#i have an entire doc of a story outline i have so many thoughts.

[gigglesandfreckles-hp]

You are FEEDING US with your latest Jily AU. How are you writing so fast? How many chapters have you already written? What is your method? I need to know all the things. I need to be distracted until tomorrow. I need MOARRR.

thank you!! for omtnwf, i had several chapters stockpiled, which is what has let me update semi-frequently. actually, i had the first ten chapters completely written before i started posting, which was designed to take me to mid-april, which is when i would start having more time to write in my personal life. and it worked! i'm almost out of stockpiled chapters now, but i'm about to have some more time to write than i've been having because i'm about to finish up grad school. also—i'm very competitive. so posting at the end of each chapter when the next update will be gives me a self-deadline and i find that very motivating!

as for my "method" (lol you're gonna be so disappointed), i'll go into details below the cut so as not to bore the general public. i tend to RAMBLE about the things i LOVE.

for one-shots, i usually write everything in one sitting. my one-shots are almost always ideas that come to me while driving, so as soon as i'm able to get an hour or two with my computer, i mind dump everything i can. that is almost always always always dialogue.

for example, this bit in a happy accident was the bit i thought about while driving. i had no concept of a broader context or anything. but i needed james and lily to have this interaction. it started like this in my head, and in my doc:

"I didn't want to say anything because I wasn't sure how you felt." "You haven’t said anything about how you’re my…boyfriend?" “Well, I didn’t do it on purpose.” “What? Become my boyfriend?”

it was fully inspired by harry in the poa film when he falls over before getting on the knight bus. "whatchafelloverfor?" "i didn't do it on purpose!" anyway—dialogue is usually my strength and...everything else...is my weakness. so i start with dialogue like above, always. then, after i have a sort-of fic mapped out, i go back and start breaking it up. description, internal dilemmas, dialogue tags, etc. until eventually that bit becomes like this:

"I haven’t said anything," James says finally, "because I wasn’t really sure…how you felt." Lily blinks. "You haven’t said anything," she repeats slowly, "about how…you’re my…boyfriend?" His cheeks are properly red now—not from the cold. “I didn’t do it on purpose.” “Become my boyfriend?” she laughs.

for multi-chapters, however (which i still feel quite out of my element on to be completely honest), i do a lot of plotting and planning. i used to not do outlines because i'm quite the 'type b' writer. lots of chaos. however, i have been burned by my own imagination so many times (see: it's brighter now) that i now will not post any sort of multi-chapter fic without doing all the outline nonsense first. never fear—the chaos is still preserved.

here's a little clip from my outline for it's brighter now:

so i pretty much just word vomit the things i know i want included. sometimes, it's plot points, dialogue bits, small details, vibes, whatever! i do the entire fic this way then i go back and start making it have an actual flow. this helps me see the plot holes and things that i know need to be teased early in order for reveals/changes to feel earned later.

and i try—try!!!!—to have the self-discipline not to post a chapter as soon as i've finished it. i try to hold onto it for a bit because i inevitably start moving ahead and realise i need to go back and sprinkle things into earlier chapters that point/lead toward future events.

my current fic, one more time now, with feeling, has involved more planning than anything else i've written by nature of it having some mystery/fww drama involved. this fic has also required the most patience from me because i'm having to squeeze the bottle slowly, as it were, only letting out the bits of info needed for each particular bit of the story. it's been a true exercise in "trust the process" because i've gotten more comments along the ugh lily is kinda the worst! line than i've ever gotten on anything else i've written. but i have to remind myself: i know things they don't know!! so i just have to passively read the comments and resist the urge to defend my girl in the meantime, ha! and then, well, hope that various reveals are as earned as i feel they are. otherwise...i guess i cry???

just kidding! i've never cried once in my life!

🤪🤪🤪

[karalianne]

NaNoWriMo Fire

I have been posting comments on NaNoWriMo's Facebook page, to the most recent three posts there (copied and pasted). My latest one has apparently been blocked or something, so I'm going to start sharing here. Please do share this far and wide.

If you don't know what the NaNoWriMo fire is, I have two resources for you:

Reddit Post (took two to post the whole story)

Google Docs summary (being actively updated as things continue to burn)

So below the fold I'm pasting the comments I put on Facebook, in order. Enjoy!

March 5, 20204

It's becoming increasingly obvious that the goal here is to shutter NaNoWriMo as an organization. I wish you guys would just DO IT ALREADY instead of pretending you're trying to do right by the community. That ABSOLUTELY ATROCIOUS ABOMINATION of a new ML agreement is reprehensible. I hope NOBODY signs it, because it is BLATANTLY trying to put ALL BLAME for anything that goes wrong directly on the ML's. Which is ludicrous. On top of that, if people have concerns about the agreement they are automatically being removed as ML. That's not good faith. It's not transparency. I've been trying to believe the best but obviously that was really silly of me and I apologize for believing that everyone is capable of actually doing better.

March 7, 2024

The Board Update is laughable and reinforces the impression I offered in my previous comment. Basically, nobody on the Board right now was even there when all this stuff happened. NaNoWriMo the organization is not actually listening to the feedback from the community; supposedly there have been focus groups but none of the people I'm in contact with (which is a lot of people who have all been very heavily involved with the organization over the years) ever got an invitation. I am just one person, and I am aware that I am not owed anything. However, this entire thing continues to be mismanaged, and I do not for one second believe that the organization is heading in the right direction.

Again, I suggest you just shut things down completely like you're obviously planning. All the noises about trying to do the right thing, followed by this alarming lack of actually doing the right thing and incredibly tone-deaf approach, are not helping the situation. Support for the organization is dwindling, and I am not surprised. That's what happens when you ignore and/or woefully mismanage your response to concerns.

March 9, 2024

Well, I'm back for another round of "I thought I told you not to do this kind of thing." Again, I know I'm just a person and nobody has to listen to me, but I know plenty of people who agree with me.

First, regarding the FAQ for MLs, there are contradictions and missing words. I try not to criticize that sort of thing too much (in spite of being a trained proofreader) but this is supposed to be a writing organization, and you people at HQ are supposed to be writers. Do better.

Second, it has come to my attention that both the Terms & Conditions and the Codes of Conduct have been updated with no notification. That is ridiculous and unethical, not to mention poor business practice. Literally every organization I am connected to sends an e-mail to let me know when there are changes upcoming, and often those changes are outlined so I know what to expect. And then I have the option to leave if I don't agree with those changes.

If you did send a notification e-mail prior to these changes being implemented, well, hey, we already knew the e-mail system was borked so whatever. But it looks like literally NOBODY got a notification of the upcoming changes, which indicates that there was no attempt to follow best practices.

It is clear to me, and to many other people in the community, that nobody at HQ actually knows how to manage a non-profit. I'm also pretty sure you don't understand ethics or best practices. You're trying to get ahead of bad things that ALREADY HAPPENED, and if you're actually consulting a lawyer about all of these things before you do them, they are giving you horrible advice. You also needed a PR team back in like November (maybe even October).

There's a weird attitude that I've seen all over the place, that people who are being vocal about this disaster are being mean or trying to destroy NaNoWriMo or something like that. I want to be crystal clear here: People who are being vocal are speaking up on behalf of people who needed a voice. People were being abused and others decided to help them get out of that situation. When the expected solution (reporting to HQ) did not result in appropriate actions, they moved to make the situation public. (That's when I found out and got involved.)

When we were discussing problems and asking questions on the forums in November, we were trying to be productive. We were looking for answers, making suggestions, explaining what was wrong (because as we talked we learned that there was far more than just the Mod X situation that was wrong), offering our assistance... and we got shut down.

Now I'm also hearing that there has been a focus group. Who was in that focus group? How did you get the participants? Nobody I know was contacted to be on that focus group. Are you actually LISTENING to the participants? Are the people you're recruiting all folks who've made it clear they're mad at those of us who are using our voices to call out abuses of power, poor organization and business practices, and unethical behaviour? I don't care if I'm not approached to be a part of a focus group, but making sure you involve an assortment of viewpoints would be beneficial.

I am just incredibly disappointed in how everything has gone and is going. The yacht has sailed. It's time to accept that and move on.

March 12, 2024 (the one that isn't showing up)

Every time I turn around, it seems, there's something new to facepalm over. It is becoming increasingly clear that HQ is on the defensive. You need someone on staff, like, six months ago, who is actually capable of professional communication. Right now, we're receiving passive-aggressive whinges about how many e-mails there are and how you're giving up vacations in order to reply to them. At least some of the foolish "answers" on the FAQ (which again, why is that on Zendesk? That makes no sense.) have been removed. The thing is, nevermind Pepperidge Farm, the Internet remembers. EVERYTHING.

It is not professional to tell your subordinates (whether staff or volunteers) that you're giving up personal time in order to deal with a mess that is your responsibility to deal with. It is not professional to complain about having to do a job you agreed to take on.

It is not ethical to try and get anti-union verbage into an agreement for volunteers. It is not ethical to try and get volunteers to take on all liability for events they organize on your behalf.

It is incredibly rude to treat adults as if they are misbehaving children. Especially not when they are bringing you legitimate concerns and criticisms about how your organization is handling a serious situation.

And yes, a lot of this one is specifically about Kilby, because WTF? How have you been on multiple boards and not learned how to do all of this stuff properly? You were absolutely NOT the right person for the job, and it's laughable that you think you were.

[hijinks-n-lowjinks]

I FELT ignoring your outline haha but instead of encouraging u to work on it I was wondering how you prefer to outline?? I can’t say I have a particular method and am always wondering how other writers do it😭 that’s definitely part of the reason why I haven’t written a multi chapter fic. alsoo favorite part about writing??? <3

Hello!

My outlines for fics always differ in some kind of way, but the organization is typically the same across the board. I use Google Docs for everything and have a big doc for outlining!

Each chapter has it's own section where I literally write down what's going to happen in the chapter in as much detail as I can without intentionally trying to make it sound good lol. I get lost pretty easily if I don't do this, so I've learned that I need to give as many specifics as I can (thoughts/dialogue exchanges, movement, action, etc).

My vamp au, Gasoline, has a lot of lore and region specific details so I have subsections in the same doc that include maps of Japan, locations, terminology, roles, culture, lore, etc.

I typically prefer to completely finish an outline of my entire story before writing or posting anything that way I KNOW that everything connects well and I'm providing accurate foreshadowing, but sometimes it doesn't work out that way lol. I'm up to chapter eight for vamp au but looking at what I need to write down was stressing me out so I decided to take the day off lol.

My favorite part of writing is definitely dialogue! I love writing conversations of any kind, I love bringing out emotions in that way!

[getinthehandbasket]

Cross-disciplinary training for artists

My entire life I thought of myself as a writer. A nearly-failed author, because I had such a hard time writing, but a writer all the same.

I had no framework for writing anything more than drabbles or vignettes. Anything more than 2k fizzled out. Let's not even talk about papers when I was in high school and college. I thought I had to get it all out mostly-perfect all at once, the first time, and that was so overwhelming that I just.. didn't.

No one taught me about stages. No one taught me about outlining, filling in, refining, etc.

About ten years ago I decided I wanted to branch out beyond my fiber arts (a thing which I am good at) and my writing (a thing which I was not good at). I decided to learn how to paint, how to do multimedia art journaling, how to draw, how to do anything as a visual (but not digital) artist because I like making things.

The thing that surprised me the most was this: artists work in layers. The first few - hell, sometimes even the first MANY - layers are foundations. Underpaintings. Sketches. Blobs of color. Things that look nothing like what the final will be. Art is built up in layers, even fiber arts. All art, I have found, is made of layers and stages.

Now I'm back to writing. I write fanfic. I am now writing it using a "layering" strategy.

I laid out a very VERY vague timeline, and a few notes about a couple of scenes that made me want to write the fic to give those scenes a home.

Then I started noting down beats, and assigning them to different spots in my timeline. Now I had an actual outline.

NOW I'm filling in the outline with scenes. They're not necessarily good. Sometimes it's just a sentence or two saying something like "first threesome here" or "X goes to Y's house to hang out - reason??". Sometimes it's a 2k scene where I meant to do one thing and the characters decided to flirt prematurely instead. I'm not even writing in the perspective (or possibly the tense) I plan to use in the final. I'm currently writing everything from a 3rd person present-tense somewhat omnicient POV. The final fic will have first-person probably present-tense limited omniscience POV, bouncing between my MCs as the POV character.

I'm not even calling it my first draft. To keep that pressure off of myself, it's entirely within a "planning document" and I'm informally calling it my 0 Draft. I'm just telling myself the story, and not necessarily in order.

When I'm done with it, I will open up a new document and start retyping everything, editing in the process, rewriting a bunch of stuff, changing to the correct tense/POV, etc. That will be my first draft, because for some reason (*cough* bad English teachers who thought they weren't the ones responsible for teaching their students how to write essays, papers, or anything else, who required us to turn in "first drafts" of our papers basically for copyediting and that's it *cough*) I have it drilled into my head that a First Draft must be complete and ready to be copyedited. A First Draft can be a shitty draft, sure, but in my head it also had to be nearly the final form. So now I'm calling what most people would call their 1st Draft my 0 Draft.

And once I am done with my "1st Draft" (which is really my 2nd), THEN I will retype it one more time to catch any spelling or grammar or plothole mistakes. That's the version I will have betas read for last-minute checks, and that's the version I will post.

TL;DR - setting writing down for a while and learning other artistic disciplines, even if I nowhere near mastered them, has granted me so much insight into a better way to write. It's given me joy instead of anxiety in my most treasured creative hobby.

I'm not even halfway through telling myself the story and I'm already 13.5k in. After cutting some of my darlings out and moving them to a different doc.

"Cross-training" makes everything easier.

[squarebracket-trickster]

Writer Q&A Tag Game

Thank you @sunset-a-story for ALSO tagging me way back in August. I AM SO SORRY

1. What motivates you to write?

It itchy, itchy urge to create something. I NEED it OUT. I MUST make sense of it ALL. The thoughts need ordering and putting together to maximize the happy chemicals. I see something I like that someone else made and I get jealous so I must do something like that, but MY way, and BETTER. It all makes me very itchy (restless).

2. A line/short snippet of your writing that you are most proud/happy of. If not maybe share a line of someone else's work you love (just please credit them)

I skimmed my entire 3rd draft (so far) to pick a line. There are a lot of good ones but none I liked more than the rest - I couldn't choose. So... I know I've already shared this one but dammit. It is a kickass line. It's also the first line of WIPVII - and you do not know what devils I sold my soul to to escape THAT writer's block.

I will live, I tell myself through the salt water in my eyes and the sting of the south wind on my face. This will make for a good story one day.

5. What part of writing do you think you are the best at? (Yes stroke your own ego it's okay)

Banter and wit. Which is funny because I always thought that was the thing I would struggle most with - I was the academic overachiever who took herself too seriously in school. But when I reread my drafts there is something that makes me laugh in nearly every scene. Most of my highlighted lines are banter or retorts.

6. What do you enjoy most about the Writeblr community?

I love seeing writeblr content on my dash and I looooove getting interactions when I liveblog my writing. It is so nice to be able to share this with people who love it too (rather than inflicting it on my poor irl friends who are not writers). I just love all you Writeblr friends so much!

7. A writing tool/device you use that helps you with writing? (It could be speech to text, a writing program etc)

A 2x3.5' and a 3x5.5' whiteboard with a rainbow's worth of whiteboard markers in different thicknesses for brainstorming, family trees, timelines. My sketchbook, a mechanical pencil, and YouTube drawing tutorials for my maps and concept art. MS Word, dark mode, Times New Roman pt 11, with comments enabled for my manuscripts, outlines (bullet points), and worldbuilding notes. Subfolders within subfolders stored on my PC to organize all my Word docs. Two separate USBs which my completed manuscripts are saved to (in case something happens to my computer AND one of the USBs).

I have yet to find any worldbuilding or map making software (and it hasn't been for lack of looking) that gives me enough flexibility. I have yet to find any writing software that has features Word doesn't but that would actually help my process rather than overwhelm me.

I do want to write out a draft of WIPVII by hand at some point (though with my penchant for writing hand cramps this might be doomed). I also want to try an electric typewriter.

8. A piece of worldbuilding that you like in your own story? (It could be the magic system, a particular place in the story, a law etc)

WIPVII doesn't have very complex worldbuilding (there is no magic and most of it is ripped from real world history) but I do always love it when authors tell us what way the wind is coming, what smells it carries, what the view is in the distance, whose lands those are... that kind of stuff. Really creates a sense of place. I spent a lot of time mapping all this out in my own novel and I am very happy with it! The description feels so rich!

9. What piece of advice would you say to encourage others to write if they are having a rough patch?

Learn more about the craft. Writing is problem solving. If you aren't happy with something figure out why - the mechanics and technique behind writing. If you're still stuck learn even more. There are so many great, free resources on tumblr, youtube, blogs, pinterest (though it is most stolen from tumblr) even twitter and tiktok.

Also, learn how to filter out what advice is helpful now versus what should wait for later so you don't get overwhelmed. If you haven't even written a first draft yet don't bother with pacing, exposition, line editing, or let alone how to query. Just focus on the macro-stuff like plot and character arcs.

Tagging with the lightest brush on the shoulder these nine alleged humans: @cheeto-flavoured-pasta, @alnaperera, @bluberimufim, @daisywords, @boundedsea, @full-on-sam, @writernopal, @ashen-crest, @surroundedbypearls

[greatunironic]

20 questions for fic writers

approximately twenty years late for these twenty questions, but i'm here now so that counts rights? thank you to @aidaronan for the tag!

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 40

2. What’s your total AO3 word count? 711,322

3. What fandoms do you write for? currently stranger things, but i've got star wars (prequels + rebels) w.i.p.s in the google docs that i'd still love to see the light of day

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos? steddie overtook my oldest fics, so most remarkable thing is my number one, with two other fics in the same universe behind it (frozen with joy and the world throws its light), followed by all the missing girls and brutalist masterpieces

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? i try to respond to all of them because i'm trying to be more outgoing in fandom spaces; i also feel very humbled + touched by the response to my steddie stories so i try to stay engaged there when i can

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? i don't think anything is particularly angsty from stranger things -- i try to lean into optimism and hopeful endings when i can, even if something tragic happens with the story; so i would have to say the untitled companion kallus au out of rebels fandom, since part two ends on a bit of a downer.

(though various stories out of the eating in the underworld series probably qualify, especially when you're reading them chronologically...)

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? i like to think the whole of most remarkable thing, and other b-sides and rarities as the happiest, i would say? mainly because the idea of steve + eddie, alive in 2023 and thriving with their family, careers, and marriage is very dear to me.

8. Do you get hate on fics? not really

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? yes; allow me to be pretentious and say that it's typically serving a plot purpose, and often tender, sometimes silly, sometimes spicy

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? i like a good fusion, mainly; i think the only crossover i've written + published is an ancient avengers and battlestar galactica fic

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? not to my knowledge

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? yes! remarkable has french + spanish translations, and crozen with joy also has a french translation

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? no; i'm a solitary creature by nature, and also anxious to a fault so i've never felt it was something i'd be able to do + do right by my co-author.

14. What’s your all time favorite ship? i love steddie but i gotta be honest here on tumblr dot com: kalluzeb

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? i pray every day that i'll finish all my wips; but my greatest fear is that i'll never conclude the star wars f+f au, even though the google doc is halfway written

16. What are your writing strengths? once again imma be a little pretentious and say crafting the story itself; i think i'm a really solid plotter + have good outlines that allow me to tell the story i want to tell

17. What are your writing weaknesses? probably being too wordy, and having a hard time trimming + cutting things; i have a whole google doc devoted to passages i've loved that i've excised from stories but just couldn't get rid of entirely -- i'm definitely a director's cut bitch

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? i've encorporated mando'a into a handful of star wars stories, and used a few russian terms of endearment for at me too someone is looking (rebels) -- so i think if it serves a purpose to the story, you gotta do it.

19. First fandom you wrote for? star trek, i think?? maybe stargate: sg1??

20. Favorite fic you’ve written? i love all of my children equally but differently, but gun to my head? dogfish or the other hand knocking, because both were so interesting + challenging to write in very different ways

not tagging anyone because i'm so late to the game, but if you wanna play just say i called your name!!

[beautyofsorrow]

2, 4, 7, 18, 46

2. Do you plan each chapter ahead or write as you go?

evil. evil question. why would you make me think about my multichaps. ok so i tried the intensive outlining thing, i really did, and it flopped so bad because i'm pretty sure i have adhd which, among many other things, means i need novelty in order to stay interested in a thing. but i also need STRUCTURE so i know where i'm GOING or i'll never FINISH so i have started doing this thing where i have the vague outline of what happens and then go from there. for without anesthetic, i had a pretty good idea of what i thought the first four chapters entailed before i ever sat down at the word doc, just so i'd have a measure of security behind this wildly ambitious idea. turns out it was only enough for three chapters and i am spinning my wheels a little on the fourth/fifth/sixth, but it's going so much better than my last multichap did, and i haven't abandoned it like my first. so yay! it's my own version of what i call the ann patchett method of drafting (see "the getaway car" in this is the story of a happy marriage for more details on that, dear mutuals who are not zanna). more adhd, but just rigorous enough to keep me from walking out. this seems to be working, but it's also nerve-wracking because oh no, what if i get ?? chapters deep and i've written myself into a corner? (the answer: girl calm down, it's fanfiction and you're supposed to be having fun)

4. Where do you find inspiration for new ideas?

i rifle through the fridge at 10pm looking for a very specific food that does not exist and then get mad at myself when i realize i am gonna have to write it into existence.

see also: my love for the characters (/horny and emotional). a desperate need for non-romantic sexually intimate relationships in media. upsetting plotholes in canon. deranged character dynamics. weird takes on popular tropes. religious trauma. family estrangement. being queer. i also read a lot of books and find plenty of sparks ideas juice inside them, usually in their style and execution. i looooooooove studying form and how it influences a book's plot.

7. How do you choose which POV to write from?

whatever best serves the story! and/or whatever i feel i can handle best in a given moment. for example, the first time i tried my hand at sex pollen (drown me in glitter, glitter and gold) i had no fucking clue how to write from a sex-pollened person's POV, so the answer was to stay in la'an's head the entire fic. that let me get really comfy with the story so that by the time i had to write her being all high on horny juice, it flowed much more easily than if i had started in una's POV, who's dosed from the start. also, it was a much better, funnier, and stronger fic that way. la'an's mortification really came through and allowed me to hit a lot of comedic beats i wouldn't have been able to hit due to una's temporary plunge into angst.

18. Do you title your fics before, during, or after the writing process? How do you come up with titles?

i do all three lol. mostly during and after. sometimes i'll have one from the start and it will stick; other times it will change to something else halfway through. many many times i will come screaming into ur DMs complaining about being done with a fic but not having title tags or summary. i started keeping a file in my notes app of lines of poetry i love, and i'll occasionally plunder them for titles. i'll also yoink song lyrics (just give me trust and watch what'll happen), riff on character quotes or episode titles (without anesthetic, ad astra), or rotate the fic in my head until something appropriately vibe-y presents itself (dress me down and hold me open, aces wild, stitch)

46. How would you describe your style?

contemplative, lyric and/or comedic (depending on the fic), & character-driven

[voxofthevoid]

Saw a writing game on my dash but am hesitant to tag you in it, so thought if I send it to you then you can choose whether to participate without pressure?

RULES: make a new post with the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Then tag as many people as you have WIPs

You can always go ahead and tag! I take a while to get to everything from tag games to DMs, but you're always welcome to poke me in any manner ❤️

This one sounds familiar. Last time, I think I dumped my entire plot bunny list? Not sure. Owing to the way I write and post, WIPs can be the 70+ outline docs, the 4-5 stories being actively posted, or the one(1) story I'm actively working on:

This time, let's go with the stories being posted either here or on Ao3. No wild descriptions though; these are all named children.

there's a lover in the story (but the story's still the same)

everything burned, as promised

(let me be clear) every version of the story ends with you being slaughtered

because the negative sex was born into a bloodline

(this is also part of the story) how the story changes

(and he had said) darling, your looks can kill, so now you’re dead

Tagging (no pressure) @eusuntgratie @joeys-piano @cursedvibes @spacerenegades and @naamah-beherit

[tallulah477]

Hi tallie!

I have a few questions-

So I'm thinking of writing a Lyle wainfleet x miles quaritch x oc multiple chapter story-

So the little plot i have is after the sea dragon sinks and miles and lyle make it out alive, they make it to land, meet my oc, and she teaches them the na'vi ways and everything-

So do you have any tips on making a good mauti chaptered work?

Also any tips on a three way sex scene?

I hope this isn't to much to ask for!😅

Thank you! 💕

Roomie, I'm sooooo here for this story already OMG

Also, you could never ask for too much - I'm always here to help and my DMs are always open too 🧡 I just hope my essay of a response isn't too much LMAO

I honestly can't say I have that much experience writing multi chaptered works so idk how helpful I can really be, but usually for my works I try not to go in blind because I can write myself into a corner like that. Sometimes, I can have a vague idea and it drives itself. But most of the time I need to have an outline to follow, even if I end up deviating from it eventually. And I would def suggest an outline for a multi chapter fic.

But my brain is so messy and so are my outlines lmao so idk if you're an organized person or not, but your outline totally doesn't have to be if you don't want it to be. I would say, whatever you can think of in that moment, write it down. Literally whatever pops into your head - whether it's a scene, a specific detail you wanna remember to mention, a line of dialogue, an entire conversation. Sometimes I end up writing whole ass scenes in my outline and then just copy and paste it into the doc and edit it 😂

I would suggest outlining what you want to happen in each part, specifically how you want it to start and where you want each chapter to end so you know exactly where you're trying to get to with each chapter. Are we ending on a cliffhanger, or a point of relief after a tense scene? It also helps with not rushing through/dragging the fic too much, I think.

If you don't mind me getting specific with your idea, I'd love to see how messed up Lyle and Miles are after the battle on the sea dragon. Their entire team just died (again) and they barely made it out with their lives themselves. I'm not 100% sure about Lyle cause we don't really get too close him during the movies, but I know Miles is going to have some raging emotions to get through because Spider chose the Sullys over him and left him there alone (if you decide to keep it canon like that). So I think that would be really fun to explore.

Then you can introduce your OC and go through whatever tension there's going to be between the recoms and her/her clan cause I doubt either one is going to trust each other right away so there might be some (or a lot) of hostility. Either way, it would be really fun to see how their feelings and emotions evolve on both sides, but especially for Lyle and Miles as they switch from their human marine conditioning to learning and appreciating the Na'vi way of life. It would def be a different learning experience from what we see in the first movie with Jake because even though Jake was also human/marine, he was wayyyyy more open to everything Na'vi than the recoms.

That's just my thoughts anyway - obviously everything is up to you! Honestly, you have a fantastic plot and there's so many directions you can go with this, so this is a great concept for a multi chapter fic.

TLDR: Outlines and details are your best friend 😂

For threesomes, I really try to keep the focus fairly equal between everyone. It's a little jarring sometimes when a character is completely forgotten about and then all of a sudden is there again, so try to go back and forth as best as you can to make sure no one is left out. So if you're OC is riding Lyle and thinking about how big his cock is inside of her, make sure she also feels Miles biting her shoulder from behind or pulling her head back to kiss her just so he's not just standing there like🧍‍♂️

Don't be afraid to use names either. Best to overuse than for your readers to get lost with who is who, imo.

Although eventually OC may be too overwhelmed and lost in sensations and might not know who's hand is who's and who's cock is pressing where but she doesn't care cause she needs to cum right now

Depending on how you wanna do your threesome too depends on how you set everything up cause they can be more like a train where one person mainly fucks OC while the other is just the helper and then vice versa, or you can do double penetration where they both have their own hole at the same time (or the same hole if you're feeling a little crazy lol)

This is so long, I'm so sorry LMAO

[reggieblk]

H E L O

hello <3 thank u so much for the ask from this game

H. How would you decribe your style?

I actually don't really know, which bodes well for the rest of this lmao. I'd say it's definitely influenced by everything I've ever read and my education - I went to school in France so there's probably some french influence in there. I'd say it's pretty simple and definitely still in the first stages of life, I hope to get much better as I keep writing!

E. If you wrote a sequel to [insert fic], what would it be about?

I'm gonna assume we're talking about equals in life (partners in death) bc I don't have any other fics posted haha. If there were to be a sequel it would definitely just be an amalgamation of scenes (already seen from Harry's POV and never seen before) from Tom's POV. Realistically there is nothing else I could do with how the fic ended lol, but yes I have thought about writing a small sequel like 20k of Tom POV

L. How many times do you usually revise your fic/chapter before posting?

Uuuugghh so many dude oh my god. I am SICK of equals in life how many times did I read that fic oh my god. I would like to use this opportunity as a formal apology for the HORRIFIC dialogue punctuation in that fic btw, any time I read back bits and pieces of it it's like full body cringe like - oh, a thousand ppl have read this, great. I do love the fic though so I'll revise it later on, at a time when I've laid it to rest for a bit bc I did write that fic out of love and I do love it, I'm just sick of it atm.

But, to get to the heart of the ask: I'm in the process of shaking off the habit of obsessively reading over every single sentence I write while still writing so it makes for more editing at the end but I now get the added bonus of rediscovering bits I'd forgotten! So I'd say I read over a fic a total of three times before posting : one entire time from start to finish, and then chapter by chapter as I post and I do that twice over (but there's also the small edits I make along the way).

O. How do you begin a story - with the plot, or the characters?

I tend to always use the same characters, main characters anyway so other characters just appear as the fic goes - but I definitely start with the plot. I'll vividly like hallucinate an idea I have and be like 'this is the best thing ever' and then if I'm motivated enough I'll open a google doc and flesh ideas out, write the bits of dialogue that stick in my mind and write an outline. The characters are part of the initial hallucination so I suppose it's kind of both at the same time!

Although, I mentioned in a post I'm writing a play (original work) for one of my fics, and for that, while I had a general idea for the plot, I was forced to come up with the characters first - so I suppose it depends on what I'm writing. (sidenote: this is the fic I've been writing obsessively for the past few days, I've decided to call it If we were lovers)

[the-blaze-empress]

For the Ask Game, 1., 2., 7., 19., 21., 41., 44., and 81.,

(hug)

1. do you know how you want the story to end when you start, or are you just stumbling through the figurative wilderness hoping to find a road?

i know where i want to end up definitely, sometimes that can change in specifics a little bit but like. the main themes and shit are always pretty set. the middle can b a bit hazy but also has the main points outlined. sometimes characters just have a few more panic attacks than expected u know how it b <3

2. talk about a notable time a narrative or character has looked you dead in the eyes and said “fuck your plan, here’s what we’re actually doing.”

PHILZA FUCKING MINECRAFT IN TAKE MY ARMS STOP FUCKING PANICKING. his reaction to quackity was WAY worse than i thought it was gonna be that it warranted an ENTIRE EXTRA CHAPTER. yeah so that happened. ALSO PHIL GETTING DISTRACTED BY THE RIBBON VENDOR. KID PLS THERES PLOT THAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN I GET IT THE RIBBONS R SHINY BUT WE GOT THINGS TO ADDRESS HERE. arms!phil very much has a mind of his own

7. tell us about the plot of the first fanfic you ever wrote

oh boy time to revisit the days where i didnt know what fanfic was!! i think technically my first fanfic was. sfge fic. i had a whole canon compliant story about a pair of twins, the daughters of the girl and boy from the snow queen fariytale, one had fire powers and the other water, the water one went to the school for good and the fire one went to the school for evil. they both got into the trial by tale and watched (ohgod what were their names) bane kill the good kid from woods beyond. uh yeah i had fun working out all their gifts and stuff, i had a lot of characters planned n shit i should see if i can find the word docs for that. as per usual the middle of the fic was very. hazy in the middle

19. what are some books or authors that influenced your style the most?

BUN BUNFLORAS @bunfloras!! SUCH a big influence on both what i write and how i write most notably in finally being the one to convert me from past tense to present. oh dear can you see me? for properly introducing me to whump and kidza, both of which i adore reading AND writing. fuckin. whats her name. margaret owen is such a good writer her books are so good i love how well she worldbuilds and embeds it all so well into her stories. go read the merciful crow duology you will thank me.

21. pick a writer to co-write a book with and tell us what you’d write about.

hmmmmmm. i think bun and i could write a good book together i mean we've already cowritten tens of thousands of words sfadsgdh. looks at rune and cam. looks at their rp. looks back at this question. yeah it would be about magic and queer relationships and growth and so much fucking angst

41. what is the weirdest story idea you’ve ever had.

i have no fucking clue. i have had so many story ideas i cannot keep track of them all. good lord. lemme check my google drive. OH I KNOW. that one klance fic i wrote from the perspective of a tree <3

44. any writing advice you want to share?

i feel like saying 'just fucking do it' is cliche. but its the best advice i can give really. write for yourself even if you dont publish it, read things you like and work out what you like about it and see if you can put that in ur own writing. write FOR YOURSELF. dont write for other people it will become a chore and you will regret it. people wont enjoy reading it if ur not enjoying writing it

81. if you could go back in time and give your younger self a piece of writing advice specific to you, what would it be?

god so much. not everything has to be about romance. stop taking on so many projects with deadlines at once. stop tracking how many words u write each day. write what you want to write. its okay to stop enjoying smth ur writing

writing ask game

(hi roo love you <33)

[flightyfinch]

ok this is only gonna be kinda interesting tbh bc it's been three years and i don't remember everything, this is mostly to entertain my friends

i used to freelance for Company. i started as a comics editor that worked with creators and reported to lead editors who were staff at Company and oversaw several comics at a time. idk how well this worked out as a system for Company (more on that later) but it worked well for me. eventually i was also signed on to write a comic adaptation of a book Company owned the rights to. i was given a lot of creative liberty on that and the schedule was strict but had plenty of time between chapter scripts being due, so it was pretty nice

in the middle of that project and a few others, i learned that another comic was in progress and was looking for a new writer to finish up the last 25%ish of scripts, and i was encouraged to throw my hat in the ring. i read all the published chapters of the comic and wrote up a short sample script according to prompts i was given

they wanted to see what i'd do with edit notes before taking me on, so enter two contributors to that google doc who we'll call Blake and Borpus. Blake was Company staff and a lead editor and a lovely person, i'd been in communication with her already about this job. she left nice productive notes about tweaks to the script

i never had any form of introduction or direct communication with Borpus. their name was listed on the comic as one of the creators, but apart from that i had no idea who they were. maybe they were also with Company or maybe they were an affiliate creator, but either way it looked like they'd been with this project from the start. their comments were blunt and honestly rude. this genius expected me to have included character development and backstory which hadn't been published yet. maybe they weren't looped in enough to know i hadn't actually signed on yet, i dunno, but one thing for which i give NO benefit of the doubt is that they rewrote entire parts of my dialogue. Company's editorial guide was very clear about how one should only ever provide EDITS, not directly redo another's work. on my own editing gigs i gave creators prompts and had them write the changes themselves. i only ever wrote out new lines or panels and offered them as suggestions if a creator and i had been working for a while and we had a level of trust

so Borpus pissed me off, but i still wanted more writing gigs. i took the notes and made changes to the sample script (putting BACK my dialogue and grudgingly working in the feel of SOME of Borpus's line changes) and my work was given the green light. when i signed on, to my relief Borpus's involvement vanished and i worked exclusively with dear Blake

but SHEEEESH i walked right into a mess. it looked like the comic's last chapters had been written at least once already and thrown out. i was given a rough version of the previous outline with a few story points they wanted to keep, and was asked to outline a new dozen ending chapters from that. i was given 2 (?) weeks for that and once that was done my schedule was one script due per week. this was a CRAZY speed bc every week was writing a new script and implementing edits on the previous week's script. i remember early on i was given a scrapped chapter that had reached the lineart phase, and was asked to rewrite the chapter and rearrange and reuse as many panels as possible to fit the new plot beats. it was understandable that they wanted to use work they'd already paid for and it was actually kind of a fun challenge, but it's also indicative how Fraught this production was

for the next couple months the pace was grueling, but apart from that it was fine. i wrote scripts, made edits, and they were shipped off to the art team. i reasonably thought that we were cleaning up from one emergency overhaul and the rest would be smooth sailing

after a couple of my chapters had published, Blake very apologetically approached me and i was T-boned by another overhaul. my chapters were spending too much time on new characters and story points and not enough time on the main couple...... the characters and the story points i had been assigned to do. yeah those. (specific gripe: how tf am i supposed to show the protagonist finding a place in her local lgbtq community without spending any time on the new people she meets in said community???) i made heavy new edits on scripts that hadn't been drawn yet, and i had to write one new chapter of the main couple hooking up and parting badly in order to amp up the feeling of resolution in the finale. i disagreed with this decision a Ton. this comic had been leaning hard on will-they-won't-they and it didn't make sense NOT to use them finally getting together for the finale. the reasons for the fight didn't make sense for the characters or for the fluffy goofy tone the comic had started with. but at this point i knew for sure that the clown car i was stuffed into was on fire, so i just wanted to maneuver myself to the nearest door. i made changes for them until they physically ran out of production time to ask me to make any more, and then i was done

a few other things happened mixed in this timeline of which i can't remember the order. Blake left Company (i doubt because of this particular comic but i'll never know). Company was acquired by a larger media corporation. and because i was the creator of the script Google Docs, i received the notifications when Borpus made their harbinger return and started doing rewrites to my scripts.

Contractually, anything i wrote for Company was their property. so long as any use of my work was credited and i was paid as agreed, it was theirs to do whatever they wanted with it. i know this doesn't seem to align with the practices i mentioned in the editorial guide, but it shows the hard split between the honor and respect generally shown on the production side of Company and the legal ownership rights the corporate side demanded. i could have edited those scripts as many times as they asked but they still could legally make any changes they wanted after the fact. no one WOULD, of course, bc that's stupid and insulting. no one except Borpus.

their changes sucked. characters became flatter and MEANER just to amp up drama. the scripts had been frankensteined and it was very obvious when you read them. i could have raised a stink about this if i wanted i guess, and someone probably would have stepped in on the principle of the thing, but i knew i didn't have any legal protection to lean on and this was all very clearly revealing itself to be stupid and not worth it. even in my early less muddled chapters the readers were unhappy. turns out if you keep trying to make changes to something WHILE it's in motion, people notice and realize they're being strung along. i just walked away.

as this was wrapping up Company's new owner, shockingly, did a big round of layoffs. maybe that system of freelancing editors to produce a higher quantity of comics wasn't good for quality, or maybe they were just being dicks. i don't know if anything would've even happened if i'd raised the rewrite issue, because the comic was finally ending and a ton of the people who'd made it were being let go anyway. all my connections at Company were gone and my work there dried up, so working on this comic didn't even amount to getting any better work there

to this day i don't know what the fuck was going on up top with that comic. maybe Borpus was in charge and behind every stupid demand for change. maybe this comic suffered a death by committee and Borpus was just one bad actor taking advantage of shitty management. all i know is mercifully people stopped reading this once popular comic, and it died in darkness where no one would see my name attached to it. many lessons learned, much dickheadedness witnessed. anyway the end. sometimes i like to look back on that smashed, flaming clown car wreckage, and now you can too ✌️

i think at some point i'll share the story of the shitshow that was the gl vertical scroll comic i wrote for bc i don't think i've ever explained the whole story to Anyone, and also who doesn't love hearing about a mess

[fixyourwritinghabits]

hey, i have an issue when it comes to physically writing things down. i've basically memorised all my worldbuilding, and if people call on me to explain a part that i already know, i can explain it. but the problem here comes with writing these thoughts down. every time i go to type up dossiers of my cultures, i draw up blanks, despite not lacking anything to write about. all my ideas take the form of feelings and vibes that i dont know how to capture. anything i can do to fix this? thank you

The blank page writing dilemma is extremely common and regularly trips up many authors, no matter how many ideas they have. I'm not able to write directly on a Word doc. I'm not able to put my ideas in an Excel sheet, even though I can do that for work, and I'm not able to use Scrivener, as helpful as it is. I can use the computer for everything but novel writing.

And yet, despite in my mid-30s with probable ADHD, I've been able to write a number of novels and short stories. I've got a literary agent, and maybe someday will actually sell a book, who knows? But the point is if I can do this, so can you. In order to get anything done, I turn it into an art project.

Now, I'm not an artist. I can't draw, and I don't have much patience for learning beyond the basics of other art forms. But I can take a bunch of differently colored sticky notes, assign each color meaning, and slap them to a huge project board laid out with an outlined plot structure (I personally use Save The Cat as a starting baseline). I can use some macaroni to make a fantasy map. I can create character flash cards and add vital information to each.

Gather Your Tools - It takes some trial and error to find the method that works for you. You can try flash cards, you can try sticky notes, you can try colored pencils or fancy pens (I have to use Uni Power Tank pens, nothing else works). If laying out your scenes on flash cards doesn't work because you don't like things out of order, put them on sticky notes. Give yourself enough room to expand out - on a table, on the floor, on your bed. As long as you're creating something, you are making progress.

Start Small - You have a big whole world in your head, of course it's going to be hard to write down. Pick one thing - a character, a setting - and focus on that. Make a character sheet, create a playlist, spend way too much time on Canva creating a moodboard. Whatever gets the idea out of your head and onto something concrete that you can see helps.

Your notes can be as detailed as you want - Know how a scene goes to the very last detail? You don't have to write it down in full. Alternatively, however, I find my scene notes tend to be what amounts to my first draft - I get an outline in there, some dialogue, notes on setting and mood. But it's entirely up to you and what suits your needs!

Look, just make those playlists and moodboards - It feels like it's wasting time, it's not. You're getting those ideas flowing any way you can. Use every tool that helps.

This is all good and well, but how to get from preparing to write? Well, this is where it gets challenging. A detailed book, like Book In A Month, can help, writing advice is not one size fits all, and writing books are not rigid structures to stick to, but guides.

Make a reward system - I use stickers . Seriously. In addition to my notes, I have another sheet pinned above my desk with each chapter listed, the goals for each (draft, edited, etc), and a spot for a shiny sticker (also, I used to be a teacher, and you never get over the joy of using stickers). But any system will do, as long as you keep it to something that's easy to maintain and won't break your bank.

Chuck your goals - Can't get a chapter done? Focus on a scene. Can't get the scene to work? Focus on a chapter. Write your dialogue in script form, sketch out fight scenes with notes on details to add later. Everything is fixable, as long as you have something to fix.

Can't write on a computer? Try something else - Okay, look, I can't draft anything if I don't do it by hand. Is this the greatest idea? Maybe not, but it allows my brain to slow down and get the words to where I want them to be. I don't draft fast, but I do draft well because I'm handwriting, and my first attempt often resembles the final version.

Form habits and rituals - I have to write with a certain type of pen (hello, Uni Power Tank I have to buy online because they only make them in Japan). I have to write on a certain type of paper, with specific margins, because any size deviance between pages will drive me nuts. Is this stupid and arbitrary? Yes. Does it work for me? Also yes, which is why I do it. Find that kooky writing habit that works for you, and keep to it. If it works, it works.

There's nothing wrong with you. Your lizard brain knows writing is hard and it doesn't want to do hard things if it doesn't have to, so you have to find ways to trick your brain into wanting to do the hard thing (by hiding the fact that it's hard). It won't be easy, and you'll still have a lot of moments of frustration, but creating the right writing habits that work is the first step to getting those worlds out of your head and onto the page. Good luck!

[theleakypen]

Fic Writer Interview Game

Thank you for the tag (almost 2 years ago) @gusu-emilu!

I am tagging literally anybody who sees this and wants to play :D

name: Puck

fandoms: multifandom! although Untamed/MDZS continues to be my main

two-shots: I never understand this question but it looks like it means to rec your own two-chapter fics so here we go: Stories More Beautiful Than Answers (CQL, Mianmian gets to meet Jin Ling post-canon) and Rhûnlanders (I published it as a series of 2 separate fics, but it's basically 1 thing: Songxiao in Middle Earth - Xiao Xingchen is an Elf and Song Zichen is a Man, both from Rhûnland so they're still Asian)

most popular multi-chapter fic: Obviously Yunmeng In-Laws (my and @iamwestiec's CQL modern AU groupchat fic which had bafflingly runaway success) has to be the answer to this. But if we're only going by ones written solely by me, it's But, After All, I Am A Wen (incomplete Wen Qing canon divergence wherein she actually takes and uses the comb Jiang Cheng gave her to commit treason and save her family's lives)

actual worst part of writing: having the fucking brain space to fucking write, fuck. it's been really hard bc i have so many other obligations and they eat my brain so even if i have ideas i can't get them to turn into prose :(

how you choose your titles: in order of likelihood: first, quote from the fic itself; joint second place, something kinda descriptive of the fic or lines from a poem or song

do you outline? not generally. I did outline my multichapter Wen Qing fic bc it's so much more ambitious than anything else i've ever worked on and I occasionally do something resembling in an outline in the doc of my one shots when i know what happens in the sections but don't have the prose yet; it's usually, like, a series of bracketed statements.

ideas you probably won't get around to, but wouldn't it be nice? oh god so many lmao. i have an entire channel in my writing discord that is just these ideas. One idea I have is a Songxiao no eye transfer AU because BSSR doesn't open the mountain back up to XXC and how they have to deal with that. Also I have yet to write any Witcher fic but I've been playing Witcher 3 and I really wanna write a Vesemir POV fic that's 5+1 "5 times Geralt sent some random-ass stranger to Kaer Morhen and 1 time he came home" inspired by all the times in Witcher 3 when you can help someone and then be like "Oh yeah you'd be welcome at Kaer Morhen"

spicy tangential opinion: not that spicy but i wish more people would comment, especially on the smaller/less popular fics. i see your kudos! it makes me happy! but i'd love to know your thoughts if you have any!

callouts @ me: none of my self-callouts are writing-related, it's all just - clean your room, go the fuck to sleep, you're not a teenager any more and your body hurts less when you do basic life maintenance tasks. (honestly i'd probably also write better/more if i did basic life maintenance tasks so it counts lol)

best writing traits: Westie once said I'm good at making soft things hurt and I hold that compliment close to my heart <3

[duckprintspress]

How to Edit an Over-Length Story Down to a Specific Word Count

One of the most wonderful things about writing as a hobby is that you never have to worry about the length of your story. You can be as self-indulgent as you want, make your prose the royalist of purples, include every single side story and extra thought that strikes your fancy. It’s your story, with no limits, and you can proceed with it as you wish.

When transitioning from casual writing to a more professional writing milieu, this changes. If you want to publish, odds are, you’ll need to write to a word count. If a flash fiction serial says, “1,000 words or less,” your story can’t be 1,025 and still qualify. If a website says, “we accept novellas ranging from 20,000 to 40,000 words,” your story will need to fall into that window. Even when you consider novel-length works, stories are expected to be a certain word count to fit neatly into specific genres - romance is usually around 80,000 words, young adult usually 50,000 to 80,000, debut novels usually have to be 100,000 words or less regardless of genre, etc. If you self-publish or work with a small press, you may be able to get away with breaking these “rules,” but it’s still worthwhile to learn to read your own writing critically with length in mind and learn to recognize what you do and do not need to make your story work - and then, if length isn’t an issue in your publishing setting, you can always decide after figuring out what’s non-essential to just keep everything anyway.

If you’re writing for fun? You literally never have to worry about your word count (well, except for sometimes in specific challenges that have minimum and/or maximum word counts), and as such, this post is probably not for you.

But, if you’re used to writing in the “throw in everything and the kitchen sink” way that’s common in fandom fanfiction circles, and you’re trying to transition only to be suddenly confronted with the reality that you’ve written 6,000 words for a short story project with a maximum word count of 5,000...well, we at Duck Prints Press have been there, we are in fact there right now, as we finish our stories for our upcoming anthology Add Magic to Taste and many of us wrote first drafts that were well over the maximum word count.

So, based on our experiences, here are our suggestions on approaches to help your story shorter...without losing the story you wanted to tell!

Cut weasel words (we wrote a whole post to help you learn how to do that!) such as unnecessary adverbs and adjectives, the “was ~ing” sentence structure, redundant time words such as “a moment later,” and many others.

When reviewing dialog, keep an eye out for “uh,” “er,” “I mean,” “well,” and other casual extra words. A small amount of that kind of language usage can make dialog more realistic, but a little goes a long way, and often a fair number of words can be removed by cutting these words, without negatively impacting your story at all.

Active voice almost always uses fewer words than passive voice, so try to use active voice more (but don’t forget that passive voice is important for varying up your sentence structures and keeping your story interesting, so don’t only write in active voice!).

Look for places where you can replace phrases with single words that mean the same thing. You can often save a lot of words by switching out phrases like “come back” for “return” and seeking out other places where one word can do the work of many.

Cut sentences that add atmosphere but don't forward the plot or grow your characters. (Obviously, use your judgement. Don't cut ALL the flavor, but start by going - I’ve got two sentences that are mostly flavor text - which adds more? And then delete the other, or combine them into one shorter sentence.)

Remove superfluous dialog tags. If it’s clear who’s talking, especially if it’s a conversation between only two people, you can cut all the he saids, she saids.

Look for places where you've written repetitively - at the most basic level, “ ‘hahaha,’ he laughed,” is an example, but repetition is often more subtle, like instances where you give information in once sentence, and then rephrase part or all of that sentence in the next one - it’s better to poke at the two sentences until you think of an effective, and more concise, way to make them into only one sentence. This also goes for scenes - if you’ve got two scenes that tend towards accomplishing the same plot-related goal, consider combining them into one scene.

Have a reason for every sentence, and even every sentence clause (as in, every comma insertion, every part of the sentence, every em dashed inclusion, that kind of thing). Ask yourself - what function does this serve? Have I met that function somewhere else? If it serves no function, or if it’s duplicative, consider cutting it. Or, the answer may be “none,” and you may choose to save it anyway - because it adds flavor, or is very in character for your PoV person, or any of a number of reasons. But if you’re saving it, make sure you’ve done so intentionally. It's important to be aware of what you're trying to do with your words, or else how can you recognize what to cut, and what not to cut?

Likewise, have a reason for every scene. They should all move the story along - whatever the story is, it doesn’t have to be “the end of the world,” your story can be simple and straightforward and sequential...but if you’re working to a word count, your scenes should still forward the story toward that end point. If the scene doesn’t contribute...you may not need them, or you may be able to fold it in with another scene, as suggested in item 6.

Review the worldbuilding you’ve included, and consider what you’re trying to accomplish with your story. A bit of worldbuilding outside of the bare essentials makes a story feel fleshed out, but again, a little can go a long way. If you’ve got lots of “fun” worldbuilding bits that don’t actually forward your plot and aren’t relevant to your characters, cut them. You can always put them as extras in your blog later, but they’ll just make your story clunky if you have a lot of them.

Beware of info-dumps. Often finding a more natural way to integrate that information - showing instead of telling in bits throughout the story - can help reduce word count.

Alternatively - if you over-show, and never tell, this will vastly increase your word count, so consider if there are any places in your story where you can gloss over the details in favor of a shorter more “tell-y” description. You don’t need to go into a minute description of every smile and laugh - sometimes it’s fine to just say, “she was happy” or “she frowned” without going into a long description of their reaction that makes the reader infer that they were happy. (Anyone who unconditionally says “show, don’t tell,” is giving you bad writing advice. It’s much more important to learn to recognize when showing is more appropriate, and when telling is more appropriate, because no story will function as a cohesive whole if it’s all one or all the other.)

If you’ve got long paragraphs, they’re often prime places to look for entire sentences to cut. Read them critically and consider what’s actually helping your story instead of just adding word count chonk.

Try reading some or all of the dialog out loud; if it gets boring, repetitive, or unnecessary, end your scene wherever you start to lose interest, and cut the dialog that came after. If necessary, add a sentence or two of description at the end to make sure the transition is abrupt, but honestly, you often won’t even need to do so - scenes that end at the final punchy point in a discussion often work very well.

Create a specific goal for a scene or chapter. Maybe it’s revealing a specific piece of information, or having a character discover a specific thing, or having a specific unexpected event occur, but, whatever it is, make sure you can say, “this scene/chapter is supposed to accomplish this.” Once you know what you’re trying to do, check if the scene met that goal, make any necessary changes to ensure it does, and cut things that don’t help the scene meet that goal.

Building on the previous one, you can do the same thing, but for your entire story. Starting from the beginning, re-outline the story scene-by-scene and/or chapter-by-chapter, picking out what the main “beats” and most important themes are, and then re-read your draft and make sure you’re hitting those clearly. Consider cutting out the pieces of your story that don’t contribute to those, and definitely cut the pieces that distract from those key moments (unless, of course, the distraction is the point.)

Re-read a section you think could be cut and see if any sentences snag your attention. Poke at that bit until you figure out why - often, it’s because the sentence is unnecessary, poorly worded, unclear, or otherwise superfluous. You can often rewrite the sentence to be clearer, or cut the sentence completely without negatively impacting your work.

Be prepared to cut your darlings; even if you love a sentence or dialog exchange or paragraph, if you are working to a strict word count and it doesn't add anything, it may have to go, and that's okay...even though yes, it will hurt, always, no matter how experienced a writer you are. (Tip? Save your original draft, and/or make a new word doc where you safely tuck your darlings in for the future. Second tip? If you really, really love it...find a way to save it, but understand that to do so, you’ll have to cut something else. It’s often wise to pick one or two favorites and sacrifice the rest to save the best ones. We are not saying “always cut your darlings.” That is terrible writing advice. Don’t always cut your darlings. Writing, and reading your own writing, should bring you joy, even when you’re doing it professionally.)

If you’re having trouble recognizing what in your own work CAN be cut, try implementing the above strategies in different places - cut things, and then re-read, and see how it works, and if it works at all. Sometimes, you’ll realize...you didn’t need any of what you cut. Other times, you’ll realize...it no longer feels like the story you were trying to tell. Fiddle with it until you figure out what you need for it to still feel like your story, and practice that kind of cutting until you get better at recognizing what can and can’t go without having to do as much tweaking.

Lastly...along the lines of the previous...understand that sometimes, cutting your story down to a certain word count will just be impossible. Some stories simply can’t be made very short, and others simply can’t be told at length. If you’re really struggling, it’s important to consider that your story just...isn’t going to work at that word count. And that’s okay. Go back to the drawing board, and try again - you’ll also get better at learning what stories you can tell, in your style, using your own writing voice, at different word counts. It’s not something you’ll just know how to do - that kind of estimating is a skill, just like all other writing abilities.

As with all our writing advice - there’s no one way to tackle cutting stories for length, and also, which of these strategies is most appropriate will depend on what kind of story you’re writing, how much over-length it is, what your target market is, your characters, and your personal writing style. Try different ones, and see which work for you - the most important aspect is to learn to read your own writing critically enough that you are able to recognize what you can cut, and then from that standpoint, use your expertise to decide what you should cut, which is definitely not always the same thing. Lots of details can be cut - but a story with all of the flavor and individuality removed should never be your goal.

Contributions to this post were made by @unforth, @jhoomwrites, @alecjmarsh, @shealynn88, @foxymoley, @willablythe, and @owlishintergalactic, and their input has been used with their knowledge and explicit permission. Thanks, everyone, for helping us consider different ways to shorten stories!

[xoxoemynn]

Was tagged by @wistfulcynic to share my writing process, fun! Tagging @abigailpents, @red-sky-in-mourning, @montygreen, @gayhoediaz, aaaaand....I think I've already seen all my writer mutals active on Tumblr tagged in this BUT if you have not been, please consider yourself tagged.

Do you write in order? I do. I have to. I will happily tell other people that if they're stuck, they should skip the scene and come back later, but when I try to do it, I fail. My brain just won't let me proceed with the next until I know exactly what happens in the moments leading up to it, because WHAT IF SCENE A INFLUENCES SCENE B? I do wish I could jump around, but I can't.

How fully formed does your writing come out the first try? Pretty damn finished. I may go back in and add some flourishes, but overall, I'd say it's about 95% there.

How many drafts do you go through? Depends if it's a one shot or something like WTDB. One shots usually it's first draft, possibly pass it off to a beta reader, revised draft, and then I do another round of editing once I upload to AO3 because I swear I always find new things to fix once I see it in a totally new format, bringing us to a total of three. WTBD? Depending on the chapter, but usually looking at five or six.

Tell me about your process. I've realized I have two non-negotiables. The first is music. Sometimes I don't have music on because I feel like I need to Focus and it turns out I just don't write anything. I created a writing playlist for WTDB that basically just became my writing playlist, period, because my brain now associates it with writing. Other non-negotiable is an outline. I need one. Even if it's just bullet points. Every time I try to pants it I just end up spinning my wheels until I give in and jot at least a few notes down.

Again, I'd say one shots are different than a longer piece like WTDB. One shot I come up with an idea, write down the gist of the idea and maybe key lines/details I want to include because my memory is shit and I WILL forget. Then I just open up the ole Google doc and get going. I'm a simple lady.

WTDB was a totally different ballgame. I used Scrivener for that, and I can't imagine writing something of that length without it. I had a tab for each character, as well as pages for key settings, descriptions, references, etc. before I officially started writing. Especially with the intro character background stories, I was often shimmying sections around, and Scrivener made it really easy to do that. Then I'd write a chapter, immediately send it off to @margotandthefox for a pulse check off "does this make sense, does this work, does anything stand out to you as off?" Get it back, make edits. Once I had a nice chonk together, I'd send off to @monksofthescrew to beta that entire section of chapters. I'd then do some initial revisions, then another round when it's actually time for the chapter to go up, and a final one on AO3. (Although with ch. 5 I skipped AO3 because I had already been looking at it so much and it was weirdly liberating.)

Also I'd be remiss if I didn't mention I'd be lost without @margotandthefox, who frequently lets me just throw half-baked ideas at her, sometimes via rambling text, sometimes rambling audio message, and work through areas when I'm stuck. Highly, highly recommend you get a friend like that. 💕

Only other note I thought I'd share is I read my writing out loud as I edit, which was a trick I learned from my days as a writing tutor. And when I read along in my head, the voice narrating WTDB, especially the intro scenes, is the voice of God/the narrator from Good Omens. Now you know.