#it'd be a different story if i actually worked on drafts + outlines for it a week in advance & asked for an extension

[loafbud]

I have 2 hours left to speedrun an essay i never worked on for two weeks that's due tonight :)

[ckret2]

Pardon me, however, have you ever considered getting help on WAIGLZ or any other fic of yours? Such as a ghost writer or someone to help you with art so it can get done faster?

I am just curious because I thought it would be really coolio to work with you or something, idk.

Please have a truly wonderful day/evening and toodaloo! ^ ^

+ Btw, if I sound rude at all, that is %100 not intentional tone is kind of hard to translate through text lol

I appreciate that the question is meant kindly; but why would I want somebody else to tell my story for me?

It might not make a difference to an audience member; y'all simply just wanna see the rest of the story, it doesn't make a difference who made it because from the consumer's end it still reads the same.

But it makes a hell of a lot of difference to the writer.

If i wanted a ghostwriter I could just chuck my outline into chatgpt. it would be just as good—which is to say it would be very bad—because in both cases it'd be written by someone/something that doesn't intimately understand the vast web of ideas the story's built on and the hundreds of tiny tiny goals I'm looking for places to thread into the story and the exact themes I'm trying to achieve and exactly where and how I want to make it funny and make it heartwarming and make it hurt; and in both cases I'd have to rip the product apart and edit it to sound like the story i'm trying to tell rather than sound like a 40% accurate retelling of my story that was based off of a barebones summarization.

Like, how many times have you seen Gravity Falls? Probably at least once or twice? If you sat down with an episode summary—only the summary, not the transcript or gallery—and tried to rewrite the script word-for-word and redraw the episode shot-for-shot, do you think you could get every word and every angle right? And you've already seen the episode! You remember the finished product! Imagine trying to guess at all that based off of the summary alone if you'd never seen it before!

So now instead of writing my own story i'm merely editing SOMEONE ELSE telling a water-downed version of my story. It takes me just as long if not longer; and on top of that there's no joy in it.

And if that's what i wanted to do with my life... at least shoving it in chatgpt would get me a first draft to edit faster.

as for art: about a decade ago i was writing/drawing a fancomic and tried to split it with friends so i was writing and they were drawing. it slowed down the whole thing immensely. took 4x longer to get art than doing it myself would've taken.

At the time, I updated multiple times a week (my art was worse then lol); and when I asked someone else to do art I had to keep choosing between:

delaying my next post for days while patiently waiting for a friend, with no guarantee they'd actually finish;

impatiently waiting and trying to find a way to politely repeatedly pester them about finishing the art; or

give up on waiting and do the art myself, which would hurt them deeply, especially if they'd already started it and I just went "nah you're too slow, I'll do it myself."

The thing is, I put my passion project ahead of my other hobbies. Why would somebody else put my passion project ahead of their own hobbies? It would be unfair and unkind for me to ask somebody to do that; but I'm not willing to slow down and wait for somebody to do some art for me when it's finally convenient for them; so therefore I'd better do my own art.

[writingsoftarnishedsilver]

Let me preface this by saying I mean this in a genuine way because I know it could be taken differently but how are you able to write and post so much in a given week? What is your process? Do you have a lot of WIPs going at the same time? Or just a lot of free time? I feel lucky if I manage 1,000 a week 😥 is there a method to it?

Hello! Thank you for your question. I appreciate the genuine interest instead of being like this person and discrediting my work.

There are a few different aspects that go into my writing process and how I'm able to write so much and so often! I answered a similar question before, but I'm happy to elaborate and try to get into more specifics!

Before I do though, I do want to point out that the speed you write has nothing to do with how good you are as an author! Some of the most well renowned authors are FAMOUSLY slow (i.e. think George R.R. Martin), whereas Nora Roberts, for example, has written multiple full length novels in a single year.

The main things I think it comes down to are:

Experience

Genre

Who you are as a person

Personally, I tend to find that writing is sort of like... like a reflex? Or maybe like working out a muscle? It can be a bit foreign at first and take time to find your style, but when you've done enough of it, it becomes a bit like second nature, especially when you write the same genre over and over, and do a lot of reading in that genre.

I have been reading novels since I was young. I've also been reading/writing fan fiction since I was 12 or 13, so over a decade ago now, and I've always done romance. Which is to say, I've been writing a long time with the same themes! But if you asked me to write a mystery novel or true crime or something, it'd probably take me an actual eternity.

My general process for writing starts with just a loose outline/skeleton of what the story will be. So, really just basic paragraphs of what I want to happen and what the general mood or setting is. For example, I've been working on Chapter 14 for my fic Playing for Keeps, and these are the first two paragraphs of my outline/plan:

Sebastian and Chouette wake up to find that their Prefect’s Bathroom post has gone viral overnight. As they make their way to breakfast in the Great Hall, eyes follow them, and other students are whispering, giggling, and outright staring at them. The attention is something Sebastian thrives on. He leans into it as he overhears students speculating about what exactly happened that night.

Chouette, on the other hand, feels a little overwhelmed. She’s never been the center of attention like this before, not for anything good, anyway. But now, people are looking at her and seeing her as Sebastian Sallow’s girlfriend. Meanwhile, she doesn’t even know if they are official because they haven’t talked about it. But Sebastian seems to be rolling with it, which only makes her nerves tangle even more.

Second, I have a work from home tech job, so I am literally at my computer all the time. I don't have to wait for free time after work or whatever, I can write on my lunch break or whenever I have down time because the tab is literally just... open.

I also just... don't have that many hobbies. Like besides reading and writing, I... play video games or spend time with my boyfriend. I don't really watch TV or movies, nor am I very extroverted so I don't make plans with friends super often. My point is, I guess I'm just kinda lame and this is just what I do with my spare time.

And then, thirdly, yes, I have soooo maaaany WIPs. I like to write a bunch of stuff in parallel so if I get writer's block on one thing, I can just move onto another. Right now I have over 10 drafts on Tumblr alone of unfinished fics at various stages of completeness, and that doesn’t even scrape the surface of the numerous half-baked stories just sitting on my computer.

Another thing to consider is that lately I’ve been doing a lot of writing for asks which I personally find a lot easier because the plot is already given to me! Like for me one of the hardest parts of writing is coming up with the storyline, so when that’s already done for me it’s like a weight lifted from my shoulders. I also find one-shots infinitely easier than weaving together a full length novel.

Recently, like very recently, I've also had the absolute pleasure of chatting more with other writers in the fandom like @newdreamlove95 and this has also been WONDERFUL for helping with planning/revising/and writing in general.

Anyway... I hope this helps and/or answers your question Anon. Feel free to send more questions if you have them.

[ceph-the-ghost-writer]

WIP Questions Tag

Rules : Answer as many (or as few) of the questions about your WIP as you can.

Tagged by @drawnecromancy! Read their answers for Le Prix du Sang here.

1. What was the first part of your WIP that you created?

Apophenia was originally a short story called "Dysthanasia" I wrote for an event on Ao3. Now Dysthanasia is the name of the series overall, and the story's a novel-length rough draft in the process of being rewritten.

2. If your story was a TV show, what would the intro song be?

Something short, instrumental, and spooky but with a touch of whimsy. Gotta have that little spark of fun or it'd wind up taking itself too seriously.

3. Who are your favourite character(s) and why?

I'm in love with all of them, but I have to stand by my protagonist, Isaac. He's a squishy human nerd, with no supernatural powers to speak of, but through being resourceful and more than a little lucky manages to survive awful situations. A lot of his characterization has to do with principles and compassion, but not quite in the soft or naive way readers might expect. His enemies repeatedly try to buy or break him, punishing him every time he does what he feels is right, but Isaac remains defiant, refusing to become jaded or take the easy way out. Is he destined to become a martyr? A monster? Stay tuned.

4. What other pieces of media could share a fan base with your WIP?

I'd hope The Vampire Chronicles fans would get into it. Maybe The Witcher fans, as far as characters relying on each other in an unjust world goes? Possibly readers of Octavia Butler, whose work I enjoy. I guess anyone who likes fictional organizations and the paranormal might see the appeal.

5. What has been your biggest struggle while writing your WIP?

Juggling all the backstory and worldbuilding that influences the characters and plot. So much happens before the actual story even starts. The death of Isaac's family. Renato becoming a bloodborn and his eroding loyalty to his sire. A cataclysm that reshaped the map. I'm doing my best to make these come through the text without hitting the reader with a wall of exposition.

6. Are there any animals in your story?

Living and undead! There's Renato's beloved goldfish, Tesoro. The elk, coyote, and bear Motley transforms into. Likewise the species of sharks that some of the good people of Eureka, Nevada can turn into. Or the livestock they raise, mainly sheep, goats, and chickens.

7. How do your characters get around?

Electric cars, horses, trains, or by turning into a much quicker animal.

8. What part of your WIP are you working on right now?

I think I'm almost halfway through the outline for the rewrite? Isaac is getting to know the supernatural locals of America's friendliest town on its loneliest road, and they him.

9. What aspects of your WIP do you think will draw people in?

Renato being a hot vampire, and there being different factions to identify with will probably lure some in. Hopefully they decide to stay for the characters, emotional arcs, and end of the world too.

Dysthanasia Taglist (Sign up or ask to be +/-): @thecyrulik @thatndginger @sunset-a-story @space-writes @scoundrelwithboba (feel free to consider this a tag for the game itself too)

Additionally @izzyspussy @wintherlywords @authoralexharvey @chauceryfairytales @autumnalwalker @revenantlore @captain-kraken @angsty-prompt-hole

Blank questions beneath the cut

1. What was the first part of your WIP that you created?

2. If your story was a TV show, what would the intro song be?

3. Who are your favourite character(s) and why?

4. What other pieces of media could share a fan base with your WIP?

5. What has been your biggest struggle while writing your WIP?

6. Are there any animals in your story?

7. How do your characters get around?

8. What part of your WIP are you working on right now?

9. What aspects of your WIP do you think will draw people in?

[bosstoaster]

How do you write long stories? Like, 20k+ ? I always have these grand ideas of how I'd like to write a fic that carries grander themes, like a plot against someone that's investigated or a slow burn romance literally anything that feels like it needs to be long to match the content? Like a 5k murder mystery would be over so quickly it'd lose impact? But I can never find the words or inspiration for what should happen in all the "in-between" moments. I can think of things for the beginning and end and a couple of scenes in the middle and it all comes out to about 8-10k. And I can never think of what to put between those scenes. I've got so many disjointed fics I've written over the years that have remained drafts because I don't know how to elevate them from scenes into stories? The pieces don't fit well enough together to turn it into something more epic. It remains a small fic :/ Any advice at all on this? I remember you saying a rough word count of all your fics combined over the past couple years and being flabbergasted by the number. Extraordinary. I'd love to be able to write long fics 🙏 sorry for the ramble!

(Current total AO3 word count is just over 2.75 million words, which doesn't count the 350k-ish in drafts, or fics on account accounts. But anyhow.) I had the same problem for a really long time, actually! Like, genuinely a decade of fic writing through middle and high school. The answer might be different for different people, but one thing really changed the game for me.

Outlines. Outlines are essential for longer stories, by my book.

What I do is I have an idea for a fic, usually a scene or like, an image of a ~vibe.~ From there I ask myself the first question. What do I want from this? Is it a cute romcom situation? Is it a sexy horror story about taming a monster? Is it a surrealist horror story? What do I want someone else to feel when reading this?

When I have that answer, I can answer the next questions: is this an AU or a canon fic? An AU means that your first chapter is probably going to be setting up the differences from canon. Canon means you have to tell your readers when we are in canon and set up how we got to the Situation (or jump into it, if you're feeling spicy.)

With that answer, we have an approximate starting location. It's fic, so we know where your audience is. How do we get from there to what you want to write about? What needs to happen for your fic to occur? For example, in my vampire fic, step one was turning/killing Dave. Okay, so you have your fic in a state where you're ready to run wild with your premise. Here's the actual meat of your questions.

How do I determine what goes in between the start and the scenes I want to write?

Usually one of a few ways

What needs to occur to get to the scenes I want to write? What makes the characters act in a way I want them to, but isn't out of character? Do they need to be hurt? Emotionally compromised? Worn down? How does THAT happen?

What makes logical, in character sense for the characters to do? Given any of the scenes and conflicts you have planned, what would be their next move/concern?

What SLAPS? What scenes add to the feeling I want the audience to have? For example, if this is a rom com, what scenes would make it clear they should get together, or would work well emotionally? If it's a cozy mystery, what clever things does the main character notice that tell you more about the weird cast of suspects? If it's a horror, what makes the situation more tense?

The point of an outline is literally to fill in these gaps. And there's no stress! You can change stuff or ignore it down the line. You're just drawing a basic map for yourself to know the directions you need to go. Just put down ideas, and if they don't work, erase it and try again.

Many vary a lot in length depending on how much detail I already have in my head, how long the fic is, and how complex the story will be. The Vampire sequel outline is six pages long (very long), while most of them are a page or so.

Here's the vampire sequel outline, speaking of. For that, what I had at the start was a) the boys testing what it means to be a vampire and b) Vamp kidnapping Dave. That's all. The rest I made up during the outline.

Without outlines, I would have no idea where I'm going in a fic, so I'd get through what I had then stall out and get writers block and dither and run in circles and eventually give up.

Respect the power of the outline.

[seeingteacupsindragons]

Lmao here, have the most ridiculously broad and all-encompassing writer ask ever to distract you:

How in the hell do you make a plot?

Jk, mostly. 😅 This is more a ramble than an ask I guess. I keep tinkering with the idea of actually writing A Story, but I just. I don't know. I get so bored so fast with the process of moving characters from Point A to Point B. I just want to stick people in a room and make them talk. (Or possibly make out, depending on the scenario.) Or I want to spend thousands of words just going on and on about a character's thoughts and emotions. That all works well for oneshot fanfics, but it's awful for doing longer fics or attempting something original. I just don't know how to make characters Go Places and Do Things and Have Goals. Which like...obviously you're not going to be able to magically solve that problem for me in a single post, but...any tips to get started that don't involve falling into the inescapable dungeon of Outlining?

Plot has always been an issue for me. Many moons ago, an agent told me that my book had a great voice but nothing actually happened in it: it was like one of those narrators you'd say you'd listen to read a phone book. Except, you know. Maybe it'd be nice if it wasn't a phone book.

I've had a tendency in the past to, ah...just have a series of things happen. Which is not actually a plot. It's a katamari ball. You can't just write things happening for several thousand words and then be like "ta-da!"

Well, I mean, you can. But it sure wasn't gettin' me an agent.

I'm getting better at this, I think, and structuring stories in general. Tiadane's book was the first book I got notes back from a CP that didn't basically say "the pacing and structure of this is fucked."

(Of course, I'm changing some of that anyway, but it's more incidental to other things I'm fixing than the major concern)

That said, it usually takes me a zero draft (first draft) to really figure out what the story is about and how to take it there. Every single ending for a story I had in mind before I got there has had to be ripped out. Every. Single. One. For ever novel I've ever edited. I'm so bad at getting to an ending I envisioned, because if I actually let the characters develop and change and the world build around them and the themes come through, where I wanted them to end up and the scenes I envisioned, is never really the culmination of how to do it.

A plot is really how a story develops. For me, this is generally character-based. For some people it's the world, for some people it's the actual events.

For a character story, the plot is basically what events are the catalyst that bring them to where they're going. How do they get there, and what happens to them to push them there? How did they react, and to what?

For a world story, the plot is generally focused on unfolding events around the world. I've seen this done with characters in different areas and or characters traveling, or even just in a kind of Epicenter. The plot will be how the world is changing, or how the world is being revealed to the reader, and what that means.

For a story of events, the plot is generally encircled around how things happen, who caused them and why, and what they do when they do happen, and what else they cause to happen.

I usually have a good strong start for about 10k words, and then the plot fizzles out as the initial concept I was running with has sort of been fulfilled and something needs to happen from it.

The way this happened in Tiadane's book was that he basically jumped into a goal, he completed the steps he set out to do, but it all went very wrong. And while he managed to get out of that disaster and take a breather, he had a couple choices: he could give up, or he could try something else to accomplish the goal (and what), or he could clean up the mess he accidentally made, etc.

Each of those would have been a very different Character, obviously. But what the important part of this character story was, was that he made a choice based on who he is as a character, but that he was the one reacting and doing something. There's characters stories about passive characters who don't do much, but they're not especially common because when a character isn't making choices (or perceived not to be), it gets really hard to reveal a character and the story doesn't go anywhere.

Sure, you could keep throwing things at them. But if those Various Things That Are Happening don't feel tied to something before (the character or other events), you have a string of events, not a nicely rising tide of story.

So it's not a matter of "things happening" but "which things going to happen to them after they did that?" and "what things are they going to do now?" and "what things are going to tell you what you want readers to know about the character?"

Sub character with world or events, as necessary.

Okay NOW I'm done, for now.

[pleasestaywithmedarling]

Happy STS!

When do you consider a story a WIP? First idea? Outline? First line? A bit of progress made?

And do you ever truly stop considering your works "in progress"?

Happy STS!!

I actually write outlines for fun, like if I have an idea and I want to see how it plays out, but for whatever reason I don't want to take the time to actually write it, I'll just write a really detailed outline. So I refuse to count outlined stories as WIPs cause that would mean I have about thirty WIPs and that is a terrifying number lol

I think I generally start referring to something as a WIP after I've outlined it, written an entire chapter, read it back, and decided that yes I like this and I want to keep going.

And I'm a perfectionist in many areas, but weirdly not with my writing, I guess cause it really does just feel like a fun hobby to me. So once I've hit the end of a work, I generally feel like I really am done with it. I'm sure it'd be very different if I ever wrote anything I wanted to try to publish or something, cause I do very much believe in the full drafting/editing process--the only reason any of my works I wrote in college ever stopped being "in progress" was because I hit the deadline and had to turn them in lol

[eccentric-nucleus]

lol tmnt fic spoilers

this is exactly why it's important to finish the first draft before you start posting anything b/c i had an idea for a scene to cap off one of the whole big arcs & also naturally lay down the foundations for some extremely-needed worldbuilding/foreshadowing but if i do go through it i'm gonna need to tweak some of the very early chapters to establish that, since it's kind of the thing that should me at least mentioned offhand before it shows up in a plot-relevant fashion x chapters later.

(what if the met had a piece of the occult dark armor. what then. that would be very funny. & it'd finally give me a chance to outline the kuroi yoroi's position in actual world history & what people other than crazy ninja think about it.

also i shuffled around usagi's role and now i'm itching to write a scene where he's an exhausted long-suffering samurai cop constantly cursing mikey & donny's names. a lot of these revisions are really just based on how funny i think they are, which, i mean, i guess it's been working so far. who knows if i'll stick with that.

but also you know maybe be a good point to underscore the whole 'new york city is a semi-independent city-state in this au' since as it turns out the nature of just what "federal authority" is ends up being kind of important. but these things should probably be peppered more solidly through the earlier chapters so they're, you know, in play. narratively speaking. aaah.

tho tbh since i'm not really going to go into detail about what the continental us even looks like in the fic for a whole variety of reasons i worry a little that that worldbuilding would just gonna be confusing and distracting. there's currently one extremely disorienting mention of the mayan city-states never dispersing just completely apropos of nothing, tho of course it's not even said in so many words. surprise it's not mexico city it's still tenochtitlan! this is never going to come up again! anyway.)

(uh the yokai world capital being established like c. 600bc under manhattan and then also having a spaceship full of aliens crash land on top of it c. 1440ad caused european contact with the americas to go very differently. but uh that's a little fraught to go into detail about, so, i'm not going to.)

like as the story solidly enters the middle bit i'm a little concerned about the classic novel problem of like... you have a beginning and an end and no real middle. or a middle that can't sustain the transition or maintain momentum or w/e else. like, i have like the entire ending written already (cannot wait to get to chapter 18 and then just be able to post it all on a regular schedule. not that what i have marked as 'chapter 19' will necessarily end up being the actual chapter 19, but, you know...) but i'm getting a littleeeeee worried about being able to stitch that onto whatever i end up writing for the middle. whoops.

i am definitely not used to writing stories with this many moving parts. but hey i mean that's why i'm doing it V:

[eclairbrun]

The more I look into it, the more I really feel like I'd kinda sorta almost rather indie publish. I don't really want to pay for freelance editing and cover art, but I can. And I kinda sorta like the idea that I could do a mock up of the cover art I actually want and then pay someone to draw it with actual skill. Get the cover I was envisioning for my story. Use the title I actually wanted instead of having the marketing team potentially overrule me and go with something gagtastic to try and ape off the success of some smash hit in the genre that they're blatantly selling me as a copy of.

I don't think that what I write is in line with some of the current market trends such that I'd be the lucky debut to get a marketing push, and if I have to do a lot of my own publicity anyway, then I might just prefer to have full control of story. You hear rumors about less and less editing support anyway.

...Is what I keep telling myself, but I get overwhelmed trying to think of all the logistics. I ought to set a schedule for researching the process in parts.

And maybe I should focus on just finishing a full series instead of having a couple different book 1s to pitch with partial drafts and outlines to pick back up if the tradpub industry deemed them worthy of the effort. I haven't really worked with Murtagh in a year now 'cause he seemed so antithetical to what a lot of current book protagonists are. It'd be nice to finish his story.

[ollieofthebeholder]

Okay, OP, I know this is a joke, but at the same time...that is a finished draft. It's just not a final draft.

Because here's the thing they don't tell you about writing before you start: Nobody actually has the whole story in their head exactly the way they want it to go. The best outline in the world is still just a skeletal system; you need more than that to have a completed creature. And sometimes you don't figure out how that all works the first go-round.

Think about all those terrifying (and inaccurate - science side of Tumblr, don't jump on me for this, I KNOW those posts are inaccurate) images that go around of "imagine what a penguin would look like if all we had to go off of were fossils!!!" That's your first draft. Your outline is, at best, going to show you basically what your story looks like, and you're going to string it together and then kind of fill in the blanks you can as best you can, and at the end of it...you're going to have something that's just more or less skin stretched over bones, maybe a few feathers or patches of fur, possibly a little fat around the tummy if you got inspired and thought it'd look cute there.

But you're probably missing the muscles. You probably didn't think about the fat distribution (what's its native environment? What do other creatures from that area with this sort of skeletal structure look like? What kind of fat does it need to survive?) or the placement of the internal organs. You might discover that you made the tendons too tight and unyielding - or too loose and floppy. You might realize you probably did the knees backwards, or switched the fingers and toes, or that the ribs are too close together or too far apart. You didn't give it fur or feathers - and maybe it doesn't need them, maybe it does. You might even discover you accidentally mixed the bones of a completely different skeleton in, and now not only do you need to pull those out and set them aside for when you get the right skeleton, you need to figure out what the bones that do go in your original skeleton should look like (or, sometimes, even if those bones are necessary for your original skeleton).

But - and this is a big and very important but - you do have a completed picture of a creature. You just haven't finished learning everything you need to learn about it yet.

The second draft will have fewer placeholders. That doesn't make it any more or less finished than the first one. It just makes it closer to final.

[gb-patch]

Hi! First of all i wanted to say thank you, your games are amazing and the fact that the base game is free is just mindblowing! The art, music, and story is beautifully woven together into this amazing game that i love! I was wondering if the demo will be updated for public use and if so whens the estimated date for it? *Looks at the amount of time i have on the demo from replaying it 50 times* Its totally understandable if that wont be a thing, but i was just wondering :)

Thanks so much for all the effort put into the games!

Aw, thank you so much! It's wonderful to hear you really enjoyed it.

For the OL2 demo, it's hard to say. It'd depend on if we updated it with another partial experience with the prologue or if we held off until the entire Step 1 prologue was completed. This the status:

Part 1 and 2 of the prologue are included in the demo already

Part 3 is fully written and about two thirds have been programmed. The completed scenes have gone out to testers on our Patreon. There's about 6,000 words left to implement and then test as playable content.

Part 4 is fully drafted but needs to be actually scripted, which I estimate will be about 15,000-17,000 words based on the draft size, and then it has to to be programmed/tested.

Part 5 has a mini outline so I know all the major points it has to hit but needs to be drafted, scripted, and programmed/tested. 15-17k is how long parts tend to be, which makes that the estimate. Although it could end up being wildly different. There's quite a lot that needs to happen, so it could be extra long. But all of the things are more touch points rather than full set pieces, so maybe it'll be shorter.

We'll see how long Part 5 ends up drafting. If that does creep into being a huge part, we'll likely release an update once Parts 3 and 4 are ready.

Either way, all of that has to be done in small breaks between working on our main focus, the Derek DLC. We're looking at mid-summer being the earliest. It might not happen until fall. But there for sure won't be any public demo updates for OL2 in April, May, or June.

FAQ    

Ask Archive    

Update Only Side Blog

[nightfayre]

Hello!!! switched au anon here! it's been months and the recent chapters really got my brain spinning cause i left off asking the he tian Qs of your au! I hope you don't mind my continued haunting lol

so, like we saw in chapter 383, earning money comes naturally to he tian, so i don't think he'd have much trouble in that regard in your au[?] so what would his struggle be? getting away from his father? needing Cheng in his life but too bratty and arrogant to accept his help[teenage hormones]? stirring up trouble just to fill the void his mother created in him when she left? your original drabble posted on tumblr had mentioned characters mad enough at he tian to want to kill him! what is this boy up to in your story???

also since you mentioned that she li would have more to do with he tian in your au, i wonder what their relationship would be? half brothers? rivals since middle school? they both approached mo guanshan at the same time? the curiosity is killing me!

please do rant away about this au of yours! your answers are pure dopamine >﹏< and maybe if you don't mind, just 50 words about he tian's and mo guanshan's first encounter in your au? pretty please? 🥺

have a good day! <3

hi there!! omg it's been SO long (and that's entirely my fault!)

tysm for your patience and, as always, my response is below the cut!

ohhh, i definitely missed talking about this AU :') thank you for keeping me accountable LOL, seriously!

i love love love that you mentioned how He Tian is a money magnet (especially in customer service roles) because i also thought about that when i was first drafting this AU. however, i quickly came to the conclusion that while He Tian might be an efficient worker whenever he opts to help out for short periods of time - usually to get brownie points with Guan Shan - there is no way in HELL that that boy would last more than a week in customer service. not at his age and with his current immaturity, at least. i'm sure you understand where i'm coming from if you've ever worked a customer service job yourself... especially food service. He Tian is a great charmer, but we've seen him lose his cool relatively quickly and explosively (!!!) after his patience runs out (like when he smashed that man's car??? hello?????? he did not think that through at all, jfc). and since customer service jobs are usually the only positions hiring middle/high school students, it'd be a recipe for disaster. so basically, He Tian is too volatile to work your typical part-time job, so he finds different means of making money.

as for why he's still troubled in this AU? well, I don't think I could narrow the answer down to only one or two things. that'd be like trying to define your own life by a single prevailing issue you face! impossible! so unfortunately, i'll have to leave you to your imagination for this question :)

as for She Li, i'm still very interested to see what OX does with him in the canon storyline. even though they do look eerily similar, i don't think he and He Tian are related (nor are they in this AU), but i do think that there's some kind of connection between She Li and the He family that hasn't been thoroughly revealed yet. using that logic, i intend to explore that same uncertainty in this AU! i have a good idea of what role She Li will play in this fic, but it's not entirely fleshed out yet. honestly, i'll probably spend the rest of tonight doing just that! i hope you don't mind waiting just a bit longer for my answer!

you are such a sweetheart - thank you so much for this ask and all the others you've sent! <33 at this point, i might as well start finalizing the outline and actually start writing instead of daydreaming! instead of a rant or snippet, i'll give you my honest word that i'll hop back into this AU for the rest of this week! i want to see it written just as bad as you do :') and if there are any post-worthy snapshots along the way, i'll be sure to post them ASAP! so keep an eye out! <3

thank you so, so much again dear, and talk to you soon! <3

[senbons]

do u hv any general tips on writing? ive spent so long re reading ur fics to learn from them, and each time im absolutely amazed at how good it is, like, each word feels like it needed to be there including words like "really" "probably" "even" just small things like that, make it so real, and as if we're actually reading the character's thoughts. also, when it comes to fics, do you base it off your own life? or do you some research, if so are there any sites u use frequently? have a good day <3

Hmmm okay

I'll go slightly out of order (under cut bc trying not to spam dashes):

First off, thank you so so much!! Wowzers! Every time someone says they've read something I wrote more than once, it makes me so, so happy!!! And to do it with the intention of learning?! Whoa! I'm so touched! Someone once told me they learned a lot whenever I did that "commentary" on coming up tails... I planned on doing that w ch. 11 of aibg (that someone requested)... maybe I should rally? Idk, if you think it'd be of some use, lmk and I'll begin this weekend. That said, I never took a writing class apart from one memoir one, so idk much. I'm also just kind of going with the flow and hoping what I write makes sense! I don't think I'd ever have enough confidence in my writing to go into a creative lit class or anything! (funny you'd say that about not having one excessive word bc I'm actively trying to write LESS... I think I always have too many unnecessary words 😂)

(vaguely answered inspo before) I do base a LOT off my own life. Mostly conversations I'm imagining with people I like. Like I have a crush on this guy (see any other post), and a few months back I saw him in a store and we didn't speak, but saw each other. i kept imagining he would wait outside when i exited and i'd walk up to him and the first thing i'd say to him, meeting him in person for the first time, would be: "i'm going to hate myself, aren't i?" "why?" he'd ask. "for having sex with you." and that obviously didn't happen, but i imagined it over and over and am always tempted to write a ST story w work enemies based on that one fantasied-conversation. does that make sense?

The easiest ones offhand are ALL of On Pride. I did get a splinter and meet a classmate at the hospital week one of undergrad. I went to dinner with someone i liked all through law school and he always knew it and it always felt like the timing didn't work, but he also was single and then went out with someone else? but i still am positive liked me? idk (this and hospital were years apart and different people). Or in paper moon, I had a think w a guy in barbados that was similar... or had the same conversation at the cloisters in ny that they have in the church about god... So point of the story: yes, a lot of things are based off dumb shit in my life, but most is based off imagined-conversations with men. also a lot on scenes from media I consume. I'll see a movie, love one plot point, think about it for weeks, and then decide to write it down. (or these days, you guys... i did a rough outline of that whole royal!au/bodyguard!au after someone put it in an ask 😂)

That all said, I don't do research for inspiration... but when I have a question (see this answer) I just google. during oh, oh I'm on fire (worth the tag even though no one will read? 😭) I called my mother so many times to ask about the 70's (i.e. did you say fridge or icebox growing up? when did grandma stop wearing panty-hose?). So that's basically it? (i even read a book specifically for that though!). No specific websites. Sorry I can't be of more help!

And then, finally, general tips:

just write. That’s the most important. Edit later if that helps. Just keep writing.

I am a pro-outliner. But sometimes that doesn’t work for everyone. I love it because I can lay out the big things and then see where I have gaps. And when I need motivation, i already have the section basically drafted. So if I’m having to force myself (which happens — it’s work. There is always a few parts (sometimes more) of a fic I have to grit my teeth through), I already have what I want to say outlined and can just write it out and by the time I finish that section, I’m into it and can move onto the next thing. I love outlining. It helps me see the big picture too. And when I need motivation, I’ll just reread my outline.

If that doesn’t work though, then just write. And when it gets hard, see if you can just eek out one more page, even if you hate everything you’re putting down, just to get over that hurdle.

And find friends! If you ever need someone to look at your writing, let me know! I have no superlative ideas, but can always be around to talk through things/motivate!

Anyway, sorry for this morbidly long answer. I hope at least some of it was of use. And thank you for this message! It really made my day to see it as soon as I woke up!

<3<3<3