fic is written by people who thought their idea was too good NOT to write or who couldn’t rest until they jotted it down or who wanted something very specific that canon and other fic wasn’t giving them. there is something you want to happen here. what is it? once you know your answer, think of it this way: your plot facilitates that desire.

here’s some examples (taken from my own fics, sorry, it’s just easier): 

in anchor, i wanted my teen wolf rarepair to spend lots of time alone together in order to develop a relationship that i felt had more potential, and i also wanted a continuation of teen wolf that didn’t write derek out at the end of season 4 - so i put those two on a road trip at the end of season 4 hunting down derek’s enemy, which gave me my continuation and the alone time and got to follow derek even after he was officially written out

in how arthur got his groove back, i wanted a fic that dealt with the fallout of the episode “the sins of the father” in which everything that happened was covered up and forgotten about, and i also wanted to write a fic with arthur who had magic - so i used a curse that gave everyone magic, but could only be broken by acknowledging the events of the episode instead of letting them stay a secret

in broken road, i wanted a more nuanced take on john’s relationship with his family instead of either apologism or character bashing, and for his return to have something to do with the michael plot of that season - so i had what was going on with michael be the mystery he attempted to solve once he got back, and (even let michael represent john and dean’s relationship in a way), but it left lots of time to have john talk with his family and have them talk with each other

...etc, etc. whatever you want to happen, your plot exists to serve that desire. if you want a reunion with tears and kissing in the rain then part of your plot is that your lovers get parted. if you want to write about a murder then a motive is part of your plot. if you want to write a wedding, then at some point someone fell in love (or didn’t?! gasp!). if you want to write about a long journey, part of your plot is where the characters are going and why. (whether or not these things happen “on screen” is of course up to you; sometimes it’s not necessary to write them.) of course, slice of life fics where nothing in particular happens and single-scene fics are also fine, but i get the feeling you wouldn’t be asking if that was what you’re writing lol

also, as you can see, sometimes you have more than one desire (all of the above examples of mine have two), and it is both satisfying and more efficient to combine them. especially with longfic, if you have multiple things going on in there it makes it feel like a fuller story/more realistic world. (plus sometimes you get unique combinations! not to sound terribly self-involved but i have to say i think my merlin fic was pretty unique in its premise, and i’m really pleased with how it came out.) for example, you could write about two lovers separated in a battle, character a dead and character b getting promised to the bad guy, and so character a goes on a long journey, only to find out when they arrive that character b has already murdered the bad guy, and they have a romantic reunion in the rain, now this big planned wedding can be for them instead. see what i mean? 

then you can have subplots. maybe character a’s parents died when they were a baby and they find out on their journey that bad guy was the one who killed them, or that their dad is still alive but has amnesia, or that their dead parents were secretly next in line for the throne, making character a the lost heir. maybe character b learns the bad guy killed character a’s parents and that’ve the motive for the murder. maybe character a travels with some characters who have their own problems that can be solved with this same journey, such as other people who fled the battle or people attending the upcoming wedding between character a and the bad guy. and there you go, i just outlined a 75k fic in a few sentences! obviously the more plots you have the harder it will be to juggle them (i use spreadsheets) but if you have a big blank “middle” section with nothing in it you can throw More Plot in there to pad it out

the point is, if you have even one tiny scene that you are holding in your mind, you can work outward from it. let’s take an example from earlier. if you want to write a reunion, that’s a plot point. two people get reunited. so, you then also need to know how our two lovers got split up. was there a battle and someone was presumed dead? bam, got a second plot point. now third plot point: how do they find each other again? even if it’s as simple as “they got in a car and drove there” that is a third plot point. before you know it you’ll be swimming in them, especially if you are balancing multiple plots/desires. if you have a friend or a beta reader i find talking it out with someone else is very helpful if you’re blanking. if you don’t, you can type into an empty document as though you’re writing into a chatroom or talk to a rubber duck and that might help too! 

remember also the action-reaction idea of events. like for example in broken road, where dean is caging an archangel inside of him, he can’t get too upset or that will weaken his self-control. so if his abusive father comes back from the dead and says too many upsetting things, the archangel could get out and hurt people. or in anchor, it’s hard for hunters to trust derek because they don’t like werewolves, so if he loses control of himself that could cause them to attack. or in how arthur got his groove back, uther hates and fears magic, so if he’s cursed with it he may get increasingly desperate to be free of magic and ultimately wind up hurting himself. 

(all of this is under your control btw! You Are God In This Universe. the second ask i linked to up top discusses how to keep these things in mind as moving parts that belong to you. and putting your plot IN ORDER after you know what all you want to happen is pretty important imo, so if you want to you can read the FIRST post i linked to at the top of this ask for that. sorry it’s so much extra lol <3)

another question you’ll probably need the answer to is: when/where are the starting and ending points of this fic? since you’re not writing these characters from birth to death, at some point you will hit a place where the story begins and another where the story ends. 

for beginnings: most people say it’s best to start as late as possible, but if there are things you just WANT to write you can since the writing “rules” around fanfic are basically nonexistent. you can begin wherever you like - if you wait until the fic is done or mostly done to post, you can always change it later.

endings: this is a little harder. you want to end after the majority of your plots have been “resolved,” but what that resolution is is very subjective and of course unique to every plotline. the same way you can start late, you can also end early, by hinting at the future or even leaving hooks for a sequel, but you don’t want to leave it so unresolved that it’s frustrating. it’s a fine line to walk and another good reason to get feedback from someone you trust to give it to you straight (but nicely) before you post.

a good rule of thumb to whether or not a plot has been “resolved” is to think of an individual plotline as a question. will the lovers be reunited? yes! resolved. “yes but only for a short time” is also an answer. “no” is an answer. “will these characters get married?” is a question, or even “will these characters figure out a way to AVOID getting married?” in my own fics some of the questions might be “does derek ever catch kate?” or “does arthur ever learn the truth about merlin?” or “does john ever find out that dean said yes to michael?” the question is what draws people in and makes them want to keep reading (to find out the answer, or to get a hint at the answer). it doesn’t have to be a yes or no question, by the way. it can be way more complex if you want, like, “why keep going when things seem hopeless?” or “why fall in love when you keep getting hurt?” or whatever. 

finally, i want to touch on there being two kind of scenes/storylines in most fics - the Action Plot that moves things along, like breaking a curse or hunting down a killer or banishing an archangel, and the Character Stuff where two people just kind of talk and their relationship develops and changes. obviously these two things will overlap from time to time, but sometimes the first kind of plot (action) is really just an excuse for the second kind (character) to happen. and the action plot is what can really trip up people who aren’t used to plotting. but to bring it full circle and go back to desires - what you want out of this fic - if the character plot is what you’re really wanting to write, then the action plot exists ONLY to serve it. especially for fanfic, where the readers also typically desire the character plot, if you just use the barebones of an action plot you’ll still do just fine. as with everything, it takes practice, and the more you do it, the less frustrating it will become. 

sorry that this is really rambly and unorganized! i hope at least a little of it is helpful to you. as i said if you have a more specific question re plotting (i probably can’t help with the actual plot itself) definitely come back if you want to. GOOD LUCK, i believe in you so much <3

[pawlikautomotive]

2005 Nissan Sentra, Fuel Injector Replacement Bernie Pawlik, Pawlik Automotive Vancouver, BC http://pawlikautomotive.com  (604) 327-7112

Mark: Hi, it’s Mark from Top Local, we’re here with Bernie Pawlik of Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver, serving Vancouver area motorists for 38 years fixing all makes and models of cars and trucks and 18 time winners of Best Auto Repair in Vancouver. How’re you doing Bernie?

Bernie: Doing very well.

Mark: So we’re going to talk about a 2005 Nissan Sentra that had a fuel injector replacement. What was going on with this car?

Bernie: This vehicle was towed to our shop with a no start condition. It would, the engine would crank over but it wouldn’t start and what we found in doing our diagnosis, we removed the ignition coils and spark plugs and often a no start will be an ignition issue of some sort. But what we found was actually several cylinders fuel of fuel and when you crank the engine over with the spark plugs out there would be fuel spraying out. So there was an extreme amount of fuel being leaked inside the engine.

Mark: So how can an injector leak fuel in to a cylinder like that?

Bernie: Well the injector is meant to only inject fuel, well there’s two things; there’s pressure which comes from the fuel pump so it’s under pressure and it’s only meant to inject fuel when it receives an electronic signal from the fuel injection computer. What was happening in the case of at least two of the injectors in this vehicle, they were worn out to the point where they were actually dripping a bit of fuel even with the lack of injector signal. Once you turn the key off that residual pressure is being leaked down in through the fuel injector into the cylinder.

Mark: So I’ll ask the obvious question, why wouldn’t the car start even with the fuel filling the cylinder like that?

Bernie: Yeah, it kind of makes sense. You’ve got your fuel. You need  air, you need fuel, and spark and so that was all happening. But when you’ve got too much fuel, the engine won’t start because it’ll actually drown out the spark. Once the piston comes up there’s so much liquid, it won’t allow a spark to occur. Air and fuel needs to be mixed at a certain ratio, usually about 14 to 1, air to fuel but when you have like a half a cylinder full, the ratio is a little out. And interestingly enough liquid gasoline actually doesn’t burn, it’s only the vapour so theoretically you could actually throw a match onto liquid gasoline and it won’t burn but it always vaporizes so that’s what catches fire. But gasoline is very volatile, it vaporizes extremely easily but not when you have too much.

Mark: How many injectors were bad?

Bernie: Well there were at least two but we could see drips on most of them so at this point I’ll share some photos. Here’s the top of our Sentra engine. So these are the cylinder holes with the ignition coils and spark plugs removed and here we actually have the injector rail out, you can actually see the fuel injectors and you can see a little, kind of hard to look, but you can see a little bit of moistness around the tips of these injectors. And really there should be none there, they should be dry unless you’ve actually, you know fired the engine. But there was leakage in at least two of these injectors. Lets go to our other photo here. Here’s another view of the top of the engine again looking down. I was kind of hoping to capture, because you can actually, if you point a flashlight down in the cylinder, you can actually see some of the liquid fuel. But the, anyways this is sort of a view of the top of the engine. This is the valve cover, spark plugs sit in the middle of the cylinder and then the fuel injector rail sits right over here. So that’s where the injectors are and the fire fuel into the intake manifold on this particular engine. It’s a port fuel injection system.

Mark: Were there any other components damaged from the leaking injectors?

Bernie: Well the spark plugs were. Yeah, now what happens when you have that much fuel, it ends up damaging the spark plugs. We replaced the spark plugs. That seemed to be the only issue that was visible and once we replaced the injectors and the spark plugs, the engine ran great and ran fine. But there are, you know leaving, having that much fuel running into an engine is actually, does actually create a problem. It washes down the cylinder walls of the oil that’s there that lubricates the cylinder walls because gasoline is not a great lubricant, so it can wash down and it can cause damage to the pistons, the piston rings and the cylinder wall.

Mark: So how would someone know if there was cylinder or piston ring damage?

Bernie: Well you would know, because like first of all the engine compression could be bad and you’d know because the engine would misfire and run rough. In the case of this engine, it wasn’t rough so I think the problem was caught pretty early. The other area of damage you could note, it’s more subtle and could take awhile is the engine would start burning oil and again that’d be another thing that you would notice over time. So if all of a sudden the engine is starting to burn oil, it may be that from this issue that the life span of this engine may be shortened, it’s hard to know. That’s something given over time. If it drives and it runs well, it doesn’t really use any oil, nothing really to worry about you just kind of let it go and see what happens.

Mark: So how often do you replace fuel injectors in gasoline engines?

Bernie: You know we don’t do them all that often. I’m thinking about like diesels, we tend to do them a lot more often but in a diesel the injector is so critical to the whole process of the combustion you  know, that any subtle thing could cause a problem. But gasoline injectors tend to last quite a long time and surprisingly it seems like Nissan has over the years replaced more fuel injectors in Nissan than any other brand. I’m not sure why that is. A lot of times with fuel injectors, they usually have one of two problems, well either one of a few problems, either they won’t work, they’l leak internally like these, or they’ll leak externally. So like an external leak, you’ll notice if you smell raw gasoline around the engine, you know sometimes you can see the actual body of the injector leaking. It seems like over the last 25 years a common issue with Nissan but we don’t do a lot of injectors. They’re fairly reliable.

Mark: And how are Nissan Sentra’s for reliability?

Bernie: Yeah, overall they’re pretty good cars. They’re sort of a lower end car but they’re reliable. If you’re looking for a good A to B kind of car that’s reliable and doesn’t have to many problems, I’d definitely recommend a Sentra. It’s a good vehicle.

Mark: So there you go. If you’re looking for a service for your Nissan Sentra or any Nissan product in Vancouver, the guys to see are Pawlik Automotive. You can reach them at 604-327-7112, they are busy so you have to book ahead, or call them, or check out their website at pawlikautomotive.com or on Youtube Pawlik Automotive, search for that. Hundreds of videos on there, all makes and models. Thanks Bernie

Bernie: Thanks Mark

https://www.youtube.com/user/pawlikautorepair https://plus.google.com/u/0/104437348234668995906/about

2005 Nissan Sentra, Fuel Injector Replacement 2005 Nissan Sentra, Fuel Injector Replacement