#source: I really tried to find it I think it's actually from a solangelo post but the blog is gone

[percabethconvos]

Annabeth: Name a more iconic duo than my crippling fear of abandonment and my need to prove myself, I’ll wait

Percy: You and me!

Annabeth, already crying: Okay

[delta-roseblr]

Hey Delta, I've got a question. I'm planning on writing my first real big fic and I feel very insecure about the whole planning part. I know, that I can't just start writing without any plan (because I tried that and it did not end well.) Do you have any tipps about planning out your fics or did you maybe already post something like this before? (If so, I didn't find it.) You would really help me out, if you happened to have any advise. Thank you :)

Hi Anon!

First, I’m so proud of you! Posting a fic can be a really scary thing because you are really putting yourself out there- it’s a brave thing!

I’ve talked a little about how I plan before but I am more then happy to do it again. When I started both After the Wars and Normal Lives, I really just had a bunch of loosely related ideas. Some of them were discrete events like Nico, Percy, and Jason go to a gay bar while others were more like themes that would come up throughout the story like Piper being overbearing about wanting to plan Percy and Annabeth’s wedding. Before I ever started writing I sat down and wrote out a long list of all the ideas I had. For me, this really helped me to start seeing the skeleton of the story because I could look at the list and see things that made sense to happen earlier or later in the story or things that needed to happen before or after other things. From there I could really look at the list and have a good idea of what the first three to six chapters was going to be about and then I would start actually writing. For me I found that when I started writing actual chapters it would help me find clarity for how things should play out later in the story.

For After the Wars and Normal Lives I didn’t really have the ending figured out when I started writing which made things more challenging because I didn’t figure it out until I was halfway through writing them. That isn’t how I have planned other things at all. The Solangelo Mortal AU I am working on is planned through chapter ten but I know how that story ends and all the plot points that lead up to it. I know everything that happens in Dean and Felix’s relationship and I have a little of the things I’m planning to write that is twenty fics long. The Hogwarts AU was just as planned out when I started writing. I can’t say either approach is better- each comes with its own advantages and disadvantages.

I do have some general pieces of advice that are the things I constantly tell myself about planning and writing which I can share:

Write it down- You think of an idea for something that is going to happen way later in the story, Write it down. A bit of dialogue that you aren’t quite ready to work on yet, Write it down. Think of something you like but doesn’t quite fit the story you are writing, Write it down. You won’t remember later and you never know what you are going to need later.

Don’t wallow in writer's block!- For me, not knowing how to get from one plot point to the next is a huge source of writer’s block and I’ve found just walking away doesn’t work. I won’t figure it out that way. I force myself to keep writing. If I don’t know how to connect the two points I write what happened after the first point or I trying writing what happened from another character’s POV. Keep working!

Don’t get super attached- I have had ideas that I loved that I ended up taking out of the outline because as I started writing, it just didn’t make sense anymore. It’s hard but it’s okay because when you let those things go it makes room for other great ideas that you didn’t know were coming (That was Delix for me).

You are unique- I can give you advice until I’m blue in the face but what works for me might not work for you. Hell, what works for you now might not work for you in six months. I write completely different now then I did when I started. If you try something and it isn’t working for you, accept that and try something else. You haven’t failed, you just haven’t found the right thing for you yet.

I am so excited for you! You are going to be amazing! And if there is anything I can do to help, please, let me know!