#but it's been put in a word doc along with another story I've been plotting out so Yay?

[nugromancer]

Do you think Qunari* have like. Dentistry for Horns. Like if a kid's horn starts growing in towards the head they make a corrective brace for it so it curves back out.

Do you think there's Qunari that do this but to change the shape of their horns for aesthetic or for more deadly horn usage. Not bc they're going around headbutting their enemies or each other (I think that'd be discouraged bc it's kind of stupid and close-range compared to swords/easy for them to get stuck, etc) but as a back-up weapon/defence sorta deal.

That said it'd probably make more sense for them to just cut it off and replace it kind of like how Taash has that crystal horn going on.

But I like the idea of Qunari manipulating their horns to be slimmer/wider/have a cool shape. I wonder how painful it'd be to carve designs into the horns.

*Qunari as in People With Horns including but no limited to: The Qun, Tal-Vashoth, and Vashoth.

[starlightkun]

genuine question, how do you write so fast? 😭 i feel like you’re so quick with your works, both writing and putting them out!!

also i found your tumblr on ao3 and i have to say that you are carrying nct fics on ao3. i hope you never stop writing cause i could be 40 and i would still read your stuff 🫶

i think a big thing has been getting out of my head abt writing! like i only write when i want to, i don't stick to word counts (minimums or maximums), and i dont compare myself to other writers (not that i read a whole lot of fic anymore, but there's a few that i still keep up with and one of them churns out fics way faster than i do, and another who posts like maybe two or three times a year but i still love them!) like i've def said this before, but for me, writing fic is fun, it's something i do bc i want to and if i open a word doc and i'm genuinely dreading it, i'm not gonna do it (my adhd brain simply will not make me lol--tho that is a double edged sword bc i do have to chase myself into doing something i like sometimes, but the ritalin has helped a lot xx)

i also dont go into my fics completely clueless anymore. like, i for sure don't know everything, i learn a lot along the way, and tend to change stuff (and get surprised by my own fics, which is always fun!), but i definitely have more of an outline and general sort of sketch of the fic in my brain and in my word doc before i start actually writing real scenes of any sort, which has definitely helped. like, starting with one little idea isn't bad at all (strawberry sunday literally just started w the fact that i liked the title of a song that i hadn't even heard yet and it turned into like 10 fics??), but i dont just start writing head empty anymore (i used to get a tiny spark of inspiration and try to write everything start to finish immediately because i thought i'd lose it if i didn't, and it'd burn really short. now i sort of just sit with it and slowly tend to it like fire instead and it lasts a lot longer and gets a lot bigger). i ruminate a lot before anything that looks remotely like a story leaves my ideas doc and gets its own doc

idk if this necessarily makes me write faster, but i also edit as i write? like, sometimes i open a fic and i don't have anything in me to write, but i'll reread what's in the draft so far and edit, make little changes, fix continuity errors, etc. not only does it keep the whole plot so far fresh in my mind as i continue writing, but then i have a lot less to proof myself when i finally finish the whole thing because i've already caught a lot of spelling, grammatical, and plot errors! i used to find editing a slog to do bc when i finished my first draft i would be so excited and wanted to just post it! and didn't want to reread all this stuff i just wrote several times to try to find typos, and now it's usually a breeze bc my first draft isn't really my first draft, it's been continually revised as it was drafted. and sometimes i open a doc, won't feel like writing, tinker around with some editing, then suddenly have a lightbulb moment while i'm editing and jump into writing

[mychemicalrachel]

Thanks so much @zephfair and @lizpaige for the tag! This was fun 😊

How many works do you have on ao3?

60 total. 18 as MyChemicalRachel, 31 under the pseud MonsieurBlueSky, and 11 posted anonymously 😎

What’s your total ao3 word count?

930,700. I'm sooooo close to a million!

What fandoms do you write for?

Right now just TRC/TDT, but I’ve dabbled in a lot over the years.

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Crossfire - Teen Wolf x Supernatural crossover where Stiles is Sam and Dean's cousin.

The Long Way Home - Sterek fic where Derek is a dilf.

Just A Spark - wherein Stiles is ace and a stork delivers a Sterek baby.

Fast Times At Clairemont High - yet another Sterek fic. Stiles goes undercover at the school where Derek is a teacher.

Magnetic - Pynch! And Rovinsky! And lots and lots of angst!

Do you respond to comments?

😬😬 Look. I try to. Most of the time I don't know what to say, but I love getting comments and I cherish them all!

What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Oof. I used to write a lot of angst. Probably Forever. It's a MCR/Frerard where Frank goes to an NA meeting and tells the story of how Gerard died.

What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I don’t know if I'd consider it the happiest ending because I write a lot of happy endings, but I think Magnetic has the most cathartic ending. It's a big ball of angst so the happy ending has a bigger payoff.

Do you get hate on fics?

Oh yeah, for sure. Not so much now that I've made my fics private, but it happens 🤷‍♀️

Do you write smut?

Yes 😌

Do you write crossovers?

Yeah! I love crossovers! It's fun to take characters I love from separate fandoms and put them in situations together.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I'm sure they didn't consider it stealing, but yes. I found out that someone was translating a bunch of my WIPs and reposting to a different site without my permission. I love translations, don’t get me wrong, but I like to keep track of where my fics are posted and who is posting them.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yep! I've got some Teen Wolf fics in Russian, French, and Spanish. There's a Portuguese translation of Magnetic. And a bunch of my old MCR fics have been translated to Russian.

Have you ever co written a fic?

I.... do not play well with others. That said, yes. I co-wrote a MCR fic years ago and it was a bad experience because we were making up the plot as we went along and the other writer was more invested than I was since I was drifting away from that fandom, I lost interest halfway through and just wanted it to be over. And I'm currently working on a pynch fic with @iammistressofmyfate which is already a better experience than the last time 😘 I like collaborating and sharing ideas so I wouldn’t be opposed to co-writing again in the future, I think it would just have to be the right person and the right idea!

What’s your all time favorite ship?

I mean, right now I would have to say Pynch. They've got a great dynamic that I keep finding myself drawn back to.

What’s a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

It pains me to say.... the Pynch track AU. It was a meet cute friends to lovers AU where Adam is on the track team. I just sigh every time I open the word doc so I don’t know if I'll ever get around to turning my outline into an actual fic 😮‍💨

What are your writing strengths?

Characters. I have a knack for making even the worst characters likable and I'm good at making them complex.

What are your writing weaknesses?

Action. I'm so bad at writing action scenes where so much is happening at once and there's a lot of movement.

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I usually don't just because I'm afraid I'll butcher it.

First fandom you wrote for?

Asking Alexandria 🤘🤘

Favourite fic you’ve ever written?

That's a hard one. I haven’t even posted all of it, but probably Love & Lace. I was able to incorporate humor and feelings and character growth along with some top tier smut and I'm really proud of it 🥰

Ahhh I never know who to tag on these things so @singersargentboi @uncannycerulean @deerna @beautifulcheat I haven't seen any of you do this yet! 💕

[derseprinceoftbd]

An explainer for Homestuck, typed up on a Google doc for Reddit, and now transplanted onto Tumblr, with the hope of crossposting it onto Reddit. Most explainers I've seen utterly fail to get the tone of the series across, thus not answering the main question I see: "what is Homestuck *and why is it like this*". Why does it evoke the reactions it does? Why are so many things considered a reference? Who is Vriska? (I can't actually explain that one in under 3000 words, it turns out.) But, here's a briefer briefer (heh) on the subject of "What the actual fuck is Homestuck":

#Homestuck, A History;

Andrew Hussie, a person (now going by any pronouns) then known for various obscure things around the net, made an interactive reader-driven comic-type-thing called Jailbreak where he would draw panels demonstrating the events of the story as dictated by other posters in the thread, putting his favoured suggestions in the narration and responding in kind. The happenings and variables were influenced by his own strange brand of humor and set of fascinations, such as rap, the Starsky and Hutch movie and the cast thereof, horses, clowns, and H!rry P!tter as a cultural presence. He would eventually compile this, along with the unfinished followup, Bard Quest, on its own website.

The third installment of the so-called MS Paint Adventures, Problem Sleuth, was a massive step up in production value, featuring impressive art and output speed as well as evolutions such as some pages being flashing gifs. This sort of thing was considered to be one of the best demonstrations of the potential of the internet. It ran for 1674 pages over the course of about a year.

Homestuck was the followup to that, running 8123 pages from April 13th 2009-2016 with numerous hiatuses in the latter half of that time. It featured such advancements as colored panels as default, videos with sound, small WASD-controlled computer games on various pages, and most importantly, actual conversations between characters, allowing them to become three-dimensional and truly sympathetic. (Hussie, it would soon be revealed, was heavily skilled at writing compelling and unique character voices and dialogue writing in general.)

Homestuck was definitely the most complex MPSA, with a grand overarching plot being integrated into the results of the actions of the readers. The plot revolved around an in-universe game called SBURB with the power to influence reality, sort of a Jumanji with time-travel mechanics that would soon be revealed to be the centerpiece of reality itself, a program that destroys the home planets of its players to motivate them to enter the world of the game and fulfill an unknown grand purpose, complete with millions of fully sentient NPCs. 

Homestuck has been described as "a story that's also a puzzle", and this lens has gained authorial approval. This is the sort of story where the Author appears as a character to explain things to the audience, another character ends up changing the color of the site to his own scheme and narrating in his own voice, and the Author bursts through a literal fourth wall into the world of the story, hunts him down, and beats him with a broom. This is the sort of story where one specific person has killed another three times across multiple iterations of both themselves and the universe, and three of the killee are alive at the end, despite all of them being versions that were killed by the killer, who himself has one alive at the end, and both of those people have four-letter names, the first two letters of which are the same.

Eventually the suggestions from readers became so numerous and difficult that the suggestion boxes were closed near the end of the first year, but their influence carried on; one easy example is a character only seen from the top half initially being theorized on the official forums as using a wheelchair, a fact which would not only become Canon, but highly relevant.

The early MSPAs curated an audience through programming humor and 80s-90s film references as filtered through the styles of Terry Pratchett, Mark Twain, and the Something Awful forums, but the audience for Homestuck, due to the nature of the characters, was markedly different, especially after the Trolls showed up.

You've probably seen them.

The Trolls, initially presented as some extremely odd and bothersome fellows on the internet, were soon shown to be a race of grey-skinned, orange-horned aliens that had undergone a SBURB Session that they claimed had been influenced by the lead human characters. Trolls possessed multicolored blood in both organized castes and clear deviations, psychic abilities, unique typing styles, insectoid traits as opposed to hominid, near-universal bisexuality with the sole known exception being Sapphic, and a complex romantic system with its own symbols, comically vague-yet-comprehensive reproductive system, and of course, relationship dynamics.

I cannot express how perfect the Trolls were in terms of catching on. Tumblr loved these fuckers and it's not at all hard to see why.

It's also worth noting that this wasn't the only market-perfect part of Homestuck; Classpecting, the equivalent of Hogwarts Houses, featured a 144/168/288/336/384(depending on who you ask and what they count, I've always thought 192)-strong grid system of human personality traits that not only seemed eerily accurate as a personality mapper, but corresponded to what elemental powers one received in the game of SBURB.

So... yeah. Homestuck was an incredibly complex and engaging work in both plot and presentation, driven by a single incredibly talented and flawed creative voice above all, and which was perfectly made to attract a massive, unabashedly bizarre/proudly cringe, and notably largely queer fanbase across a younger internet. The style of presentation, art, and character writing was instantly recognizable and relatively easy to imitate, leading to fanfiction and even fanmade adventures galore, most of the latter hosted on MSPFA.com.

The main site for Homestuck is broken now-it's recommended that new readers download the [Unofficial Homestuck Collection](https://bambosh.dev/unofficial-homestuck-collection/), and starting with Problem Sleuth to ease into the format and writing is a pretty popular choice. The ending is also considered generally quite poor in a number of ways, particularly regarding unfollowed forshadowing and blatant abandonment of character arcs, with some fans even [making](https://friendlybatteringram.tumblr.com/tagged/altstuck) their own [works](https://mspfa.com/?s=44153&p=1) as [substitutions](http://mspfa.com/?s=12003&p=1). Few speak of the epilogues. Fewer still speak of the sequel.

Content warnings for Homestuck include: blood, clowns, dicks-out furry art in the background of like ten pages, brief black-and-white nudity, swearing, the R-slur, a joke about an acronym organically forming the F-slur, child abuse, discussed child abuse and homophobia, mocking of the disabled (as an unsympathetic action), cartoonish levels of sexism (as an unsympathetic action), mocking of otherkin, minor characters being racial stereotypes of Black (Meenah) and Japanese (Damara) people, minor characters being stereotypes of disabled people (Meulin and Mituna), a controversial and prominent depiction of blindness, underage alcoholism, written depections of noncon (as an unsympathetic action), jokes about pedophilia, and child grooming (textually 100% non-sexual, but sexually-coded). 

Also: when I said the Trolls type weird, I wasn't kidding. Every character gets at least one color for their speech text, plus a pattern for how they type, generally worse for the Trolls, ranging from "no caps" to "British" to "drunk" to "ebonics" to "aLtErNaTiNg" to WH4T3V3R TH3 FUCK K1ND OF L33TSP34K BS T3R3Z1 1S DO1NG. So that's worth a warning.

And that's as abridged as you can get when summing up Homestuck.

[give-soup-please]

hi! I was wondering if you had any writing advice? Im currently collecting it to find something that works for me and im just wondering about other peoples processes when it comes to plotting out a story.

(i'm not sure, but this may be the first time someone on anon has asked me for writing advice. i feel like this is a milestone dslfkjdslkf)

so! i am very much a 'write by the seat of your pants' style kind of guy. i don't do big outlines, i don't do summaries to keep track. but, there are a few things i do which help me stay focused. and there are a few things i do to help the creative process in general.

and this got long, so it's going under a cut lol

first things first, when i get to the end of a writing session (which for me lasts between 30 minutes to 3 hours, depending on how much the hyperfixation has a choke hold) i make sure i know where i'm headed next, by putting the next plot point into a bracket. i'm never very specific until the words for the first draft are actually typed out, but just the next broad idea that i want to bounce off of. here are a few from my older GO fic, 'bookstores, bentleys, and everything between'

this is what an average thing looks like, though i have been known to get very shitposty with them as well. the shitposting type happens when i have been writing for far too long, and am in desperate need of a break.

if no one else is going to see these, then have fun with them.

here's another, longer version with details.

i'm glad i do stuff like this when i reach a stopping point, because i've lost so many good ideas over the years assuming i'd remember where i was going when i get back to the doc. and i never do.

the other main bit of advice i have for story construction might be a bit controversial. i call it, 'chase the fun'.

very simple. very complex. it's both. it's a thing.

basically! i don't write in chronological order if there's something exciting too far away. i despise moments where i think to myself, 'oh, there's going to be a kickass moment in chapter 12 where there's going to be this cool action scene, but i'm only two chapters in. i guess i'll have to write all that other stuff before i get to the cool scene :('

don't do that shit! it'll eat at you, and you'll find yourself losing enthusiasm and getting frustrated with your project. i dislike writing in chronological order of a story because it's extremely limited. so!

chase the fun!

write the cool scenes, the action scenes, the self indulgent stuff. get it out of your system, and then after you've written the stuff that surrounds it, stitch it all together during the editing process. not only does it feel great to write all the cool things, you can often get inspired with new ways of going, 'how do we get here'? when you head back in. and you can add ass kicking foreshadowing and all that groovy stuff people like. stitching together everything and making the timeline correct during the editing process is mildly irritating, but i'd rather do that than plod along, desperately wanting to get to the coolest parts. go with the flow, let the inspiration take you where it takes you. don't hold off on it because you want to write everything in order the first time around.

'writing by the seat of your pants' also allows for 'idea stacking', which can be an important part of the process for more complex works. take, for example, my latest GO fic. i'll be brief and avoid spoilers, but i think it gives you a pretty good idea of how i plot my stuff out.

concept: i would like crowley and aziraphale to be my godfathers, so i can have some found family/comfort vibes. but we need a few roadblocks in the way, so it can be on the slower side, and not rushed. what can i do with my character that will add difficulties to their relationships?

idea stack 1: maybe he had a godfather before they came along, but he's missing.

sub idea 1: that would be a great source of angst for my character, actually. imagine not being able to find someone you love. loads of grief, there, and uncertainty.

idea stack 2: well, if my godfather is going to be a counterpart to aziraphale and crowley, maybe he should have powers too!

sub idea 2: my IRL godfather who i am referencing in the story practices magic. let's throw that in there, but make him much more powerful.

idea stack 3: how would aziraphale and crowley know that my fictional godfather can do powerful magic? well- maybe he left something that jay has. a necklace, perhaps. and it's very enchanted.

sub idea 3: of course, now we have to work out how my godfather knew how to enchant necklaces, and why he has special powers. and if he has special powers, where the heck is he now?

idea stack 4: so! new plot thread unlocked. my character's godfather has vanished without a trace, leaving behind a powerfully enchanted necklace. aziraphale and crowley are trying to work out whether or not they should be concerned about this, and what heaven or hell is doing interfering with this character's life to such a major extent. mystery abounds!

sub idea 4: so, is my fictional godfather of heaven or hell? he must be high ranking if he can enchant a necklace to such a crazy extent. i'll do research into angelic and demonic hierarchy, and make a few decisions on where everyone is placed.

idea stack 5: (REDACTED BECAUSE OF SPOILERS)

and so on. this is one grouping of ideas that spitballed because i thought about the implications of the previous idea. if you do this a few times in the right places, you've got yourself a nuanced and complex story. keep in mind, all this above developed over the course of a few weeks, and wasn't all immediate. still fun though. ideas shouldn't be isolated, i think they should connect to other story elements.

hope this helps!

[signalhill-if]

Btw I'm sorry that thing I tried to do yesterday didn't work out, after the technical difficulties I got kind of exhausted about the whole thing and there wasn't really enough interest to justify to myself to keep going. I took down the things I did put up kind of on a whim because it felt weird to leave it up without knowing if I was going to continue. In retrospect maybe I should have just left them and then continued the next day or whatever, but y'know. It is what it is. I may put something like that back up soon, just not right this instant.

Woe, discussion of creative endeavours and audience interaction lie below. Turn back, all ye who do not want to read my thoughts about insecurities with sharing stories.

I think to be honest I was a little disheartened by the results of that poll, because if there's anything I don't want Signal Hill to be it's the kind of game where you play along with a story you don't really care about so you can obtain romance scenes with a generic tropey love interest? Not that that's a bad way for a story to be if that's what the author wants it to be, but I know there are a lot of authors who have their work treated like that when it's not intended to be that, and it's obviously kind of hurtful. That's part of why I've resisted having any kind of romantic relationships in my games, and why I want to stress over and over that the relationships in Signal Hill are not going to be "traditional" or particularly tropey in any way.

It's not that I'm not happy to have people be interested in my characters, and of course I'm well aware that the light-skinned skinny gender conforming male character is going to wind up being the most popular in an IF (though I am not remotely happy about that fact, but that's another discussion entirely), but more that I'm just a little overwhelmed by the disparity. Obviously I love all of these characters, but Doc just isn't very important to the main plot? So the sheer difference between him and all of the characters you're expected to spend most of your time with just makes me feel weird. Have I not done a good job of "promoting" the other characters? Have I not made their stories sound interesting enough? That's something I've historically struggled with a good deal. I have to hope that folks will still be interested in pursuing the story even if they aren't interested in playing out a romantic scene with the characters they're siding with.

The thing I'm trying not to do is change the story because of outside influence like this. I don't want to make any characters more or less important because they're more or less well liked, and I don't want to change them to pander to an audience who otherwise wouldn't be interested. That also means not changing characters like Doc or the plans I have for him out of concern that some people are going to treat the actual game as secondary. Just like I don't want to pander to an audience that wouldn't otherwise be interested, I can't go around changing things out of a reactive fear that I'm unintentionally pandering to those people.

It's difficult, though, because from a practical perspective, does that mean the time I spend writing a scene with Doc in it is inherently more valuable than the time spent writing a scene with KC in it? Is there a point where few enough players will be playing those scenes that it becomes wasted time to write them? When I write variations into those scenes, how likely is it that nobody's ever going to read that string of 200 words? I'm not sure, but it is something I think about, especially when cutting down on wasted work in gave development is something I'm actively learning about in college.

Sorry, wow, this has been longer than I expected! I'm going to try to do a good amount of writing tonight and just focus on making progress. I'm trying to avoid feature creep, but I've just come up with a fun little collectible mission that I couldn't not add, and I need to do a little bit of coding to finish it up. Thank you for putting up with my rambling, if you've read this far.

[chaoswillfallrpg]

Some constructive criticism: I've noticed that this group hosts a lot of events and while they're interesting I feel as though it's overwhelming to keep up with in terms of what is going on within the group because not a single storyline has had any kind of conclusion. I understand this could be due to building something up behind the scenes, but I fear that it might overcomplicate things for both members and those wishing to join. As would having over 200+ character biographies. It would be impossible to read through all of them and be expected to gauge what's currently going on.

Hi anon. So before we get into this, we just want to preface that words have power. Please really think before sending things like this into the main. This group is a real labor of love and there is alot that happens behind the scenes that members are not aware of. From our mod meetings with one another, to our google doc to do list, the excel mastersheet, the biographies and planning to make the group as best and as fun as we can; while constructive criticism is welcomed please think before sending things like this off anon into the main. Because especially when phrased like this, it make us feel not valued or appreciated. We three put alot of love and hard work into this group so consider that before sending things like this into us.

Chaos Will Fall, is a very plot driven group and we have showed no sign of hiding that. Literacy heavy, plot heavy with interlinking storylines that deal with dark themes; when joining a space it is important to consider and question if this is for you. We are one of very many marauders roleplays on tumblr, so if you would prefer a smaller group with less characters following a simpler plot; then they do exist and from looking in the tags there are seemingly some amazing ones currently accepting members.

The story lines to date have been Booker’s death with Silas Crump on the run, Rosalie being killed by Harrison under the imperious curse, and recently with our march event of Benjy being attacked by Regina and the prophecy. Without a Benjy, Harrison and Silas taken developing those stories lines, things take longer because no one is here playing them. All three’s biographies have been updated for anyone new coming in who is interested in taking them. The Daily prophet concludes on every event so it is easy to follow along and read through everything within that blog, as well as having plot drops if anyone wanted finer details, but realistically you wouldn’t need to know anything beyond the Daily Prophet. As well as this, characters coming in are more than welcome to say that they were not at each previous event so there is no need for incoming members to know specifics about it. The Daily prophet is there as an aid for anyone questioning whats happening and the mods are always here to answer questions both on discord in DM’s where we can explain things more in depth and also on messager here. Every storyline will be wrapped up and the mods have plans for every single one. Silas is on the run still which is ongoing and is currently being investigated by head Auror Alastor Moody aswell as Amelia Bones who is representing the Ministry; this is a set task to finish and wrap up that story line. Rosalie’s story line is concluded, wrapped up and in play in character. Benjy was attacked less than two weeks ago ooc which we are in the after affects of now and is being investigated by the aurors and is the care of St. Mungos. The Prophecy is in the hands of the order and tasks revolving around that will be coming into play next week for the stories to start playing out. So everything is in fact in motion and in the process of being wrapped up or in the case of Benjy + the Prophecy, just happened. Everything has a knock on effect like in any plot and any war. But the group is very much character and mun driven. So while we as mods do our best to develop the story line, we can only do so as far as characters and muns are willing to get involved. The more active and involved members are the faster things progress.

Events are typically happening every two months here and we have only had 3 events in total so far having been open for 7 months in total, with our next event happening next month running into July. Every event is concluded on the Daily, so again you won’t need to go far from that page to grasp what is happening. However we are also amid working on a ‘plot so far’ page which breaks the last 7 months into simple bullet points for those coming in to read.

As for the biographies, we are by no means expecting every person or member to read every bio. That is never something we asked of people to do, nor is it expected. We’re working in batches of 40 characters and are currently on batch 3 so it will be some time before we get into the 200+ characters when we haven’t even reached a 100 yet. Alot of our members get excited everytime we drop a bio and we get alot of messages about when different characters are coming as the universe is so large and there is such a big range. If you’re looking for a group with a smaller set of characters, or a specific character limit for bios, then those rpgs are around in the tags if that’s a setting you’d prefer.

Again, while we appreciate the thoughts, we’re human. Please consider this when making comments regarding this in the future or if you’re coming in with criticisms, then please ensure they are too constructive and offer how you think things can be changed for the better to be more constructive in these discussions rather than what feels like bashing the team/workings of the group which is not appreciated. - The mods x

[zombolouge]

Ah you are too kind!

(cont) Maybe it's because I'm only at the beginning and I take things reeeally slowly, but still, it'd be nice to be able to fix this. One huge question though: how do you write from a child's perspective? For example, in the story I'm writing, Link is 10 in the first few chapters. I'm having trouble with conveying his thoughts across, since they either sound too mature or too childish. I keep saying 'his mother' whenever she does appear, and after a while it gets repetitive - but I don't think I'd use her name since Link wouldn't call her that. So how to go about writing from a third person child perspective? Thank you so much for your tips!

Ah, yes! I went through this same thing when I started writing again myself. I wrote a LOT when I was younger, then stopped for about 9 years before I came back to it. (I started writing again in 2014, seriously about a month later). Then it was like picking up a rusty bike and trying to make the wheels go. There are several things I wrote that will never see the light of day because they were terrible. But that’s all part of the process! So don’t feel bad if it all feels like a disaster at first, because it gets better. In the beginning, your main concern is to just try and write as much as possible, and to finish things. Once you get that down, you can start making things better through editing and more critical thinking. ^_^

Okay, so I can certainly share what helps when I write longer fics, though this process doesn’t always work for others. When I wrote Tearing Down the Heavens, it started as a mish-mash of scenes that I had half-written that I was stringing together. I think by like chapter ten I had already gotten overwhelmed trying to do that, and I opened a word doc and just made a list of the “important plot moments”. Over time this grew into a true, blue outline. 

I don’t think I could write such longform fic without the use of an outline. Some writers can, and some writers even find that an outline completely ruins their creativity, but for me it’s a necessity. Sometimes my outline is incredibly detailed, including lines of dialogue or descriptions or notes about backstory and themes. Other times it’s not more than a line or two about a scene. For instance, the first chapter of A Hundred Years in the Making has a very detailed outline, where I wrote out almost all the dialogue between the King and Vallus. I ended up changing it as I wrote the scene around it, to make it flow better, but the base was there. In contrast, my notes for the portion where Link is traveling to the castle were vague (I actually only put “Write shit about Link’s feelings while he’s on the horse”, which is not particularly helpful notes to myself, but there you have it). I also don’t tend to flesh out the outline all at once. For instance, I may know that I want a certain thing to happen, but I don’t know how I want it to play out or any other details. So I’ll make a note in the outline that says something like “Character tries to leave, gets caught by other character” or something. Then, as the earlier chapters get written, I may add more context, so I could end up with something like this (I’ll use some of the older outlines for Facing Down the Void for this example):

“Autumn wakes up in a panic, convinced something is wrong. 

- Solas is trying to leave, she races through the cold night air to find him and confronts him. He is hurt, miserable to be back around her and torn about what he must do, so he is cold to her. His attitude breaks through her calm, and she starts to cry as she yells at him, demanding to know why he’s leaving again. She doesn’t understand, he doesn’t want her to, but the sound of her voice breaks his heart. He turns and makes his confession, kissing her even though he knows its the worst thing that he could do. She is stunned, and finally lets him go as she processes thing.”

That eventually turned into a pretty complex scene that I wrote very early on and edited several times before it was published.

The reason why I find outlines necessary is that I have trouble writing something if I don’t know where it’s going. I need to have at least a general idea of what I’m building to, or it takes me about 8 times longer to write a chapter. It helps me do proper foreshadowing, and it helps me understand character motivations and growth arcs better. For instance, in As Bright as the Stars, I knew that Saeyoung was going to lie to try and hurt Nicky from the get-go. I had been setting that betrayal up from the start of chapter one. If that moment had been a surprise, however, if I hadn’t planned it, then it wouldn’t have the proper groundwork laid before it. Twists and turns in the plot are what make a story gripping, BUT, they can’t come from nowhere. Your reader should look at surprises and say “I did not see that coming, but I should have”, not feel like it came completely out of left field. You should be able to point to your previous chapters and say “see, there is the proof that this could happen”. Otherwise the shock is cheap, and people tend to lose interest. 

Outline will help you map out events, get foreshadowing in place (important for pretty much all types of stories, including things like slow burns), and understand the characters better. Because when you outline, you are forced to think “what would this character do in this situation”, which then makes you think about the character and think about how they react to things and how they think. Although your story is still going to throw you curve balls, and you shouldn’t be afraid to change an outline when needed. In As Bright as the Stars, I didn’t realize that Vanderwood was going to be such a huge part of it at first until I wrote her first chapter and realized “oh shit I have feelings about this character that need to be told”. I then paused writing the story and worked on my outline to expand it to include this new revelation. So things will still happen that weren’t planned, but at least you have good starting points to handle them better. 

I’ll be honest, though, part of my process is pretty much nonstop consideration. If I am not actively writing, I am usually thinking about writing, or thinking about characters, or word choice, or themes. I’ve written entire scenes in my head on my morning commute and then hurriedly outlined them once I arrived at work. I’ve spent actual hours thinking about something a character did and trying to figure out WHY they did it, to understand that character. So don’t feel bad if a good chunk of your “writing time” is just sitting around and thinking about it, because you have to work those things out at some point before the words will start to come. 

Flow!! Okay, so one of the best things for flow is reading it out loud. You will, in fact, feel like a moron reading your own work out loud to yourself, especially at first. But hearing the words spoken into your ears will trigger different processes in your brain than just reading them. This can often highlight points where there are problems, or where the word order doesn’t work. This goes double for actual dialogue, which should be read out loud until you feel like you have become the characters. If a scene feels weird, it’s usually because your making a character say or do something that doesn’t feel like something they should say or do, which will throw everything off. 

Another thing that I find helpful for both flow in general and dialogue is to map out a scene in very specific, very bland details. (ESPECIALLY FOR ACTION OR SMUT, THIS MAKES THOSE SCENES SO MUCH EASIER). So I would open up my outline, or an empty doc, and write something like this:

“Character A (Jeffrey) opens the door. 

Sees Character B (Heather) arranging matches. 

Jeffrey: Oh, I’m sorry. I wasn’t aware...(pauses, curious) What are you doing?

Heather glares. “I’m arranging matches.”

Jeffrey: “Oh.” (pause) “Why?”

Heather (upset): Because it’s what Sebastian would have wanted!”

Jeffrey closes the door slowly.”

I can then look at that outline and turn it into a scene because I have enough notes to go off of, and I know what’s supposed to be happening at any given time, so it lets me focus more on the descriptions rather than the ideas. I wrote up a quick example scene based on that outline (it is rushed, so forgive me if it isn’t a masterpiece XD)

“Jeffrey placed his hand on the cold door handle, already feeling the weight of the other room bearing down on his shoulders before he had even turned the brass. The house was quiet, and the room was quiet, but he was certain that there was unhappiness beyond the threshold. Still, it was a door, and what purpose would doors have were they not meant to be opened? He twisted his palm, pulling the knob along with it, and pushed the wooden boards forward to reveal the room beyond. 

He was surprised to see Heather within, standing in front of a table with one hand on her half-cocked hips. She didn’t look up as he blinked at her, taking in the silent scene with all the dignity that he could muster in such a situation. The house was silent, so he had presumed that it was empty. His error had been the source of his ominous premonitions, knowing that the room had held misery without knowing why. Heather’s presence had that effect on them all lately. 

He cleared his throat, wishing that he could be a thousand miles away from this position at precisely this moment. “Oh, I’m sorry. I wasn’t aware...” his words trailed off, flat and lame in the deadened air as she shifted, moving just enough so that he could see the stack of matches on the table before her. She lifted one in her long fingers, the tip of the match the same ruby color that was smeared across her fingernails. She held it aloft, inspecting it for something, judging its character like a redheaded soldier that had been stripped and homogenized before being shipped off to war. She then took it and placed it atop a second stack of matches, piled in a tower that shuddered with the weight of the new addition. “What are you doing?”

She narrowed her eyes into a sullen glare as she looked at him, clicking her tongue before offering the obvious. “I’m arranging matches.”

“Oh.” he nodded, a compulsory action, as though this made perfect sense. He should have left it, should have mumbled some apology and retreated from the room, but his damnable sense of curiosity burned too brightly in the back of his throat to clamp down on the question before it came tumbling out. “Why?”

She rounded on him, her hands clamping into furious fists that stuck to her sides, the matches in the tower tumbling across the table in careless disarray. “Because it’s what Sebastian would have wanted!” Her voice wavered between madness and grief, and he winced at the force of it, seeing the tears that he had unleashed. It was too much, too great a burden to bear in this moment, on this day. He felt sorry for her, sorry enough to furrow his brow in a voiceless apology that would do less to disturb the fraught air than words would. He felt sorry, but not sorry enough to reach an olive branch across the divide between them. Instead he backed out of the room, shutting the door with the slow deliberation of someone who knows he could have been a better person if he had just left it open. Her cries of frustration followed him out, and he knew that he was a terrible man.”

I think I spent about ten minutes on that little scene, and that was mostly because I had the blueprint of that outline to go off of. I knew what the characters were doing, and I had notes about when it was important for them to feel a certain way, so it was easy to create a bunch of flowery prose around it (well, not EASY, but certainly easier than if I had just tried to plop it out onto the page from nothing). Now, I usually write out all my dialogue in this manner before writing the full scene, ESPECIALLY important dialogue or dialogue involving more than 2 characters. Just write it out like a script, with the name of the character followed by what they said, and that’s it. Maybe a note or two of what they did or how they said it, but only if it’s really important. What this does is let you focus on what they’re saying and if it fits their character, without getting bogged down in irrelevant descriptions or worrying if you’ve used the word “said” too many times. It also makes it easier to read out loud to yourself to check how it sounds. The dialogue should always be able to flow and sound good on its own, with the rest of the text removed. If it doesn’t, then there’s a disconnect in the way they are speaking that will interrupt the flow of the whole scene. 

Okay, now on to your more specific question. Writing children! 

So one important thing to remember is that children are not stupid, nor do they think in baby talk (or talk that way). They also don’t tend to think of themselves as juvenile, because in their minds they already know enough to be basically an adult. This is especially true for a 10 year old, who usually wants to be out in the world experiencing things on their own, unless they’ve experienced something in their past that would dictate otherwise. They think they know everything, and that parents are just being dumb when they restrict them or make them follow rules. 

One thing about writing children is that they tend to be a bit more literal than adults. You won’t get a kid saying a lot of cutesy babytalk, but you will get them being point blank enough that it can be adorable or comical. It is also important, when writing a POV from a child’s perspective, that they will be lacking certain knowledge or ways of expressing things, but they won’t know that. So, for instance, if I were to write the scene of Link from Ocarina of time seeing Ganon taking off with Princess Zelda (just before she throws the Ocarina), I might try something like:

“He saw the horse thundering across the bridge, massive and domineering. He couldn’t quite see who was riding it, but he felt a sickening feeling in his stomach all the same. Anyone who rode a horse that mean couldn’t have been a good person. 

His fear was confirmed when the rider yanked the reins of the beast, causing it to rear up above Link’s head. He felt like an ant, hapless and waiting to be crushed under the foot of something dark and nameless. The horse returned to all fours, flaring its nostrils, and Link could see that man - Ganondorf - was astride the saddle, Zelda clutched in his metal-clad arms. The Gerudo smirked, and it made the feeling in Link’s stomach coil and writhe like a snake. A furious snake that was trying to flee from the scene, trying to force the person around it to move away, but Link stayed rooted to the spot, his feet as still as tree trunks. He could have gone his whole life without seeing something so evil as Ganondorf smiling, the glint in his eyes like poe-fire. It made him feel small and insignificant, a spec of dust in a whirlpool. It made him feel sick, and if he had been able to move he might have turned and wretched into the grass beneath his boots.

Ganondorf dug his heels into the horse’s ribs, and then everything happened in a flash. The horse surged forward, straight towards where Link was standing, and he had to leap out of the way to avoid being trampled. He felt something big and heavy bump into him as he was in the air, and the breath disappeared out of his lungs with a short wheeze. He hit the ground, and he thought he heard someone yell his name as he blinked, trying to clear the daze. Everything felt fuzzy, like reality had become a vague humming sound in his ears and nothing more. The sound of hoof beats turned from thunder to drums, and then faded slowly as the horse galloped away. Link tried to breathe, unable to keep himself from trembling as he did so.

Zelda had been right. That man was a terrible man.”

So, in this little snippet, I tried to keep things more simplistic than I normally would have. I avoid phrases that are overly flowery, and get to the point a bit quicker. I also avoid saying “Link was terrified”, because a 10 year old might not have the experience to know what terror feels like. They also may not want to ADMIT they are scared, especially not in the moment when adrenaline is high. Instead, I went for describing what he feels, so that the reader gets the idea. Additionally, when he gets hit, I made it more vague. If Link were an adult, I would have changed “He felt something big and heavy bump into him as he was in the air, and the breath disappeared out of his lungs with a short wheeze. He hit the ground, and he thought he heard someone yell his name as he blinked, trying to clear the daze. Everything felt fuzzy, like reality had become a vague humming sound in his ears and nothing more.“ to “He felt a blunt object slam into his side, just below his ribs, driving the breath out out of his lungs on impact. Shock rolled through him as his dodge carried him into the ground, the princess yelling his name as the horse retreated. He was dazed from the blow, and as he floundered on the ground he tried to shake away the humming buzz that was affecting the clarity of the world around him.” The difference here is that Link would have known he was hit by something, and where, and he would have had the words and understanding to know that he was in shock from the blow, and been able to take better effort to try and restore himself. 

Okay, so on to your final question, about what Link calls his mother...you’ll want to avoid using all forms of the name, because that would sound weird. If you feel like he would call her “mother”, than you should stick to that. If you feel like it’s getting repetitive, you can try changing up sentence structure to add variety, but be careful you don’t do it too much. Depending on the scene, you may not need to continue listing her, and just revert to “she”. 

For example: 

“Link’s mother smiled, as warm as the sun above them. “Come, sit with me.” she pat the grass beside her, and he ambled up the hill to join her. She was still smiling, and he tried not to look sullen. He must have failed, because she folded her hands in her lap, giving him a knowing look. “You’ve been bickering with your father again, haven’t you?”

“No.” he sounded like a spoiled brat even to himself, and rolled his eyes as he gave into her ability to know everything he was thinking before he had to say a word. “He’s just...he’s so...”

“Stubborn?” She quirked her eyebrow skyward, and he laughed and nodded, feeling the anger in his chest dissipate as she brushed his hair off of his brow. “He can certainly be...firm. You know that he means well, don’t you?”

So, in that, I only had to mention “mother” once, but you still knew exactly who I was talking about (I think, at least lol). There are also other ways to indicate things, but you definitely want to avoid things like switching from “mom” to “mommy” to “mother”. In this instance, “Mother” is the stand-in for her name, so you would treat it as such. You ALSO wouldn’t switch to her actual name if you’re in Link’s POV, because he wouldn’t think of her that way.

Oh boy, I rambled for waaaaay too long. Hopefully this helped??? Haha, I am very sorry that this is so terribly verbose, I got carried away. 

If you have follow-up questions, feel free to let me know. And if anybody else has different questions, you can also feel free to let me know. ^_^ And of course, this is not a hard-and-fast rulebook. These are just the things that work for ME, which may not be helpful to anyone else. Everyone’s process is different, so don’t feel too frustrated if you try this stuff out and it is utterly useless XD

Thank you so much for thinking of me, and I hope that at least some of this is usable to help you get your story written!!!!