#if asoiaf was written like f&b we would have gotten the beautiful love story of tyrek and his infant wife or smth

[francy-sketches]

This is the worst explanation I've ever read what 😭

[kingsansa]

Writing questions, when you start a new story do you mostly have it planned out or do you sort go with the flow? Do you know the beginning, middle and end and all the in between is changeable/movable? How much time do you spend on the characters before you start writing?

I love your writing and I'm always so impressed by how you manage to adapt them into you stories, I feel like they are how the characters would be in the time/setting for each of your stories.

Thank you for writing and sharing your stories.

Over the years, I’ve definitely gotten more neurotic about my writing process. In this sense, writing fic sort of gave me training wheels in a way and I’d say I’m more confident in my ability to lay the foundation for a story than I was five years years ago. With that being said, I’m still half of the belief that there is a such thing as over planning. There are times where I’ve written so much that I feel like I’ve already written the story and I have no interest in it anymore. So I tend to stick to these three steps.

where are we going? I’d say that I spend more time immersing myself in the setting than I do with the characters. When I say setting, I don’t just mean the country and city they live in, but the world they exist in, the circumstances that have led them to where the story starts. Sometimes I’ll write a timeline of precanon events. Sometimes I’ll create a Pinterest board. Sometimes I’ll make a playlist. Sometimes I’ll do all three. But some settings require more work than others. I prepped for IY by watching the proposal and rereading the wall of Winnipeg and me. I prepped for pp by watching spinning out on Netflix and reading a book about a girl who got pregnant as a teenager. The last three one shots I’ve been workshopping are all set in England in some regard, so I’ve spent a lot of time watching British shows. The goal is to lay a foundation solid enough for me to build the rest of the story on.

Who is all gonna be there? - I don’t spend a lot of time on the characters before I write beyond choosing who I’m going to write. During the hiatus after s6, I probably rewatched the show fifty times. I have all the books on audible. I even have the interactive editions with the maps, the character glossary, and the art. I have f&b and twoiaf. So I guess all that was my character work? I’m not claiming to be the number one asoiaf fan (it’s not even my favorite fantasy series) but I am a die hard stark loyalist, so I like to think I know those characters very well. But, with the exception of Robb and Rickon, they’re POV characters. We don’t have to draw conclusions about their personalities and motivations and hopes and dreams. We know them. For me, the more interesting character work lies in the characters that manage to make an impression without having a POV. We know Jeyne Poole is dramatic, irrationally romantic, and has a bit of a mean streak. We know Edmure is a lot more intuitive than people give him credit for, a hothead with a heart of gold. We know Mya is beautiful, brave, and wears her heart on her sleeve. I also like using what little we know about them to draw conclusions. Myranda and Mya grew up together, so it’s more than likely they’re friends. Benjen and Edmure are around the same age and share siblings by marriage but couldn’t be more different from each other. How much do you wanna bet they butt heads at family functions? Brandon was fucking anything in a skirt. Did he learn that from Rickard? Arianne had feelings for Oberyn, was in talks to betroth herself to Edmure, and was once betrothed to Viserys. That’s three different uncles! Is she an uncle fucker? These are the questions that keep me up at night! And I love finding ways to fit these different characters together in my stories. Myranda, Mya, and Theon have more in common than their age—they all have daddy issues, a flirtatious disposition, and are secure in their sexuality. Why wouldn’t they be friends? Or lovers? Robert has 16 children—and those are only the ones we know of—there’s no way all of them are white. Theon likes milfs and Cersei likes pretty boys that flatter her. They would definitely hook up. Jeyne is Sansa’s best friend (and possessive of that title, judging from her friction with Arya) she would DESPISE Margaery. Catelyn and Alerie are both southern girls that love popping out kids. What if they were in the same sorority in college? I’ve come up with ships you guys have probably never even considered based on as little as one shared trait. I have an entire tik tok collection dedicated to Mya and Waymar. Why? Because it’s fun! That’s what character work is for me more than anything else, having fun.

How are we gonna get there? - after I establish where the story will start and where it’s gonna end, it’s just a matter of getting there. With that being said, my outlining process can be fickle. I like to do three outlines. The first outline is extremely sparse, just a list of events I want to happen in no particular order. In the second outline, I rearrange these events I see fit. The third outline is where I break these events down into scenes. For every scene, I write down what I need to remember for when the time comes, including bits of dialogue. This is the skeleton I use to write. Sometimes, when I’m writing, I find that what I wanted doesn’t actually work on the page and I have to go back to the drawing board, which is the first outline. Hell, I’ll even start over from scratch, which calls for three more outlines. But with wips, my second outline is my Bible, so on a macro level, I try to keep everything static. The things I do end up changing and rearranging are never drastic.

Hope this all made sense. Thanks so much for reading!!!! 💗💗💗💗