#thanks tex u asshole dsfhjgsdff

[faunusrights]

10 How would you describe your writing process?

10. How would you describe your writing process?

tex u bastard

UUUUUh it used to be very cut and dry, then got very Zany And Interesting at uni/when i was getting regularly published and tossed thru the editing wringer, but NOW it’s a dialed back version...

so usually i tend to sit on an idea for a Good, Long Time before anything comes of it, actually! there’s a reason it took Years for me to actually make stuff for rwby after getting into it, and that’s because i tend to sift around and play with ideas until i think it’s Time To Be Born, so sometimes it takes a hot minute before an idea exits initial conception to ‘okay this could be a thing’. when it’s not ready? it kinda ends up like Deep Dish Regret, where i dont know where its going or how to even write it cause there aint a plan, which is why we don’t write when we don’t know the ending, kids. also if it seems like theres not a lot of time between me SAYING an idea and DOING an idea thats usually because ive been thinking abt it looong before................... or ive been doing overtime thinking. either way.

once an idea has risen in the bowl, i knock out the first draft -- this is both the fun part and the annoying part cause u get to do Anything You Like but theres also nothing to guide you u just gotta. do it. and that’s tough yall. as a rule i dont like... get too concerned with the quality/phrasing/grammar of the first draft because it never usually sees an audience save for the snippets i put on discord/patreon, so i just knock em out!!! get them words out!!!

once the first draft is done i TRY to shelve the work. i try. key word. leaving something alone for a few weeks/months/(years) means you can Zoom In on your mistakes or weird shit way faster than if you try and fiddle with it fresh from the Brain Oven. it’s like decorating a cake. you can’t put the icing on when its Hot yall gotta wait for it to cool.

so once i (try to) shelve the work, i come back and start the SECOND DRAFT... the second draft is the Scrapping and Adding Phase... in a real publishing context, this would be the part where we start cementing ideas/plot, and would be, as i like to think about it, where we do a tighter sketch over our initial plans. HOWEVER this is fanfic we’re talking about and so in THIS phase i chop out bits i dont like, and lengthen bits i do (this is where a fic goes from 4.5k to 11.7k ngl).

after that... it depends. if i have the energy i’ll reshelve and give it a third draft (both bunfeed bunsolved fics each went thru four drafts each i think???) BUT nowadays i’ll wrap up the second draft and move onto editing.

EDITING,,, there’s two stages to this kinda??? first one is ill do a reading (in my head) and grab any obvious errors i catch with mine eyes.................... but the SECOND time i do a reading (out loud with my mouth) so i cant miss ANYTHING and catch the errors THEN... after that i’ll typically do another out-loud reading, and then slap that shit on ao3, invent a title on 0.5 seconds, invent a worse summary in 0.2 seconds, and then hit publish and wonder if i should’ve tagged for ‘erotic energy’. anyway.

SO YEAH,,, its a chaotic series of events based on both professional workings and whatever the HELL ive devised over like 12 years, and now we here. goodbye,