#chaotic pantsing

[dendrite-blues]

No, writing memes, I don’t know when my character’s birthday is or what their favorite food is or what their most treasured childhood memory is.

Rummages around my planning doc…

Looks like all I can get offer you is a weird scene I daydreamed in the car yesterday that doesn’t fit anywhere in my outline or mesh with the story’s theme, a smattering of fringe kinks that I think they’d be into, and a deleted scene where they laugh with their best friend about ballsacks.

Will that meet the brief?

[sprintingowl]

Last Flight Of The Pandora

Last Flight Of The Pandora is a surprising find. It's a slim black book with gorgeous art, stylish layout, and a fantastic one session campy scifi horror ttrpg.

The book is about eighty pages, but most of that is scenarios, and the game is built to be extremely modular. You can run it a dozen times without it feeling stale.

The core premise is everyone picks a species and a role aboard the ship, and then in classic Space Station 13 fashion everyone tries to do their jobs while things go wrong.

It's a bit Lower Decks and a bit Alien, with some subtle nods to other horror classics like the scuttling prop head from The Thing, and the mechanics are surprisingly robust for how lightweight the whole thing is.

Essentially, you have different dice for different stats, and a 4+ is always a success. Species / crew role can give you advantage on rolls, or modify your stats, or let you do unique actions that range from "breathe vacuum" to "make a good latte". Every game also has the same ship map, with the same spelled out areas, and there's a feeling of boardgame-like familiarity if you play or run it more than once.

What changes between outings aboard the Pandora is what's wrong with the ship. It might be a xenomorph. It might be a rogue AI. It might be an evil floating insomnia baby. The GM decides on the fly moments before the game begins.

This sort of pantsing it is very much in the spirit of the game, and Last Flight is careful to give a lot of support to encourage the GM to wing it. Each adversary comes with its own detailed chart of objectives, ways it escalates, and what it will ultimately do if it isn't stopped. Adversaries aren't declared out loud, either, so the players have to figure out which threat they're dealing with by exploring the map and encountering its manifestations.

For groups that like pulpy scifi games, I think Last Flight is a gem. It doesn't fundamentally redefine the medium, but it's satisfying and very reliable, and a great one-shot to drop into a gap between longer games. I've anything I've said here sounds good, definitely consider picking it up.

[elizmanderson]

Hi, here's my attempt at a specific question(s) for 'Remarkable Retirement"

Does Edna ever get a cat?

What was the writing process like, do you have a favorite scene?

How fantasy-esque versus modern-day esque is Remarkable Retirement?

Also also

"a dragon who hoards flowers"

more info on this one. I love this one.

I'll try to get the book whenever I'm able, it seems really interesting

<3

ahhhhhhhhh excellent. sweet sweet questions. let's talk about Remarkable Retirement!

Does Edna ever get a cat?

not in the published book! originally she adopted a stray who lived outside the nursing home and brought him partway on her adventure with him, but then he got cut because I am terrible at keeping track of characters' pets.

it is actually canonical that she's had a cat at some point, bc when she has to name something for Magical Purposes, we learn she's bad at naming things. she once adopted a stray cat and called it Kitty.

(in one draft it's stated that her son's father named their son for this reason lmao but I don't think that line survived)

What was the writing process like? Do you have a favorite scene?

part one of this question:

long and chaotic lmao. I wrote the first draft as part of a last-man-standing-style writing challenge in which I had to write at least 1000 words/week by the weekly deadline or drop out.

I made it all the way to the end for a grand total of 72 weeks. the last several weeks, the creator upped the word count each week (from 1000 to 1500 to 8,000 to 12,000 to 20,000) to pressure the last of us left standing to drop out so they could start the next round.

it was unsuccessful, as two of us not only reached but smashed right through the 20k goal of week 72 and were declared joint winners lmao. I wrote 32k that week and finished the draft at about 160,000 words.

I leaned heavily into pantsing for the first draft: I knew a few major plot points going into the first draft but otherwise figured most of the story out each week as I wrote more of it.

for subsequent drafts, which were revised over the next two years, I did considerably more planning. but still plenty of angst lol, especially since 160,000 is pretty chonky and the first draft needed some major restructuring. I think there were three major rounds of revisions total before I started querying.

(queried for two years, got lots of "love this but it's not marketable," and finally published with a small press that said "love this and we want to publish it." although I do have an agent now! but I got my agent with a different manuscript.)

part two of this question:

I do love a major plot twist and spent most of my first draft looking forward to writing it. but I think my favorite scene is probably the soft moment in the hospital between Edna and Amir. they're just *anime fist clench* so soft together.

plus it includes Amir calling Edna "Edna" instead of "Mrs. Fisher" for the first time, and I am a slut for a good name thing.

How fantasy-esque vs. modern-day-esque is Remarkable Retirement?

Remarkable Retirement leans heavily modern day, but magic exists and everyone knows about it. so the setting is modern and the characters travel to some real places, like Detroit and my hometown and California, and there are real-world things like nursing homes and cell phones.

but then you've got a part of the U.S. military that deals with dragons because there are dragons, and you've got a council of wizards that's mostly useless, and some of the nursing homes (not Edna's) are magical homes, and you can magically enhance your cell phone (but not iPhones because Apple doesn't let you do that).

so like. it's set in more-or-less the modern-day U.S. (minus the pandemic, which hadn't started yet when I wrote the book), but the fantasy elements exist openly alongside all the real-world stuff.

More info about the dragon who hoards flowers

his name is Basil and I love him very much

[kaylinalexanderbooks]

writers’ ask game 2, 9, 17, and 21

i haven’t sent writing asks in forever! i enjoy seeing you on my dash though so i have scuttled out from beneath my rock

- @writeintrees

Aw thank you!! For the compliment and the ask! (From this writing ask game)

2.     Are you a pantser or plotter?

I identify as more of a Plantser, actually. I used to be more of a Pantser, but that didn't really work out for me, so I lean slightly more toward Plotter now.

What I used to do was have a basic idea and write until I hit a block but that always ended up poorly. I started planning more, and that was much more effective. As things went on, I found out the more I planned, the better things ended up being for me, as I usually ran into a wall or in circles or sprinted to the finish line with nothing in the middle happening.

Now, I'll admit, the pantsing did get me places, but now I can't do anything without an outline. However, I do find myself not being able to figure out the details of a scene until I write it, and that writing stuff down often deviates from the outline. This doesn't bother me at all - it's extremely helpful. The outline is more of a way to guide my writing so I better know what I'm doing, while actually writing can lead me to improving my outline.

Like I said, a bit of both, but technically leaning more toward plotter now.

9.     Current WIP

The WIP getting the most of my attention is The Secret Portal, planned to be a five-part sci-fi fantasy YA series. Part One is in the beta reading stages (see intro post) and Part Two is on another draft.

However, most of my focus is on the background world building for the magic system, which always needed work tbh but I'm there now! It's very exciting!

17.  What writing habits or rituals do you have?

I make it a habit to write between a shower and dinner. Rituals are listening to music and my water being right next to me. I'm usually at my desk as well.

21.  Who is/are your favourite character(s) to write?

Robbie, Akash, and Carmen are just fun to write. Robbie and Akash are inseparable, and just such a chaotic duo. Akash is fun because he has that humorous streak but is generally responsible, while Robbie is me throwing random things at the wall and saying whatever I want. Their banter is so fun to write.

Carmen is just an asshole and assholes are fun to write! She's angry at the smallest inconvenience but very easy to make very awkward. She's also super interesting and I want to study her under a microscope.

I find Lexi, Maddie, and Gwen a lot of fun to write because they're frankly easy. Side characters that are fun are Liam (argues over everything), Parker (chaos personified), and Gabriel (boring stick in the mud).

Thank you so much for the ask!!

TSP intro

TSP tag list (ask to be +/-): @thepeculiarbird @illarian-rambling @televisionjester @finchwrites

[oddlyhale]

RWBY: The Show That's Tried To Explain Itself For Years

Lately, I have been into reading and writing again. I love reading books that are pretty fucking bad because, like bad movies, bad books are fun to read and collect. I've also been into watching other content creators review bad books and give their thoughts.

There's a term that I had never heard of before until a few days ago: "steam of conscious." What it means is "to depict the multitudinous thoughts and feelings which pass through the mind" of a narrator. Basically meaning the author is plugging in ideas that sound cool at the moment, and are forgotten about later because there are other random, cool ideas that the author keeps plugging in.

That's not inherently a bad method of writing. It's similar to "pantsing" a book, meaning "sitting down and writing by the seat of your pants," except it doesn't have to be left as is. You can plug in as many ideas as you want in your story, but you also have to remember to go back and do major editing to try and make these ideas flow and make sense to the story itself. Of course, that means you'll be cutting out a hunk of content that does nothing or makes no sense to the overall story. Unless you're an experienced chaotic writer, you'll be putting in a lot of work.

I like editing, and I like knowing that I am a pantser, so it feels like a good combination. Not a perfect one, but a workable one for me.

But it does make me wonder about RWBY overall, wondering now if the show was a stream of consciousness the whole time, except the writers can't go back to edit everything.

I wouldn't say RWBY is an unedited mess of consciousness. There's definitely editing here and there to make dialogue and scenes make sense, but the overall script is fucking nuts.

RWBY V1-V3 have their stream of consciousness where the writers had anime brain rot, plugging in cheesy tropes that other animes have to make RWBY fit neatly into that media. Oh look, kids with superpowers going to a superpower school to learn more about themselves. Oh, put in a tournament because other school animes have those. Oh, make the main cast have some personality tropes - like Weiss can be a cute tsundere, and Ruby can be the naive but brave heroine who is also likely the chosen one that will save Remnant.

Not saying these tropes are bad, but I don't think RWBY understood why those tropes were so fun in the first place after they blew it all up before V4 began.

This thought has been on my mind for a few days because oddly, it reminds me quite a lot of The Night and Its Moon. If you're not familiar with the book, it's a plagiarized Witcher story, but trying to be queer.

I say trying because the author failed miserably to make their sapphic main couple the main focus. Like, the back of the book promises an action-romance, but that feels like a lie. One of the women would rather be surrounded by her male harem while the other woman is wishing to find her long-lost lover.

But the author of The Night and its Moon admitted to writing the first book in an ongoing manic episode that lasted for a few days. She finished the entire thing in 10 days, self-published it and it was out in the world for her fans to check out. I don't mind if people take such a small amount of time to complete a book, but what I do care about is if the author cared enough to go back and edit everything.

As you can guess, TNAIM's author did little. She was fearful of criticism, saying this book is important to her identity as a bisexual and didn't want any negative feedback. As much as I understand where she's coming from, wanting to live in a bubble of nobody being allowed to criticize your book was where her book fell flat and fell miserably. The book turned out very problematic, not because of the queerness, but because of the weird white skin, white girl worship, and fetishization of the only dark-skinned woman who happens to be one of the main protagonists.

The book has so many plugs of cool moments that it never comes back to, moments between characters that seem to mean something but are actually never expanded upon ever again, the poor sapphic representation, and the racism.

Which is where it reminds me of RWBY.

The difference is that the entire story of The Night and its Moon was written by one person who refused critical feedback. RWBY has three-four writers that all share the same braincell and it still flops.

If you want to know more about the book, you can find out more about it by watching YT reviews made by Booktubers. It is a hot mess, that's what I'll leave you with.

YA novels have a hard time discussing heavy topics, yet they insist on tackling them. That's not a bad thing, but if you're going to do that, you can't just try tackling it while in a stream of consciousness. Many authors accidentally - or maybe not accidentally - come across as incoherent and offensive. Relying heavily on cheesy tropes to help build weak support but never do anything creative with it. Not being sensitive to topics that can be fumbled so badly that the audience may assume you're [a] problematic person(s).

I don't believe that CRWBY is working off a stream of consciousness after V3, however. That stream of cheesy anime material had dried out fast because they shoved almost all of them into the first three volumes. They published their metaphorical books and realized they made huge mistakes that they can't go back and fix, so they have to work with retconning or pretending those things totally didn't happen. Or perhaps acknowledge some of those ideas did happen but then quickly turn tail and run before explaining anything any further. Or, the worse thing, is to plug in a new idea that combats that old idea, but now they have to explain that new idea if it doesn't follow up in the next volumes.

A weird cycle of ideas that can or cannot be explained, and it feels like RWBY has become "the show that is trying to explain itself." Not a show about kids with superpowers trying to save the world.

Stream of consciousness and pantsing aren't inherently bad methods to write a story. I don't mind if you would even refer to yourself as a "chaotic but organized" creator. If you love the story, you'll put in that extra effort to make it cohesive to the general audience, or at least make it all flow together and make sense. But do not leave it in a messy heap that you need to justify in the next fucking book, and don't be mad when people point out the problematic things you wrote into the pages. The audience wasn't the one that put that context into the story. You as the writer did.

[dirty-bosmer]

Now that I'm almost caught up on The Illusionist, I was wondering if you'd be willing to enlighten me on your writing process. Also, if you feel comfortable sharing, was there anything unexpected or surprising that you learned about writing fic?? Super curious and super nosy :>

Thank you for the ask, Z!! I will be honest, my writing process is a MESS, especially now that I'm super busy with school. For each chapter, I usually have a scaffold to work with, and the very least some bullet points that outline each scene. It is almost unimaginable to me that in the early days of my fic, I could write a chapter every few weeks over several regular writing sessions. These days it's so chaotic. I write nothing at all for months at a time then get hit by inspiration ray and stay up from 5 AM to 3 AM writing the bulk of a chapter. It's so unsustainable lol. It usually goes like this:

Write a line.

Agonize over said line.

Write a few paragraphs. Go back to original line and rewrite it three times. End up with the same line I started with.

Forget about things for a few weeks. Write another paragraph. Rewrite said paragraph. Rewrite first line again.

Rearrange all the sentences and re-read it until I'm sick of myself.

Brood for a bit. Get distracted for a few more weeks.

Scrounge for inspiration in my dreamscape. When it hits, spend all of Saturday writing and doing nothing but writing. Don't contact anyone. Don't go outside. Don't do anything. Don't even blink.

Edit while burnt out cause I slept for 6 hours over the entire weekend and hopefully don't get sick of myself again :D

So yeah, I don't recommend that, eheh. I think it's been so difficult cause I'm at the end of a long fic and feeling the pressure, but hopefully when I get back into my Skyrim fic, I'll have planned it out a bit more and it will not be so lawless. Also I've found that chipping away little by little and having someone to do writing sprints with helps a ton with maintaining creative flow (thanks @gilgamish <3)

As for the second part of the question, I'd say what surprised me the most was 1) how much I enjoy writing and 2) how many people have enjoyed my writing. I started The Illusionist back in 2017 with no real writing experience or intention of publishing online, kind of just went *dooot dooot* on the keyboard for a few years, then realized "omg there's a story here" (is it obvious that i pantsed 😅). At some point, I realized it had become a serious hobby, and I actually wanted to improve my skill which is a blessing and a curse cause I've found a real passion for the craft but that also means I'm a lot harsher on myself now.

The second point was far more unexpected tho— I'm truly blown away by how welcoming this community has been and how supportive my friends are. Absolutely mind-boggled that anyone has taken time out their day to read my fic, let alone dropped a message to tell me they liked it 😭 I'm incredibly grateful. Oblivion is almost TWO DECADES OLD, and when I first started writing, my fic was a rare-pair that centered around the mages. THE MAGES GUILD. It was so unbelievably unsexy and understandably received very little engagement XD For years it was like that, so my expectations have always been and will remain very low. Still, I'm having such a blast and hope to be writing for a while :)

[narukoibito]

i just finished a HUGE project and reading "unravel me" is going to be my reward! i've read some of your writing and it's soo good, i'm so excited to dive into your fic!

before i start, can i ask what was your inspiration for writing this fic? also, are you a plotter or a pantser? :)

AHSHFAKGK you are too wonderful, I can't! (Your HUGE project must have been truly EPIC!)

The fic's inspiration was "Naive" by RKCB. The mood just got the first chapter out, and then I just thought there aren't enough intensely pining Harry/Ginny stories, so I decided to be the change I wanted to see in the world.

From there it was some pantsing up until about chapter 3 where I came up with a loose outline of the story, only to around chapter 6 completely change what I wanted to do and now only have up to chapter 9 plotted out. God, that sounds chaotic written out loud.

Ahhhhh, I hope you like it and that it meets your expectations! 🥹 💖

[garfunkle-is-hungry]

My most recent dnd session includes,

1) an accidentalhome invasion

2) convincing poor people our bard is god

3) a rangers quest for a sandwich

4) an arm wrestling tournament, which leads into a magical dance battle for money

5) the cousin of a noble who was found dead, and totally not killed by in session 2, describing the body as “pantsed, dragged into an ally, and with his nadds chrushed”

6) ruining a bakers day with a deathvision of sandwiches

7) my warlock admitting he doesn’t know what a sandwich is

8) my warlock getting into and argument with our barbarian over which is better: sandwiches or Bread with meat and cheese baked into it

9) my warlock summoning his Patron/ boyfriend so he could settle the argument

10) my warlock trying a sandwich for the first time (and not liking it)

11) a Pretty Pink Pirate

13) a genuinely horrifying description of an NPC

14) the knowledge that this kingdoms future is on our shoulders

I have never had such a chaotic session. It was amazing! It was truly a masterpiece. The dm loved it too! I hope somewhere down the line he have another buck wild episode like this, but I’m ready to get back into the story!

[dungeonsandblorbos]

Storytime: Peak Confusion Crew

gotta start out this blog's ttrpg storytimes with a bang, right?

so. we have been formally invited to a fancy inter-pantheon ambassadorial dinner hosted by the Egyptians at the Brooklyn Museum, to represent Camp Half-Blood. an Amazon delegation (our enemies because they are trying to literally kill all the gods, which would be BAD) has also been invited

our goal: schmooze the Egyptians and get them to help us fight the Amazons, because it's uncertain whether they'll be satisfied with just killing the Greek pantheon or if they'll target other pantheons too

(note: this goal does not apply if you are one Nina Grayson, my daughter of Nike PC, who ran away not long ago to play double agent and pretend to join the Amazons without telling any of her friends that that's what she was doing. shhhh, it's fine, it's all totally 100% fine)

so, our resident bard Beatrice, daughter of Apollo, has just gotten to play some beautiful music with the orchestra, leaving the three boys alone to introduce themselves to the host of the very fancy formal ambassadorial dinner we're at. (the boys in question are Bryce, lovable dumbass son of Eros; Murph, himbo surfer son of hindsight deity Epimetheus; and Chuck, chaotic son of Dionysus with an impressive list of epithets)

Chuck had convinced Bryce that the proper form of greeting to the Egyptians is, in fact, the vulcan salute, so we're already off to a great start when the host's baboon butler walks up behind Bryce and pantses him

rather than help him in any reasonable manner, Chuck instead decides to pants himself in solidarity, and Murph follows suit. meaning that they are all now just standing there in their underwear at, again, a very formal inter-pantheon event.

Crazy Amazon Queen Adella has also walked over to introduce herself to the host at this point, and gives them a dubious look

Chuck: This is what you're up against, Adella.

Adella, unimpressed: Clearly I have underestimated you.

unbelievably, we did very nearly go on to have a completely successful evening and would have too if the Amazons weren't so awful

darn capitalists ruining everything!

[whimsymanaged]

a year in fic

Rules: Share 1 line from each fic you wrote this year.

Thank you for the tag, @eveningstruggle! This is going to be such a fun reflection! I'm not going to include my Twitter drabbles just for the sake of convenience (for myself, lol), but you can find them all at @/whimsymanaged on Twitter. Tagging whoever wants to do this!

In 2022, I wrote: 42k words over 14 works. It doesn't feel like much compared to some writers, but as an extremely chaotic, pantsing mostly-drabbler, that's pretty exciting, actually! Hahaha. And funnily enough, I wrote 37k in 2021, so it looks like I kind of max out at a certain point each year! Hahah. Okay, time to stop laughing and start reflecting. Here we go.

Warning: Most of my fics are very NSFW, so a lot of the lines I've picked out are too! Please scroll away if you're not in an NSFW-appropriate location/not comfortable!

January

We're All Chaotic Here, chapter one | Pansy/Lucius | E | 1.3k

Lucius took a deep, centering breath, then narrowed his eyes at the insolent witch. “Fine. Strip and get on the bed. On your hands and knees.”

We're All Chaotic Here, chapter two | Hermione/Goyle | E | 1.6k

“I’m going to taste you,” he whispers, sinking to his knees, “and then I’m going to write about it.”

February

Valentine's Day, 1982 | Hermione/Remus | E | 1.5k

He squirms. “That’s—I mean, it’s just a normal one.”

Where There's Smoke | Hermione/Draco | E | 7.3k, wip

“Granger, we haven’t met,” the lieutenant’s voice comes through her headset. “Draco Malfoy. Your full brief will have to come later; for now, you’re with me, and Pansy will be with Blaise.”

Three Times Over, chapter one | Hermione/Draco, Harry/Theo, Pansy/Neville | M | 1.2k

For all the people milling around, there was only one customer with two full sleeves of colourful tattoos, leaning over the counter and spinning the bell so it made a truly atrocious noise.

March

Just Like Quidditch, chapter three | Hermione/Draco | E | 2.3k, wip

It looks like she’s just shaved three-quarters of her pubes and is about to work on the rest, and her cunt is just there, spread like a feast, and he’s so fucking hard.

May

hands to myself | Hermione/Draco | E | 2.4k

“It’s not like I don’t stand here and watch you two eye-fuck each other week after week. Whenever you two are ready for a threesome, can I be your third?”

June

Flat(Mates) | Hermione/Draco | E | 3.4k

Then, in a brief moment of lucidity, she thought: Gods, Draco had been having orgasms like that—orgasms that had involved making sounds like that while looking like that—this entire time, and she’d thought herself satisfied just being his flatmate.

July

Three Times Over, chapter two | Hermione/Draco, Harry/Theo, Pansy/Neville | M | 800

Potter presses his lips together and gives Theo a stern look that sends a fizz of excitement down his spine. Oh, Potter’s a dom, for sure.

August

Not What This Is | Hermione/Draco | E | 2.4k, wip

Before she processes what’s happening, he shoves her knees up, parts her slick folds, and slides his tongue inside her.

Change of Plan(t)s | Hermione/Draco/Neville | eventual E | 789, wip

“Try not to top from the bottom,” Neville whispers before surging forward and kissing him for the first time.

Contradicktions | Hermione/Draco | M | 875

“You know what’s hard?” Draco barked. “My fucking cock! Focus, Granger!”

October

Sucker 4 U | Hermione/Draco | E | 2.4k

When he got to his knees in front of her, her eyes widened. “Oh, no. No, no, no, Malfoy, you are not going to give me—friendly cunnilingus or whatever you’ll inexplicably call this!”

November

Yes, Chef | Harry/Theo | M | 4.5k

“God,” he breathed, shaking his head. “You always get that maple syrup-balsamic vinegar balance exactly right. This is fucking divine.”

a cure for headaches | Hermione/Draco | E | 1.3k

He dipped his finger barely inside, just wetting his fucking fingertip, and she wanted to shake him and kiss him all at once. “Answer my question first.”

December

Unrevealed Holiday Fic | ??? | ??? | ???

“Such a good girl. The best,” he whispers. I feel his cock nudge my entrance, slipping easily into the wet heat. My fingers squeeze his thighs as he makes a choked noise. “You’re taking me so well. Oh, fuck. You feel amazing.”

[the-ethereal-lorestar]

I'm definitely going to try this!

"This method works for me because I can't "decide" story elements in advance. I have never been able to just sit down and "figure out" what happens in a story beyond a couple steps ahead"

I relate to this on a spiritual level. I've been struggling with this aspect for so long that it disrupts my writing and I get stuck for months and sometimes a whole year.

I would like to add to this, because I watched a video a long time ago, that went into this type of chaotic writing. Not the specific process like this person, but I think it's a useful tool:

It goes beyond plotting vs. pantsing that may help with the writing process. Sometimes it helps to find labels for certain types of writers to effectively research more ways to do things.

Ellen Brock, the creator of this video also has four videos going more in depth on each of these types. I hope this helps other writers feel better about their diverse writing styles.

You're not a bad writer when the mainstream tips for writers don't work for you! There are options :3c

Stuck? Try junebugging.

I don't know who needs to hear this, but we're 5 days into nanowrimo so maybe this will be helpful.

Do you want the safety and surety of knowing what happens next in your story but can't stick to an outline? Does knowing in advance what will happen suck the joy out of discovery writing? Do you try to wing it through plots but get tangled in plot holes or have a story that runs out of steam because you can't figure out what went wrong? Are you at your most creative when you have a little bit of guidance? Do you tend to under-write? Do you get ideas in your head for random scenes and snippets that drop from the sky without context?

If any of these apply to you, junebugging a draft might be for you!

What Is Junebugging?

Since you're on Tumblr, you might already be familiar with the concept of junebugging as it relates to cleaning. If not -- I think the idea was first introduced to me by @jumpingjacktrash.

The basic idea is that you tackle cleaning by way of controlled chaos. You pick a specific area you want to focus on, like your kitchen sink, and then wander off to deal with other things as they occur to you, but always returning back to that area. You end up cleaning a little bit at a time in an order that may not make sense to an outsider but which keeps you from getting overwhelmed and discouraged.

How Does Junebugging Work in Writing?

OK, so that's great, but how does this work with writing? Well. In my case, the general idea is to jump between writing linearly, outlining, and writing out of order. It usually looks something like:

Start free-writing a scene, feeling my way through it and enjoying the discovery process.

Thinking, ok, now I have this scene, did anything need to happen to lead up to it? Do I need to go back and add some foreshadowing? Does this scene set anything up that needs to be paid off? And then jump forward/back to make those adjustments.

I'll usually have a bunch of disconnected ideas of ideas that have popped into my head, so I'll write those down in a list somewhere and then try to figure out what goes in between them and what order it goes in.

I'll write what I call "micro-scenes" which is where I'll just sketch out a few essential elements of what's going on without worrying too much about details, description, etc. -- just he did this, she said that, the setting was this, real bare-bones script. Then I can come back through and flesh out each of those microscenes into an actual scene later.

Got a story that has a complex structure? No problem. Write through each storyline one at a time and then chop them up and weave them together afterward. Write all the B plot scenes first then come back through to do A plot and C plot. Move the pieces around like legos. No one ever has to know.

This method works for me because I can't "decide" story elements in advance. I have never been able to just sit down and "figure out" what happens in a story beyond a couple steps ahead -- I have to discovery-write my way forward. But at the same time, that gets really daunting. So I zoom forward with micro-scenes, roughing out the beats in the most bare-bones way possible, then when I run out of clear vision for what happens next I backtrack, flesh out those scenes, build in connective tissue, etc. and by then I will probably find more inspiration to jump forward.

It's basically folding drafting, outlining, and revising all together into a single phase of writing, which is chaotic and goes against everything people teach you, but if it works? then it fuckin works.

Anyway, sorry for the jumbled-up post, I'm dashing this off quickly while I heat up a pizza and I'm about to dive back into my WIP -- but I hope this was a little helpful. If nothing else, take this as my blanket permission that it's 100% OK to jump around, write out of order, write messy, outline sometimes, pants sometimes, and do whatever else it takes just to get through the story. You've got this. Good luck.

[emil-bronze]

Unbeknownst to most, I spend hours thinking about a thousand and one background aspects. Half my book is written on random trains of thought. Yes, I should try and plan my plot instead of pantsing it. But these details, this understanding of my own world isn't there from the beginning.

In many ways, I'm an archeologist in my own works, using what I can find to piece the puzzle together. The spontaneous trains of thought can be moved around to make a scene and that's very much how it's done.

I'll follow one story for a bit and then discover that there's a whole other aspect that I can expand upon, like another cave drawing that explains the first one. It's a very chaotic method but it's how everything is both found and made.

No history is wholly linear. There's gaps. Some of the bridges are inferences, others, works of fiction. The background lore that builds from inference builds upon itself and sometimes creates new branches that have to be researched somewhere else.

History is written as it happens today. However, due to constraints, someone a few hundred years later will have read some diaries about today and make their own "truth" about what they see as history. Then someone will find six or twelve of those "studies" and make an overarching piece that explains it all in one go.

History is found and inferred, sometimes made from fiction. My book, the world that exists around those characters is no different and little by little, I as their creator, am piecing together their history.

[moondust-bard]

Is this a pen-stroke of ADHD, autistic genius… or madness?

So the university degree plans and magical gifts featured in my latest wip’s world are influenced by DnD classes and subclasses.

To be clear, I’m not copy+pasting anything. There aren’t classes that define one’s life path, and adventuring parties aren’t at all a thing . Really, I was inspired by the stricture of the classes’ skillsets and a few of the benefits granted by certain spells and subclasses.

Anyway!

Would it be weird or actually kind of fun if I pantsed this project and treated writing it like a mini dnd game with myself in my own already-created homebrew world with dice rolls, feats, ability scores, etc as optional chaotic guiding forces?

The ADHD in me craves novelty and spontineity. The autistic in me needs a frame of structure and order. This way, I get both?

I think that’d be super fun, but I dunno. What do you think?

[lazuliquetzal]

Skdjdjsnkalajd I ended up writing ch4 instead of ch3 of reflection. RIP.

I’ll see if I can finish and post ch3 this weekend lol

[pb-dot]

Oh twist my arm, will you?

My Dearest Hearts-blood right now is my serial novel Thereafter. It's a story about the pain of growing up, to see the near-infinite complexity of the world and the people around us.... and navigating a messy polycule in a post-apocalyptic patchwork city.

The story of Thereafter follows, at least initially, Michael Sørstrand, a Norwegian lad who saved a magical world inhabited by mole people in his childhood, and more or less haven't done a damn thing right since. He is left with only the memories and traumas of that event, plus a talent for moving uncannily quiet and an ability to "see" in the darkness through a limited tremorsense.

When the magical phenomenon that spirited him away to the lands of the mole people reoccurs, Michael is once again pulled into adventure, but the setting is way more chaotic than the relative calm of the molefolk caves.

The city of Thereafter looks like it was hastily assembled by whatever detritus and flotsam its creators could find because that is exactly what happened. Something destroyed the world of the molefolk, Merlinus the land of kings and wizards, the Eternal Sky, The Steppelands, Aurol and its college of wizards, Mechix the automated city, and scores upon scores more. The survivors from these countless apocalypses have congregated on the chunk of land that grew and fused together into Thereafter, spinning ever so slowly in the void between worlds.

Now, the ruling Council of Thereafter seeks after heroes like Michael to inspire the populace and hold back the tide of despair until more permanent solutions can be found to the city's many MANY problems. Unfortunately, they had only managed to find four, and they all have their problems. In addition to Michael there's:

Felipe, the Olympic athlete and deadeye archer learned all he knows from the proud Birdfolk clans of the Eternal Sky. Unfortunately this includes his attitude. Fitness Influencer Alicia once defeated the mighty Dragon Thane, and feels like she's been holding back ever since. Genius, if unrecognized, physicist Lex once solved the murder of an immortal being in a massive wizard's college. They scoff at pretty much every lesser problem except for how to let someone know you're sexually interested in them, as Lex is pretty sure you can't be more forward than they currently are.

Together, this odd little group must find peace with each other and themselves and find out what it means to be a hero in a desperately flawed and complex world. There is no shortage of challenges, as Thereafter suffers from a dearth of resources, and is populated by a splintered populace and hundreds if not thousand types of wildly different magic. There's also no escaping the fact that the disaster that shattered the countless magical worlds might still be out there, prowling for worlds to devour.

So yeah, there's a lot of stuff going on here, and I plan to take my time exploring it all. To keep up a certain pace of writing and editing, I'm releasing chapters as I write, which is very good for practicing my pantsing but also very scary. If you want to read what I've gotten out so far and maybe even sign up to get new chapters as I publish them twice monthly, check it out at the link below:

Let’s get to know your main story! Tell us a little bit about it!