#if I don’t get feedback I’ll prob just rewrite

[somorrow]

Hey guys! I initially wasn’t going to ask this of you, but I’m conflicted and I’ve decided to get some feedback from my lovely readers.

As I’ve mentioned before, most of my work was started years ago. I’ve taken several hiatuses since then, and I’m picking it back up now. In order to do that, though, I have to be interested and like what I’m writing.

The next chapter of The First Path is extremely pivotal as there is a huge reveal for the reader; however, upon reading and rewriting some of the fic, I find that I no longer like the “mirrored timeline” plotline. I’ve been considering rewriting it entirely, which is why I’ve been holding off on the coming chapter. The next chapter is practically finished and the final chapter has been started, but I can’t stop the feeling that I’d rather rewrite it.

I feel like I’d like it so much better if I rewrote the series. It would make it much easier to write. I’ve outgrown that subplot and I’m finding it difficult to continue. I have two sequels to write after this, and I don’t want it to drag on. I want the writing process to be smooth going forward so I can update consistently.

If I were to do a complete rewrite, I’d separate the fics and remove that plotline entirely, making both The First and Second Path standalone fics. The reader would remain the same, but all references to the other timelines would be removed (except in the very end of TSP’s sequel). Because they will be relatively big changes I wanted to get your opinion. This will not change the overall main plot of either fic whatsoever.

When you vote, keep it in mind that I prefer to change it, but if too many people are attached to the way it is, I’ll try keep it as is even if it’ll be challenging to push through. I assure you I’ll replace that subplot with something even better.

Thanks for your input friends!

- Raven 🐦‍⬛

EDIT: Thanks for all of your votes. I’ve officially decided to rewrite the series. If you’d like to keep a copy of the originals, I’d download them from ao3 now, as I’m starting to make the changes. 🖤 Both stories will be fairly heavily affected by the rewrites. TFP has now been renamed The Flames of Love, and TSP In Hell. I will announce when the fics have been properly rewritten. I would recommend a reread of both in the future.

[angst-in-space]

july ‘22 writing progress

words written: 25.2k

most words written in a day: 1891

least words written in a day: 56

current yearly total: 149.6k

projects worked on:

- FINISHED WRITING SYLVIX DREAMSCAPE FIC AT LAST - editing ch 8 of dreamscape fic - rewrote first two chapters of my ya sci-fi book - finished outlining arctic monster book - worked a tiny bit on the twiyor fic - worked on matchablossom fic

works published in july:

none

july goals:

- write ~30k for camp nano - finish editing ch 8 of dreamscape fic and hand off to betas - finish writing the last chapter of dreamscape fic - start next round of revisions on ya sci-fi book - continue outlining/zero-drafting arctic monster book - work on twiyor fic - edit renga fic if i have time? - start editing ch 9 of dreamscape if i have time?

august goals:

- write ~15k - finish editing ch 8 of dreamscape fic and send to betas - continue revising ya sci-fi book - keep working on matchablossom fic - maybe keep working on twiyor fic?? - errrr maybe work on at least finishing an outline for one of my other sylvix fics?? start one of them? haha i don’t know

notes:

man... july really flew by! i think that’s partly bc i was kinda all over the place this past month (both mentally and location-wise haha). went on a couple trips w my fam, then my sister was visiting this past week so i have been busy. but, still tried to squeeze in as much writing/editing as i could!

i did not quite reach my 30k goal for camp nano, but i’ll give myself credit for that one cuz i still wrote over 25k and it was a busy month for me so i probs shouldn’t have set my wc goal so high anyway haha. 

probably my biggest accomplishment was that I FINALLY FINISHED WRITING SYLVIX DREAMSCAPE FIC!! :’’) holy shit.... i cannot believe i finally got to the end. it has been such a long and emotional journey (took me almost two years to write the whole thing jfc) so it definitely feels surreal. but i still have three chapters to edit/post so i am not done with it quite yet!! 

i recently got an edit letter from my mentors who are helping me w my ya sci-fi book so AAAA. based on their feedback, i....definitely have my work cut out for me lolll so uh that will probs be taking up most of my time in these coming months. i haven’t delved in much yet besides rewriting my first couple chapters to determine the best POV to use for the book going forward. but hopefully will get more into the swing of things during august!

while i was waiting on my edit letter, i also outlined... an entire other book lol (the one i am currently just referring to as “arctic monster book”). i don’t think i’ll have time to start writing it for at least three or four more months haha, but i am excited about it and it was fun to outline something new!

other than that... i’ve been working on my matchablossom fic again recently, so i hope to continue that. doubt i’ll finish it this month bc i have my book to work on (and i think this fic is gonna be...long-ish) but would like to write a decent chunk of it!

i also have a couple sylvix ideas i’d love to start but am still trying to plan/outline those and ofc they will be super long/complicated bc i am an idiot who loves to make more work for myself! i am gonna try to restrain myself from starting either of those but.... if i just so happen to finish an outline for both/either of them, that may change.

there’s also the twiyor fic which hmmm... still unsure whether i am going to continue writing it but we shall see. and just in general, a bunch of other fics i would love to keep working on but unsure if i will have time. but we shall see where inspiration leads me!! 

[lumilasi]

I saw this in my feed and since I was pretty bored and FINALLY free from the said boredom, figured I could do this one. I generally enjoy question based tags, especially if they relate to art/writing/fandom/are some general things about favorite colors, music, foods, things about your home country etc.

(basically, you can tag me in stuff similar to listed above things and I’ll probably do them if I see them/have time lmao)

Fic Writer Questions!

How many works do you have on AO3? 

44 total. I used to have more but I’ve deleted an old Bleach one I knew I’d never continue to write, and two bnha ones for the same reason (those two were also at the very beginning stages so nobody missed a lot anyway)

What's your total AO3 wordcount? 

4 269 068......wow. It’s even MORE than I even imagined. Over 4 million words. 

....Someone take my writing tools away from me lmao

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

 Three. I started with MCU, moved on to Bleach and now I’ve done most ofr BNHA

What are your top 5 fics by kudos? 

Crossroads - 3069 

Family Secrets - 3015 

Reanimate - 1534 

The neighbor - 809 

Espada and Fraccion - 782

.....Admittedly this list surprised me. Not the first three but the last two. The fifth is an one shot for Bleach that I wrote AGES ago. I also for some reason expected this list to match the bookmark list more lmao

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I always try to respond to every comment I get, but often times when it’s just one word or a heart emoji I don’t really know what to say, so I might not reply to those. I do appreciate every comment I get, and read every single one, even if I don’t respond

What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending? 

I don’t do angst endings typically, but Family Secrets is probs the most obvious choice, given what happens at the end. 

- and its not even the real end, because I couldn’t help myself and made two more stories for the AU that was like “hey! this character I made you all love so much actually DIDN’T die, he just had unfinished business back home” lmao

Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you've ever written? 

Rarely, typically they’re between my own fics (the story that crosses the paths of Crossroads and Family Secrets AU’s, literally titled Crossover, creative name I know OTL I was out of ideas) 

Or between me and other people’s fics. Currently there’s two, both with Crossroads: one with Theteapotofdoom’s fic Something Good, and another with leontheneon’s fic Here with you. Both stories are basically a two part series that is non canon to actual Crossroads. The first story is finished, second one has two chapters left...that...I uh...struggle to write it seems OTL

(not tagging either person into this because Tea is very busy IRL right now so I don’t want to bother her, and Leon hasn’t been around in ages, IDK if they even use tumblr anymore)

Have you ever received hate on a fic? 

Not really no? I can only remember one time with somebody kind of demanding me to completely rewrite one fic in the past. It wasn’t really hate, more just...kinda unreasonable in my eyes? This was years ago by now.

While I did understand their side and the particular struggle they had (once they actually explained it, the first comment at the time came off pretty rude and demanding), I still feel them wanting me to re-write an entire multi-chapter fic just for them is a bit unreasonable, like said.

Like it wasn’t just couple of grammatical errors that was their issue, we’re talking weeks and even months long process of completely reworking multi-chapter story, because the grammar wasn’t tip top perfect. (I’m not a native speaker so there’s bound to be some mistakes; pointing out small occasional things is one thing - asking me to rewrite an entire multi-chapter story is another)

You can imagine that is not exactly high on my priorities list with IRL responsibilities and being more focused on the actual content of what I write, the ongoing stories I’m updating. This fic isn’t even finished yet either, so...yeah. Like after they explained their side of the story I was a bit more understanding, but its still....a bit ridiculous and unreasonable in my eyes to ask somebody to do such a massive overhaul when the story isn’t even finished yet?? Like maybe once its done and I have time I can go and edit it, but not when I haven’t even finished it lmao

Do you write smut? If so what kind?

Nah. I don’t care about smut a whole lot personally. I much more enjoy writing emotional scenes, character interactions and mystery. Plot over porn basically lmao 

Have you ever had a fic stolen? 

I don’t...do people actually do this? It feels like such a weird and pointless thing to do. It’s fanfic. stuff you write for fun and for free, for people to read for free. I’d also imagine its pretty easy to get caught given AO3 shows when you first posted your story. 

Have you ever had a fic translated?

 Yes, a couple of times. In Russian and I think other one was Chinese?

Have you ever co-written a fic before? 

Writing the crossovers was kinda that? Like I asked feedback from Tea and Leon on how to write them. there was also actually third crossover story that was supposed to happen (only I wasn’t going to be the one to write it) but this project has been shelved as the other person had to drop majority of online activity due to some IRL health related things. (I’m just glad they recently contacted me to inform they were doing better)

What’s your all time favorite ship? 

Right now it’s..probably pretty obvious its Shigadabi, but I can never really say any ship is my all time fave, as it always changes depending on the fandom lmao. 

I guess my favorite character x proper sleep/emotional stability/happiness will always be the OTP

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Oof. I always try to finish every single one, and if I absolutely know I won’t, I tend to just delete them. Thankfully I’ve only done it thrice. Which I guess is still a lot, but compared to how much I write, in context not really? 

What are your writing strengths?

From what I’ve gathered of feedback, its typically emotional moments/character dialogue and interaction/character arcs and so. Mystery plots too. Or maybe that last one is just me lmao

What are your writing weakness?

Personally, while I tend to get positive feedback on both, sometimes I feel like I struggle to choose a good pacing for a fic, and fight scenes are always a pain. Namely, I might struggle with making the pace too long-winded and slow sometimes. Ironically, my IRL update pacing is probs a bit too fast in turn. (To add another layer of irony, I got an update ready for Unravel that I’ll post after making this tag)

Also writing shorter stories. I’ve been trying to write one-shots more (like the Spinaraki series thing) to kinda try and get myself to pack up my stories better and not let them always spiral out of control haha

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I did try to do that once with a fic I deleted, I had a native speaker help me with the canadian french bits. This person is no longer active on tumblr, and I deleted that fic because I realized I’d never finish it. 

Technically tho, as a non-native English speaker, EVERY word is in other language to me lmao. I could only add Finnish as an extra one easily, and it rarely makes sense to do so anyway.

What was the first fandom you ever wrote for? 

MCU. It’s what I originally made my AO3 for, as I felt brave enough to post things. I also can’t remember writing fandom related stuff before that, it was typically more oc related. Writing fics has helped me learn a lot about world-building, character consistency and all that stuff, without having to make everything from scratch (tho I do enjoy doing that as well of course). I feel like my original work writing has improved too thanks to my fic writing shenanigans in a way lmao. Tho that might just be me, IDK

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written? 

Oooof. This changes a lot depending on the time. I can never really pick just one either: my current favorites are Stringmaster, The neighbor and Family Secrets

Stringmaster because I love building the Steampunk AU, and Tomura’s relationship with Dabi and his Sensei, The neighbor because I personally think the romance build up in that one is probably one of the best I’ve done so far (the character dialogue in that is among my favorites I’ve written as well) and FS, because it taught me a lot about character building through writing a character like Hisashi.

 Plus I just really like Hisashi. 

And baby Izuku and little Tenko are super adorable. 

And Inko is the best mum.

 Also the fact the whole story is so ironic in a sense its still kinda funny to me. 

The only writer I know that might be around rn is @nightlilly0110 soo...I guess I’ll tag them if they want to do this! Anybody who’s a writer can snatch this too of course ;)

[mjmnorwood]

[I.D. A header image of two pencils on a yellow background, with title reading ‘Redrafting’. End I.D.]

I think redrafting can sometimes be a bit of an elusive topic. I see loads of posts with advice for finishing the first draft (which is fantastic!) but advice for what comes after you’ve finished that mammoth task is less common. Here I’ll be outlining my redrafting process, and you can pick and grab whatever bits are useful for you!

1. Let the manuscript rest.

I love to fixate on my projects (what can I say? It’s a serotonin mine!). This focus is great for finishing stuff, but it can get in the way of redrafting, because you get too close to your work to be able to spot things that need changing. When you finish a manuscript, put it aside for however long it takes for you to be able to look at it with fresh eyes. I find this is usually a month or more for novels. This is a great time to work on other projects!

2. Re-read the manuscript, then outline (or re-outline).

When it comes to re-reading your manuscript, try to look at it with a critical eye (note: this doesn’t mean you have to be negative about it! Just have your editor hat on). Don’t make edits as you read, instead, jot down anything you think needs changing. At this stage, it’s going to be big picture stuff, structure, characterisation, plotting, novel pacing etc. Small details like phrasing come much later.

After this, take your list of changes and think about how they’re going to alter your book, then make an outline based on this new structure. I think this step is incredibly helpful regardless of whether you plotted or pantsed your first draft (I’ve done both). It makes the next stage so much easier.

3. Take your outline, and write the book again.

This is a lot of work, and believe me, if I thought I could get away without it, I would, but I haven’t found anything else that improves my books as much as a rewrite. If you start over from scratch, you’re less tied to what you wrote in your first draft, so it’s much easier to make the big changes that you need to make. This doesn’t mean you have to throw your first draft out, though! You worked hard on that, there’ll be a lot of good stuff there. I like to keep it open in another window while I write the second draft, so I can copy and paste scenes I want to put in the new version (with a bit of an edit).

4. Third draft time!

After letting the manuscript rest again, come back for some editing. Don’t worry, it’s not another rewrite (unless you want to do that again...). This is where more ‘medium-picture’ changes come in, things like deleting unnecessary parts, editing the pacing of scenes, making sure character details are consistent and the like. This isn’t an exact science, you can do small-picture edits to get your prose how you want it (I’d probs advise not to go hog wild on these though, since there’ll be more changes later), or you can do more big edits (I ended up deleting a whole subplot when I was doing the third draft of my most recent book). Basically, the idea of this draft is to make it the best you can make it with only your perspective to go on.

5. Let other people to take a look.

This is where I bring in beta-readers. It’s the scariest part, in my opinion, but so worth it. Other people will spot things about your book you’d never in a million years be able to spot yourself. I like to give my books to about 3-5 people, get their feedback, then make changes based on whatever they’ve said that I think is useful.

6. Rinse and repeat.

Keep getting feedback and making changes until you’re happy with your book! This can be from beta-readers and critique partners, also sensitivity-readers and editors if you can afford those services. The idea is that with each round of revision, your manuscript should become more refined, and the changes gradually get more and more small-scale (though sometimes a reader will throw a curveball that makes you realise more big edits are needed). This is a long process, and it can be a bit of a slog, but you can work on other projects at the same time, and actually, I think the editing process itself can be fun! It's the satisfaction of polishing a rough-cut gem.

And that’s it! I hope you find these steps helpful in developing your own revision processes. Happy editing!

Like this post? Follow for more writerly content! It’ll be lovely to have you along :D

[authorkimberlygrey]

How to do the First Draft Thing

Rule Number One of your first draft is that there are no rules.

•Grammar? Fuck it

•Logic? Eh, if you feel like it I guess

•Story Structure? I don’t know her

•Character arcs? Who gives a shit

•Your outline? If its still working for you I guess keep it around but otherwise chuck it in the corner with all the other shit.

Your first draft is literally just a fire. Not even a dumpster fire, because that would mean it was at least contained. That’s draft 2.

Draft No. 1 is a trash fire and that’s great that’s the way the writing gods intended. Perfection is the enemy of good and all that, but listen, your first draft probs isn’t even gonna be good. Its gonna be a first draft.

And listen, I’m not saying that to be mean or whatever. Everyone’s first draft is, from a technical writing perspective, shitty. Its supposed to be. The first draft is about you figuring out what you like, and what works and what doesn’t, its about learning your characters in their actual environment.

From a technical perspective, its gonna be shitty, and that means you can let go of all the stress and perfectionism and all that shit and just have fun. You can throw in scenes that don’t make sense, characters that go nowhere, meaningless angst or fluff. Just have a good time, because later down the line you’ll probably end up using that shit, even if you don’t , you’ll still learn from it.

Honestly you’ll probably end up tossing 99% of the shit in your first draft out, but that’s okay. That’s great even, your first draft is shitty, remember? There are so many more drafts after the first one, it’s a big step, but remember its only the first step. So forget about making it great and just make it exist. 

 I would recommend that you don’t edit during the writing process, if you have an idea, stick a note about it in the appropriate place and keep moving on. If its a major edit, then make a note and continue on as if you’ve already made the change so you have less to do when you’re finished. 

Once you’ve finished your draft, I would wait at least a week before you try to do anything with it. Personally, I try to wait for a month after I finish a draft before I look at it again. 

But once your wait is up its time to do editing. Some people edit their first draft, and some people, like me, rewrite the whole thing. 

Which, yeah, is a ton of work, but I find it worth it. I usually have so many edits to do in the first draft that it’s less of a hassle for me to do it all over again on a fresh draft rather than try to make all the edits I’d need to get the thing presentable. 

If you are going to do edits, here’s what I suggest you do: 

Start by reading through the draft, don’t change anything, not even a single word, just write it all down as you go. (this is also a good time to pick up all those notes you left for yourself while you were writing and see if they’re still something you want to do)

Be sure to keep track of where the smaller changes are, not just by page number, because once you start doing edits then the page and chapter numbers will probably change and you’ll be lost. Keep track of things by the words around them so you can use the search tool. 

Once you’ve finished with that go through the list and arrange everything by the size of the change you’ll need to make. FIrst things that’ll effect the entire draft, then chapters, then pages, then paragraphs, then single line changes. 

Make a new copy of your draft, don’t make the changes directly on your actual first draft document, you may want to go back to it later in case you don’t like some changes or there’s a line you want to rescue from it in the future. 

Then you pretty much just go through the list. 

Once your edits are complete, you’re ready to start looking for an outsider’s perspective. I definitely recommend a Critique Partner, another writer who looks over your draft (often in exchange for you looking over theirs) to see if there’s anything that sticks out from a writer’s perspective. 

Some tips on finding a CP:

Find someone near your skill level writing-wise. Finding someone better than you is, always, a huge boon, but remember this is a partnership so they may want someone closer to their skill level. 

Having them like or even write the genre that your draft is in would also be a great idea, that way they’ll know the tropes and such of the genre and they’ll also be interested in your book. 

Most importantly, find someone you can get along with. Even better, find someone you can be real friends with. 

Once it clears Critique,  you’re reading to get the reader’s perspective, which means you’re looking for Betas. 

Which could be a whole How to Do The Thing on its own, and ehh, it might be but I’ll at least give you a few tips here: 

Look for betas in your target audience, if you’re writing a YA book, feedback from a 60 year old isn’t really gonna be relevant. 

Most betas aren’t going to know what they’re doing, sure there might be experienced betas out there, but even then, they might not know what you specifically are wanting. Give clear, detailed instructions, ask them to give the most detailed feedback they can.

Don’t be surprised if they immediately ignore or misunderstand these instructions, that’s just the way it is a lot of the time. 

Gather more betas than you think you’ll need, a lot of the people who agree to beta for you, and even sound excited about betaing for you, will never be heard from again. 

Be polite to your betas regardless, unless you’re paying them, they’re doing you a favor. Yes, it sucks that they ghosted you, or ignored your instructions but there’s not much you can really do. 

Once you’ve got your feedback, its time to see what to keep and what to throw out. Everyone will have ideas and not all of them will be good. In fact most of them will probably be terrible. You don’t have to act on every piece of advice, you don’t even have to consider every piece of advice, some people go way  the fuck out there with the things they suggest and it can get to the point where they’re writing you a whole new story. 

However, sometimes there will be a diamond in the rough so generally you’re gonna have to wade through all the crap. Keep in mind that you know what you want your story to be about and what you want it to be like.  This might be a good time to reach out to your CP and see what they think of some of the advice you got. 

When you’re decided on all of the advice you’ve gotten and how you want to apply it, you’re ready to start the next draft, which means you get to go back to the beginning of all these instructions and start all over! 

Yeah, remember when I said that finishing your first draft is only a tiny part of the writing process for a novel? 

But, once again, it is an important part. You can’t start on step two, and the first draft is an important part of learning about your story, your characters, and your style.