#given lth is like my first Longer Fic in a while lol

[clericbyers]

How do you come up with ideas? Like I wanna write a super long romance fanfic But I'm bad at thinking up small stuff Big ideas I can do but small ideas? Nah Iike ik I want them to get married and stuff but the small stuff inbetween? Nah Like If I were to write a byeler fic I would feel strange having it be chapter 1: they meet Chapter 2: they start to date Chapter 3 they are engaged Chapter 4: marriage

A big idea is made up of smaller ideas. For example, say I wanna write a story exploring Mike’s PTSD/trauma in combination with Will having powers, which ended up becoming LTH for me, but before I got that fic planned out, I still had the large overarching ideas of Mike’s trauma and Will with powers (the latter of which you can probably see me addressing a lot in the fics I wrote before I centered on LTH bc Will with powers was the little idea for those stories even though in my mind, it could still be a big overarching concept). It’s why I like writing prompts so much because it forces me to focus on little ideas.

Also probably why some things that come up in LTH might sound familiar because I “tested” those ideas out in shorter stories.

This got kinda long so here’s a read more!

Big idea one: Mike and his trauma. That can be split into little ideas as so: what exactly is Mike’s trauma, how does his trauma manifest itself, what caused it, how does it affect other people, how does he recognize it (if he does), how can he heal from it, etc. I have a page in my notes app with these little ideas that are part of the big idea. Focusing on those little ideas, we can build a short story off it. For example, “part 3” of LTH focuses on the little idea of how Mike’s trauma manifests itself. “interlude ‘85” focuses on how Mike deals with it / how it affects other people. Later on, the other little ideas get more focus but they are all tied to the big idea of Mike and his trauma.

Big idea two: Will with powers. This can be split into little ideas as well. What are Will’s powers, how do they manifest, what have we already seen in canon that allows this idea to be an overarching one instead of a little idea, etc. I’ve played around with these little ideas a lot in various shorter stories, testing what Will’s powers could be (seen especially in the story about Hopper and the Byers family), how El would help him (if she can), doing research on D&D to figure out what potential powers he could have so it makes sense. Then, we build short stories off those ideas and that becomes the next part of the story.

So yeah. I used an example of LTH here because it’s public and established to be a long fic, plus I’ve explored some of the “little” ideas as you’ve put it already and I’m just expanding on them a little for this longer fic. That’s generally how I go about building ideas for longer stories, and why I was so excited about LTH because finally I felt I had a handle on these little ideas and had stumbled into an AU that could tackle those ideas.

Now, we’ll take that that to your longer romance story. Say we have those four large ideas as you’ve stated. Those are what I’ll refer to as arcs. Four arcs going as so:

1. They Meet

2. They Date

3. They Are Engaged

4. They Are Married

Each one of those is an arc in your story. Under “They Meet”, ask the little idea questions: how did they meet, why did they end up meeting in the first place, what about this meeting impacts them enough for the story to continue, how does their meet up affect anyone else in the story (if at all), etc. You can build chapters centered around some of those little ideas. For example, detailing how Mike didn’t want to go to some silly house party Lucas was throwing, “You always invite the same boring people, I’m not interested anymore,” but Mike goes anyway and runs into Will, who didn’t really wanna be there either. They hang out for a bit, drink a little, don’t really think much of it but afterwards Mike finds himself realizing he never did get that guy’s name, and thus starts the “what about this meeting impact them enough”. I’m always a fan of the strangers to friends to lovers trope so I feel that the first arc would focus on them becoming friends before realizing they like each other. So then, you have even more little questions: why are they friends, what about the other do they like, how they hang out, what do they have in common, what are their differences, is there any tension between them (if so, explain it, embed it in their interactions), etc.

Arc 2 then is when they start dating and again, ask little idea questions: why did they want to date, what do they like about each other romantically, how does Mike treat Will, what about dating makes Will nervous, etc. These questions would be based on the answers you provide in Arc 1 to keep the story connected. Each idea you wanna focus on becomes its own chapter. Chapters do not have to be super long! It can be like 2K words or 12K it doesn’t matter. Don’t tie yourself to length per chapter. If something can be expressed simply, then express it simply. I’d say allow some of your ideas to be more “angsty” so it’s more realistic. In Arc 1, maybe Will says something that rubs off on Mike wrong and they stop talking for a week before realizing that’s not a possibility, they’re far too close to lose each other (part of the “is there any tension between them” idea). Maybe in Arc 2, Mike accidentally skips a dinner date and they have an argument about it and everyone can tell they’re fighting but Max pulls Mike aside and gets him to apologize (part of the “how does Mike treat Will” idea).

Arc 3 then is when they’re engaged, ask the little idea questions, etc you get the point by now.

tl;dr a story in my mind at least is a series of connected overarching ideas that you ask questions about and then answer in the text. This applies for fiction and nonfiction! You have to ask those questions and then answer them to progress the story. How, why, when, where, and who are your best friends!

Sorry for the length but I hope that helped!