#they’re all backed up in a scrivener doc

[pizzaqueen]

Why didn’t I cross post my tumblr fic to AO3 when I posted it here? Now I have so many to upload 😭

(I mean, I know why! I didn’t want to deal with summaries or titles or the anxiety of waiting for interactions on two different sites lol but still!)

[eighthdoctor]

27, 39, 71

27. What is your most and least favorite part of writing?

favorite by far is when i do something REALLY CLEVER, on accident or on purpose. sometimes this is in planning, sometimes it comes out of the writing, and then i'm smug about it for weeks. like coming up with a 6 month spell cool down has had all kinds of beneficial fallout for the plot, while requiring basically no effort from me to throw in. i'm STILL smug about that and that's been in place for MONTHS

least favorite: i have characters in scene A. i want to end scene A. i want to go to scene B. i don't know how to do this. jo frequently tells me to cut the last 100 words and just close the scene.

39. Share a snippet from a WIP

i know you're not reading it yet but it IS the current WIP so here's the opening of the next chapter of The Power to Manipulate Belief

Katherine starts all days the same way: A cup of tea, black, and any reports that had come in overnight or been judged low priority enough to wait for her attention. This hasn’t changed in twenty five years, and won’t change now, even if she’s in an archaic position, even if everything else about the world goes to hell, even if her daughter is back and then gone and upending everything in her wake, she is going to have her tea and read reports. For three weeks now, like clockwork, one of those reports has come from Jaina. They’re written in a hand so neat it must be magical, but aside from that, they are— She’d stopped getting letters, after Daelin. For all intents and purposes, Jaina had left home at ten—sure, she’d come home for the occasional holiday, something which had dramatically increased when she’d learned how to portal—and for ten years, accordingly, she’d sent letters to Katherine. Childish things at first, then filled with adolescent drama, and then the first thoughts of an adult confronted with an unimaginable crisis. Then they’d ended. Now she’s getting them again, and the contrast illustrates just how much her daughter has changed. The reports are methodically organized, with Jaina’s voice and opinions apparent throughout, but always noted as such, letting Katherine see unadorned facts as well. They are also wide ranging, covering everything from Alliance policy to spying reports—why?—to trade deficits in Stormwind. She’s lost over twenty years of her daughter’s life. In a way, these reports are how Jaina is trying to bridge that gap.

71. When it comes to more complicated narratives, how do you keep track of outlines, characters, development, timeline, ect.?

i write pretty rigorously in chronological order (i may skip the back half of a scene if i get stuck but even then i know more or less where it's going) so not worried about character development there.

for TPTMB, i've been working really hard on having an outline (currently not up to date) and using more of some of scrivener's features which are meant for this.

the outline is just a 1-2 phrase scene description, potentially a second bullet point of any Choice Dialogue that needs to be included, and then i bold it if i've written it. periodically i check back to see OH RIGHT, I NEEDED THAT: eg, sylvanas pointing out that jaina hasn't been reflexively shielding against sylvanas was actually not in the first draft! i wrote the scene, went "hmm it's Missing Something", checked my outline and said "oh fuck duh."

i can also add notes to the doc for later edits so that i can just write the scene--chs 1 and 2 had "add more spy v spy shit" until i decided we'd hit maximum nonsense.

meanwhile in scrivener: this is from chapter 2 so spoiler free

each scene gets its own document. if i decide after writing that actually one scene needs to come before/after something else, easy enough to move. in theory the status column is telling me what needs first edits, what isn't done yet, what needs jo's edits added, etc (i'm not good at keeping this up to date). pov IS helpful because i can filter the whole file by POV and so make sure that, eg, sylvanas's references to jaina are consistent, or jaina has the right throughline in terms of theramore mentions.

and then the date is the date, and i REALLY need to update the later chapters (this is also why i used ch2), but that's part of how i'm keeping track of the timeline in fic.

the REST of keeping track of the timeline is an excel spreadsheet :)

[northern-passage]

hi! you're one of my favourite if authors n i love when you share stuff about the process, but i guess i wanted to ask how you got over the daunting challenge of coding? i have an IF idea i love very much and have spent a couple years creating content for (from productive writing to indulgent artbreeder portraits) but i find the idea of coding all the variation i have in mind rly intimidating, i guess i just wonder if you have any advice on managing the sprawling code and keeping it manageable,, or just not freaking out when it continues to grow,, im excited to share but i think this aspect of it might kick my ass though im dedicated to the IF medium,,, anyways love u

coding can be intimidating and overwhelming and it takes a lot of trial and error. when i started in choicescript i made a lot of stupid mistakes and didn't even know how to run the bug test, and when i posted the original demo it was a broken game lmao. i still made coding errors in the most recent update over a year later. and now i'm changing gears and learning twine and it's still a process. thankfully (?) i’m a stubborn ass so i refuse to let the code beat me. it’s difficult, but it's definitely something that gets easier as you go and as you get more familiar with the code itself and what you can do with it.

imo, it sounds like you already did the hardest part - you have a story you want to tell, and you’re familiar with the characters and you’ve already got some writing under your belt. so you know how the story goes and what you want to accomplish with the interactivity of the medium... like you’re already halfway there, honestly. the next step is to just start testing out some code!!!

so before i even open twine or choicescript or anything, first thing is i have my story organized with folders. so many folders.

i actually write in scrivener, and i really like scrivener because it lets me make a billion subfolders and organize them exactly how i want. i code as i write, too, which is very helpful for future me when i have to import everything into twine.

while there is coding & smaller variations/flavor text going on within each scene, i can also physically break the variations up easier and have two separate files for one scene, like with Lea Wakes You Up, and i can still keep them all under the same folder. obviously you don't need scrivener to do this you can do it in google docs or word, etc as well. the folders are my preferred way to keep track of bigger variations, like whether or not the player has chosen to stay in blackwater or if they’re leaving for highfell. you can see i already have some scenes for the highfell branch written there.

also some authors use spreadsheets to keep track of variables & stats and all the branching, and to ensure things are balanced. i don't do that myself but... i should.... lmao. i actually just have a passage in twine that lists all of the variables i’ve made and what they do, and i’ll reference that if needed. in choicescript, you put all your variables in startup.txt & there i would use the *comment command to leave notes for myself for each variable.

now, for the actual coding/importing part... my process relies entirely on code skeletons. the passages in twine are very annoying for writing but very good for building a path and keeping track of where things are going.

you can see here i have two separate paths that reconvene and i also have it color coded at the moment:

when it comes to variations within these passages, i cannot stress enough that code skeletons are your friend. i'll make a passage and leave in notes like “this is what goes here” and then do something like this:

so i note down all the variations i need within the scene first in the code, and then from there i'll go back in and slowly fill them in. i use WIP so then i can easily search "WIP" and twine will highlight which passages still have unfinished variations.

when i start writing a scene i always ask myself: what variables matter here, and do i need to create different variations for these variables? are there previous choices that should be influencing the characters and their attitudes here that i need to take into account? where do i want these branches to reconvene and how do i get these scenes there? once you figure those things out, you can make your passages and build a skeleton.

once i do that i then write the “spine” of the scene, which is the scene at its most basic, and once that’s done i go back in and add/flesh out choices, elaborate on the variations, etc as the last step. this does mean that sometimes i have to edit the spine later, too, and it’s just something you have to keep in mind. it will be difficult at times and sometimes scenes will not go the way you want them to, but that’s what makes it fun, too.

basically with coding and branching the only way you're going to figure it out is to just do it!! expect to make errors and to get frustrated (my friends can tell you i got very angry at twine in the early days lmfao and i still do) but it's a skill you'll improve over time as you keep practicing. the branching can get overwhelming at times but that’s when i’ll just sit down and do a good old fashioned bulleted list and just take some time to write it all out and slowly work my way through each point. there’s no rush and don’t feel pressured to get it all right the first time - there’s always the option to go back and change things if you want to. it’s all part of the process, babey

when i wrote the first version of TNP’s prologue it had barely any branching - the hunter Had to let clementine come with them, the hunter Had to agree to go to blackwater (there was no argument at all), there were literally no choices in the wraith fight and the hunter always got scratched in the back and passed out on the road. it wasn’t until later that i went back in and rewrote it with more choices and variables once i had gotten comfortable with choicescript.

and like i said, you really have already done most of the hard work. having a story to tell is over half the battle. with time and practice you’ll be able to get the code to do what you want.

[hkblack]

Keeping One Fic Version in both Word & Google

A question was posed in a Discord Server I am in about what file format folks send their fics to Beta Readers in. Do you send it as a Microsoft .docx file? A Google Doc you are also writing in? A separate Google Doc?

A large part of the answer to this question depends on what tools and resources you as the writer have and are using, and what tools and resources your beta-reader has. Not everyone has a PC, and not everyone has Microsoft Word. Ten years ago, I didn’t blink at people sending Word Documents back and forth with fics, but these days—I don’t want that many downloads on my computer.

As a Beta Reader, I prefer to work in Google Docs. Some of this is because of the downloading thing, and not having to worry about system compatibility. (Shockingly I do know someone who is still using a very old version of Microsoft and Word Docs from them get a fun warning because they were written in such an old version of Word) I also find Google’s commenting & suggestion functionalities a lot better than Word. I also like that the one Google Doc can be used for multiple readers. A Story Flow reader can work along side an expertise picker and a SPAG beta and they can all see when things get changed, why they were changed, and help follow any of those notes forward through out the rest of the story.

Right now, I think all active beta projects I’m working on are in Google Docs. I have a free gmail account that’s got my fandom name. Some of the Google Docs are imports from Word, some are from Scrivener, and some are the same doc that the writer is actively writing in, where others are Google docs that are copies of other Google docs. Whether you have an editor in the same document that you are writing in is up to you. I personally find it distracting as a writer to see the beta notes in there. I’ll get distracted with editing and won’t write unless I have a separate writing file. Some of the people I am reading for are actively typing away a few pages below me as I edit the most complete section. When that’s happening, I generally tell people to make a clear break that says “HK – don’t touch past this line!” I might go skim and read over it to see where we’re going, but I won’t leave any comments until my reader tells me they’re ready. To each their own! Find what makes you most comfortable.

For me as a Writer, I write in Microsoft Word and then import my fic into Google docs. This does mean I always have at least two versions of any fic going at the same time. The one I am writing in in Word, and the one I am editing with my Beta-Reader in Google Docs. This isn’t an issue for complete one-shots. I finish writing, toss it into Google, and then when I’m done editing, I’ll post it from that version. But if it’s an incomplete long story, things can get odd.

Thankfully, there’s several ways to work around that and make life easier, and that’s what we’re going to look at today. This is a long post with lots of screenshots. So buckle up!

The fic you’re going to see in screenshots is a WIP that you may have heard me refer to as my Good Omens “Goats” fic. It’s a Human AU in which Crowley owns a Goat Scaping company and Aziraphale is a professor at the University that employed such Goat Scaping services. It was supposed to be a short and sweet one-shot meet-cute, so naturally I’m currently writing Chapter 11 and am up to almost 50k words. (help)

I write in Microsoft Word and as each chapter or major section is complete, I copy and paste that section into a Google Doc for the excellent @ambrasue to beta read.

Let’s get into the mechanics of this. First, I’m going to go to my Google Drive and click the “New” button. “Yes HK,” you’re saying, “and you’re going to create a new Google Doc and copy paste”

No.

I am going to select “File Upload” and select my Microsoft Word .docx file into the Drive. This is very important for the rest of the steps to work. You cannot just open a new Google Doc and copy and paste for this to work. You have to leave the file as a .docx.

You’ve uploaded the .docx into Google Drive, and you’ve shared it with your Beta Reader. You and your beta have made changes and left comments, and the editing is at a point where you’d like to bring the two files together and have them aligned as you’re still writing.

Copying and pasting will get the changes you’ve made—but not the comments left, and maybe you want to keep those comments because, as above, there’s a comment on a sentence you want to go back to but haven’t gotten to yet. So instead you’re going to go to File, Download, and you’re going to download the doc as a .docx.

Once you’ve done that, you can open your newly downloaded file in Word and viola! You have the comments and edits!

But now you have two .docx files in Microsoft Word that are different. Do you now have to move into this new file? What if the new file doesn’t have the latest chapter in it? Do you just copy and paste from the original .docx and add that to the new .docx? What if you did make changes in the original .docx that you didn’t put in the Google Doc though?

This is where we start to fall in love with the “Review” menu in Word.

I love this tab. It has all my favorite tools and is why I write in Word. That Thesaurus button is my bestie. The Read Aloud? Why waste my voice when the computer can do it for me? And most importantly for this: the “Compare” button.

Now I usually use the “Combine” function of the Compare button. Ultimately I want this file I’ve downloaded from my Google Drive and the Original Word Doc to be one single file. If you’d like to just compare and contrast the changes, you can do that as well, but I think Combine is more helpful.

So I’ll put the .docx and give it a label in the Original Document Slot, and then the Google Doc Download in the Revised Document Slot.

Word thinks for a moment and then gives me one big file. On the left it shows me all the revisions I need to accept or deny, on the right it shows me the original .docx and the downloaded Google doc as they are in the same position I’m looking at in the new “Combined Doc.”

Now for Goats, I haven’t given Ambra Chapter 11 yet, it’s only in the Word version of the document. So to Word it looks like the “revised” document has had Chapter 11 cut. This is when we start to use the rest of the buttons in the review pane. The “Accept” button in the review tab will delete that Chapter 11, because Word thinks I’m accepting the revision of not having a Chapter 11. The “Reject” Button will keep Chapter 11, because it is "rejecting" the "deletion". I’ll go through the whole document and use the Accept/Reject Changes buttons to pick and choose the differences between the two documents that I’m keeping, knowing that Word thinks that the “Revised” Document (The one from Google that my Beta Reader has touched) is the most “Correct” Version

Look at that! We kept Chapter 11. When I’m done consolidating all of this, I will then save this new consolidated document under the same name as the original Word Document on my computer, thereby replacing the old one with the new, deleting the download from Google Docs, and getting me back down to just two versions of my story. One in Microsoft word, and one in Google Docs.

We have one last thing for me to do before calling this complete. I now want to take this version and put it back into Google Docs, and again, I want to keep the comments relatively intact.

I’m going into the Google Drive folder and right click the file in it’s folder. And then I’m going to select “Manage Versions”

Remember when I said “do not just open a blank Google Doc?” This is where it comes into play. If you start with a Google Doc, you do not get the ability to “Manage Versions” like this. The file has to be a file that does not have a Google Root. A PDF, a .docx, a .xlsx, etc. You only get to manage versions if it was not originally a Google file.

Here I’ll select “Upload a New Version” and import that new document. When I do this, it replaces the current document with the new one—but the cool things is, I can always download the last version if needed.

When you import a document from word back into Google Docs, you keep all the changes, and those comments. The one thing with the comments is that it does lose the tie back to your beta-readers email address. Their name will still display the same, but you’ll need to tag their email back in for them to get updates on that comment if you use comment threads as conversations like Ambra and I do. These were all comments left before I took the file out, but if I needed to add a "better" or if I realized she hadn't responded to one yet, I'd have to tag her.

Finally when you do this, if your beta reader has the file just hanging out in a tab on their browser, you’ll want to ping them and let them know you’ve done this so they can refresh the page to get everything correct. But! That’s it! You’re now down to two matching versions of your story. One for you on Word to write in, and one in Google Docs for you to edit in with your Beta Reader.

Now if you excuse me, I’ve got some revisions to make!!

[volturialice]

A (all ur titles) F and N. I desire a crumb of credit for actually reading through all the options today 😌

A: How did you come up with the title to [insert fic]?

aw hell I had to go back and look at my ao3 page and kick myself. anyway

most of my oneshots - are random lines from the canon books, as you discovered in podcast-land when we reached the line about "the biology incident" lol

a few of my fics - are Exactly What it Says on The Tin -style titles. eg: Ritual for the End of Summer, Steadfast, Patience and Predestination, and Red Line, which are all just the major theme, setting, or conceit stated outright.

The Most Lamentable Tragedie of Edward and Isabella, or 'Tis Pity He's a Vampyre - this is a composite of various Elizabethan and Jacobean tragedy titles (have you ever noticed that shakespeare's comedies mostly have abstract or punny titles, but his tragedies, while shortened colloquially to one or two characters' names—Romeo and Juliet, Othello, Hamlet, Antony and Cleopatra—are all some variation of "The Tragedy of [Protagonist?]" because they are.) anyway the second part is simply a ripoff of my beloved 'Tis Pity She's a Whore aka the bonkersest work of its time and therefore my favorite

Perdition of the Witch - embarrassed to admit it took me forever to come up with this. you'd think, being loosely based on a film called “Season of the Witch,” that the idea of swapping out that one noun would have occurred to me at some point, but no. I had a huge list of heaven/hell/witchcraft/religion -type words, none of which felt right, until I started reading the Malleus Maleficarum for research and stumbled across this absolutely perfect phrase. it’s still called “witch thing” in my scrivener doc lol

Good Politics - yeah it's from that song in the beginning of the cartoon Swan Princess movie

F: Share a snippet from one of your favourite dialogue scenes you've written and explain why you're proud of it.

huh. I don’t really consider dialogue my strong suit, but I guess I like a lot of the exchanges between jasper and rosalie in Good Politics because I think I manage to convey their sibling relationship, history, and respective characters pretty well. example:

“They’re here,” announced Rosalie.

Jasper did not look up from his desk, where he was looking over Clause H, Section XII of the treaty. In the event of civil unrest on the northwestern border, a joint task force of troops from both nations is to be dispatched…

“I said they’re here,” repeated Rose. “‘Them’ as in the Olympian delegation. They were just spotted entering the city a few minutes ago.”

“Good,” said Jasper.

“‘Good?’ That’s all you have to say?”

“What else should I say?”

Rosalie turned away from the window to huff at him. “Has it not occurred to you that by the simple motion of getting off your ass and walking over here, you might catch a glimpse of your future wife? Or is that too much t—oh. Is that really what you’re wearing?”

Jasper split the stack of papers into two, carefully setting aside the “unread” pile.

“I’ll see her later,” he told Rosalie, resolutely ignoring the way she was wincing at his outfit.

“You’ll—? Are you mad? I know we’ve been ordered not to greet them until the formal presentation later, but I figured you’d at least want a look. What if she’s grown into a perfect troll, with snaggleteeth and warts or something?”

“Then I doubt I’ll be able to tell from this distance,” said Jasper.

N: Is there a fic you wish someone else would write (or finish) for you?

of my own fics? all of them but also none of them. of other people’s fics? Backstories, Book III by mal4prez on ff.net. I just. I want it

fanfic ask game

[just-the-hiddles]

Writer’s Spotlight | myoxisbroken

Happy hump day, peeps!  This week’s spotlight is the queen of a historical fic, AU or canon.  The maven of food porn in a fic. And the reigning champ of teasing me with smut @myoxisbroken​ !  Let’s dive in!!

The Basics

MASTERLIST HERE

Any other names you want people to call you?

Miss Ox, myox, whatever you feel like!

How long have you been writing fic?

2 years.

What fandoms and/ships do you write?

MCU (Loki, Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes), other Tom Hiddleston characters (Pine, Conrad, Sharpe, Buxton, Nicholls, Plumptre, and ever-growing), and just branching out into Pedro Pascal with The Mandalorian; I also have a few Doctor Who fics in my Masterlist (Ten/Donna Noble)

How did you get started writing fic?

I was reading a ton of Doctor Who fic and enjoying the Doctor/River Song stories. Then I rewatched DW season 4 and was so depressed about Donna's ending that I immediately watched the David Tennant/Catherine Tate version of Much Ado About Nothing. And then I started to ship the Tenth Doctor and Donna.

So I read a bunch of their fic and thought, "You know what would be awesome? If someone wrote a WW2 AU where Donna's a single mother and the Doctor is an injured fighter pilot that she takes in as a boarder." And then I started to get snippets of dialogue in my head, and ideas for scenes, and I wondered if I might be able to write a story myself. I hadn't written anything in years, but I decided to give it a try. And a few months later, I had my first story completed, a 14-chapter Doctor Who AU.

 After that, I had the writing bug and I haven't been able to stop coming up with ideas and working to put them into words!

Story Recommendations

Which of your stories are your favorite?

It is honestly so hard to choose. I'm only going to choose completed works, because I always love the WIPs I'm working on. So, let's see: You Bring Me Home is one of them, because it was so fun to just jump into a sexy vacation romp with some playful kink exploration for James Conrad (Kong: Skull Island). With Brooding Wings was my first attempt at a vampire story using multiple Tom Hiddleston characters, and I really enjoyed playing with the dynamics of different personalities and settings in that world. 

 In A Restless World Like This Is is another, because I had such a great time writing a fluffy love story for Steve Rogers and an older OFC. It started as a spite project because of someone's objections to older characters and turned into such a lovely experience. It was one of the easiest I've ever written in terms of how quickly it flowed from my brain through my fingers. I'd loved writing for Loki (An Excellent Suggestion was my first Loki story, and my first time writing smut) and for Bucky (We Are All Victims of Physics Sometimes was my first dip into capturing Bucky's quiet reserve and depth of emotion).

I honestly could go on and on about stories but would only sound more conceited.

Which story are you most proud of?

I think A Pursuit of the Heart. It was my first time writing in the Regency/Georgian era, and I did a TON of research for it. It was also my first novel-length story, and I didn't even know if I could take on something that big or write a historical romance convincingly, in a way that felt era-appropriate and true. I was so proud of the finished product.

Which of your stories do you think is the most underrated?

Let Your Heart Be Light, a Bucky/OFC story with a Christmas theme - its companion piece, Kissing The New Year In, also didn't get much traction. But I loved writing them!

Someone is new to reading your stories, which story/stories should they read first?

It depends on what actors and characters they like, really, as well as if they like smut or fluff or both. For a smutty one-shot, I'd recommend An Excellent Suggestion (which has a one-shot sequel). For a swoonier longer fic with smut, I'd recommend either You Bring Me Home or my fake relationship Steve Rogers fic The One Thing You Can't See. 

For fluff, An Unforeseen Outcome is a Loki one-shot with both fluff and a little emotional hurt/comfort. Interestingly, I've written more not-smut fluff for Loki than for any other character. I think I just want him to find connection and love and acceptance so much. 

And if you are a fan of historical romance, I'd recommend either my Thomas Sharpe AU A Compromising Situation, or if you like your fics with a healthy dose of angst, Beside Us When Beauty Brightens, my William Buxton (Return to Cranford) story about what happens after he loses Peggy.

Which Story did you do the most research for?

A Pursuit of the Heart, since it was my first one set in the Georgian era and I had a lot of catching up to do! I research for most of my stories, and definitely for my multi-chapter stories. Even if they're contemporary, I still look up resorts, locations, restaurants and local foods, things to do, etc. I can't help it. It's like I'm addicted to research.

Which Story was the easiest to write?

For a multi-chapter fic, In A Restless World Like This Is. For a one-shot, probably my Loki Christmas fluff All I Want For Christmas Is You.

The Writing Process

What is your favorite part of writing?

When a scene I've had in my head just flies out of my fingers and onto the page, and I can read it back and think, "YES! That's just how I wanted it!"

What is your least favorite part?

When my brain is too scattered and unfocused to actually allow me to do any writing.

Describe your style in 1 to 2 sentences.

Well-researched stories that use the information to make you feel like you're there and that incorporate sweetness into even the smuttiest scenario. Also, food porn, and porn porn.

Who are some of your writing idols and/or influences?

For published novels, Mary Balogh and Sabrina Jeffries are two of my favorite historical romance writers, and I think that reading them has helped to make my writing better. In terms of fic authors (some of whom are also published), @nildespirandum​ and @caffiend-queen were two of the first I read in the Tom/Loki fandom and their excellent quality and intriguing plots are an inspiration, even if I will never be able to write plots as twisty as theirs. Also, reading @yespolkadotkitty​'s stories helped me push myself to get better at setting scenes and at incorporating the various senses into stories, because she is so good at both of those things and so much else.

What programs do you use to write and/or edit?

I use Google Docs. I have also been dancing around buying Scrivener for an original novel I plan to write and shop around, so I'll be doing that soon.

Are you a plotter or a pantser?

Plotter, for sure. My brain would implode if I tried to pants my stories.

Do you write RPF or not?

I have a few chapters of a Tom Hiddleston RPF in draft form but haven't proceeded with it. I'd kind of like to write a Pedro Pascal RPF one-shot. I love reading RPF but feel odd about writing it for some reason.

Who is your favorite character to write and why?

Again with the tough questions! It might be Loki, because he is such a chameleon and there are so many hidden depths to him. I really want to write some multi-chapter Loki stories, because so far I have done one-shots and one 3-chapter short fic. I'd like to explore a longer character arc for him.

What do you think are your writing strengths?

Authenticity because of my research, realistically depicting emotions, and writing in a style that feels genuine to the setting and era.

What do you struggle with?

PLOT. I do think that there is plenty of room for all kinds of stories, and I like to tell stories about relationships. But I would like to get better at adding outside conflict and other types of plot to my stories.

Favorite Trope?

It's so hard to choose between There Was Only One Bed and Fake Relationship. I think those are my top two.

What is the best piece of writing advice you have heard?

Write something. Anything. Even if you think it's crap, get your first draft done, because you can always go back and rewrite something that's bad and make it better. Also, if you're stuck on your WIP, write something else - a piece of another story or one-shot, a description of something you saw, a character profile, a bit of personal journaling. Keep writing and don't let a temporary roadblock turn into a long-term one.

What would you say to a new fanfic writer starting out?

It's hard when something you wrote doesn't get a lot of attention, especially when you love it. We share stories in the hopes that other people will discover and enjoy them, but you have to at least partly do it for your own satisfaction, or it will get pretty discouraging if the likes/kudos, comments, and reblogs just don't happen.

What is a random bit of research you have not managed to work into a fic yet?

Ladies' drawers (underwear) were not commonly worn until the mid-1800s. They were thought to be gentlemen's garments and it was thus vulgar for a lady to wear them. Yes, ladies of the Georgian (incl. Regency) era were generally commando beneath their skirts, petticoats, and shifts. But that was still a lot of layers.

Any goals or WIPs you want to share?

My goal is to write an original novel (series) set during the Napoleonic Wars. My hope is to get it researched, written, and put in final draft form so that I can send query letters out before the end of 2021.

This or That

Fluff or Angst

Fluff AND Smut

Reader Insert or  OC

Canon Divergent or AU

Pepsi or Coke (Neither: Cherry Coke Zero)

Coffee or Tea (Neither: Cocoa)

Sweet AND Savory

And that is it, until next week, remember to check out the masterlist here.  And your new fav fic is just around the corner!  Until next time, toodles!

[monstersandmaw]

Do you have any tips or tricks for an amateur writer such as myself? More so related to focus because I'll start something and then stop to do something else than go to pick it back up again only to discover I'm at a block.

I’ve got a lot of short asks/answers to questions like this under the tag ‘writing advice’ so make sure you follow that up on my blog for more answers like this, but essentially, think about what drew you to the story in the first place, and think on that for a while. If you’re not writing professionally, and since you say you’re an amateur (which essentially means you’re writing because you love it, don’t forget!), then focus on what it is about writing that you love in the first place.

I think that’s what lies at the core of any piece of writing - it’s the spark that makes people remember it, and it’s what made you want to write it in the first place. Even just sitting down with a cup of tea (or drink of your choice, but stay hydrated - it’s good for the brain cells, and the aesthetic is neat too :P), and almost meditating on what it is that drew you to the concept in the first place can act like a whetstone, to sharpen up your focus and reboot your desire to write it. It might spark a new character, or a new direction, location, event... or it might solidify what you’ve got already.

Remember that writing anything - including this answer! - takes time and energy and focus, and crafting a whole story (regardless whether it’s something steamy for the fun of it or fluffy or deeply angsty) will take energy. You will be tired or even drained after you’ve done some writing. You may not have the required spoons for the story that day, and that’s ok. Reduce the task size from writing ‘a nebulous amount of words’ to something more manageable like ‘I’m going to get the story moving on by two paragraphs today’. If you write more, great. If you write one paragraph, that’s ok. If you only manage a sentence, it’s still more than you had before, and you’re doing great.

If you’re blocked on something, write down exactly what it is that’s stopping you going forward. I do it with pen and paper because it’s more tangible to me, but you could make a fancy graphic with lots of colours or type it out in a doc or something. I did this with my novel when I hit a major block and it helped me fix it a bit. I’m going to have to rewrite everything, and it’s 150k words long, but at least I know that now!!

So yeah, literally ask ‘why is [character] doing [this activity]?’ or ‘what is the exact function of [insert maguffin]’ or ‘how does [character] feel about what happened in the last bit?’. Play games with yourself and figure out why your characters are doing what they’re doing (or not doing, if you’re stuck!) and sidestep it if you have to. Don’t just say ‘I’m stuck’ and leave it there. If you still care about the story as a whole, figure out exactly what’s causing the block.

You don’t have to write the whole thing in the same order as the finished piece. I’ve got a story on the go at the moment which - at 14 Chapters - is 54k words long, but the Scrivener file with the rest of it tells me I’ve written 88k words. I’ve got chapters that are way way ahead of the current published chapter, and some might not even happen in this story. It’s part of the world, and it involves these characters, but it might not work. It’s ok though because I’m exploring these characters and how they’d react in a given situation, and I can use that to inform other chapters. Write what inspires you in that moment, and fill in the gaps between those chapters or story-beats later.

Remember that a first draft is just ideas on paper. I read something recently (and unfortunately I can’t remember where it was, or I’d cite it!) which resonated - If you are Michelangelo, and your finished story is David, then the first draft of your story is the block of marble extracted from the quarry. It doesn’t have to be shaped and polished at all - it’s just the raw material to work from. It might be disheartening to look at it that way, but if you get to the end of your first draft (even if it’s just a 100 word drabble) and you think it’s rubbish, that’s fine. It’s normal. Let it sit for a day or so, then come back and rework it into something better.

It’s ok if you’re not writing reams and reams each time you sit down to write something. Remember that even a sentence is an achievement, and you don’t have to produce a 50k word novel every time you sit down to write. Take care of yourself, and remember that being a writer isn’t always about creating the actual draft/document. Engage yourself in the world of your story, your characters, make moodboards and colour palettes, design outfits and find out what their favourite foods are. Don’t use that to procrastinate too long, but if you’re struggling with something, taking a new perspective on it can help.

And remember that writing is a craft. You don’t get to be Michelangelo with your first attempts. It takes hours and hours of methodically working on something, of being disciplined and firm with yourself, even if it’s just ‘for fun’. Each time you sit down is like a musician practising a study - you’re getting better each time and with each sentence you craft, so don’t get disheartened!

And enjoy it!

[nanowrimo]

Pro Tips from a NaNo Coach: The Care and Feeding of You and Your Novel

NaNoWriMo can seem like a daunting task sometimes, for NaNo newbies and veterans alike. Fortunately, our NaNo Coaches are here to help guide you through November! Today, author Alexis Daria is here to share her advice on how to take care of yourself while you’re writing:

Welcome to Week 1 of NaNoWriMo! You’ve done it—you’ve declared your novel, maybe you’ve done some NaNoPrep, or some laundry to help you write by the seat of your pants all month, made some writing buddies, and now you’ve started getting words down. 

Congratulations! You are now one step further than most people who say they want to write a novel. The reality is, most people say they want to write but never do. Starting is the hardest part—the activation energy required can be tremendous—so whether this is your first attempt or your 20th (Happy anniversary, NaNoWriMo!), I salute you. 

Week 1 is marked by enthusiasm and excitement. Your mind whirls with inspiration. Your outline seems impervious to plot holes. You are on your way!

So let’s talk about how you maintain this momentum throughout the month. Writing advice seems to fall into two main categories: writing craft and writing life. However, I would argue that we can’t approach craft without also looking at how we take care of ourselves as creatives. 

Before we discuss maintaining our own momentum, let’s talk about how to keep moving forward with your novel. If you find yourself feeling stuck, here are a few story tips you could try:

1. Raise the stakes. 

What happens if your character fails at reaching their goal? If the answer is “nothing,” you want to raise the stakes. Why is success important to them? Not every story needs to be life or death—it could just be the emotional stakes that are high.

2. Increase the sense of urgency. 

How? Give your characters a deadline of some sort. It doesn’t even have to be an overall story-level deadline. Whatever their current scene goal is, see if you can add a ticking clock. Maybe they’re going to the bank—but they have to get there before it closes! Will they make it in time? Now we have tension.

3. Ask WHY. 

Focus on your character’s why. Why are they doing what they’re doing? Why do they want what they want? Dig into their past, their psyche. They lived a whole life before they showed up on your first page—use their past experiences to drive them through the story you’re telling now.

However, when we hit snags in our own lives, the writing stalls out, too. So let’s take a look at some ways we can maintain our own inner momentum:

1. Don’t ignore the basics. 

Eat, sleep, drink water. It can be very tempting to let these fall by the wayside as you try to carve out time for writing, but I promise, if you maintain your basic needs, the writing will come easier. 

2. No writer is an island. 

Yes, much of the act of writing happens in solitude. But in between those long stretches of isolation, reach out to your writing buddies for motivation, especially if you feel stuck. Ask if you can talk out a story problem with them—and then return the favor. Attend an in-person write-in or join @NaNoWordSprints on Twitter, which runs all month long. The beauty of NaNoWriMo is the community—make the most of it!

3. Keep a writing journal. 

Every day, I write a short entry in my Scrivener doc about how the writing went. Some days I whine about the struggle, other days I’m pleasantly surprised by the creative flow. I find it helpful to be able to go back and see not just how many words I wrote per day, but how I was feeling and what else was going on in my life.

4. Keep what works and scrap the rest. 

There’s a ton of writing advice out there (like this blog post), but I always recommend you take what works for you and discard the rest. For example, “write every day” is a common adage, but you might have a day job that doesn’t leave much time for creativity during the week. Don’t despair! Many writers are Weekend Warriors. Carve out a block of writing time on the weekends and do what you have to do to keep other obligations from interfering. 

Don’t like write-ins? You don’t have to go. Don’t like word sprints? You don’t have to do them. Don’t overwhelm yourself by feeling like you need to do everything this month. Certainly be open to trying new things to see if you do like them, but don’t feel like you have to. There are no “rules,” and you’re not receiving a grade on this. Do what’s best for you. The real goal of NaNoWriMo is to support and foster your creativity and growth. If you spend any time at all exploring your creativity this month, I count that as a win!

One last note: 50,000-words might be the “goal,” but you haven’t “lost” or “failed” if you don’t reach that marker in one month. The number might seem scary or unattainable, but don’t let it stop you from trying to write something. Just write. Use the momentum and structure of NaNo to your benefit. Go easy on yourself and stay flexible in your process. And then see what you end up with on December 1st. I bet you’ll surprise yourself. 

Alexis Daria is an award-winning contemporary romance author, former artist, and native New Yorker. Her debut, TAKE THE LEAD, was a 2018 RITA® Award winner for “Best First Book” and was named one of the Best Romance Novels of 2017 by The Washington Post and Entertainment Weekly. She loves social media, and you can find her live-tweeting her favorite TV shows at @alexisdaria.

[cdelphiki]

So how does Scrivener work cdelphiki? Any specifics? I think you talked about it a fair bit before, early in November, but I can't quite remember.

Scrivener is awesome!! Basically, it’s a word processor on steroids specifically for writers (and not student/business purposes, like Microsoft Word/Google Docs) Although you can use it for student or business purposes, if you wanted.  

Basically, you use it by first creating your project. It has a lot of templates to choose from, and once you pick what you want to do, it has instructions of how to structure your project in your newly created file.  There are a ton of template options, but I’m here for the novel format: 

But you can write pretty much anything you can imagine in scrivener.  

Pick what you want and click “choose” then save it somewhere. I have the app for ipads/iphones, so I save all my projects on dropbox so I can access them from my phone or computer. (This is how scrivener is set up for synced across platforms: over dropbox, not icloud for mac users. It took me a hot minute to figure out.) It has you name and save it up front so it can start backing up your work!!

Once it’s got the project created, it will give you the informational page for the template you selected. Read through it for a lot of good information on how to use all the organizational tools for your specific project. 

Now you basically just start working. There is no real wrong way to go about putting together your story.  I use scrivener for both one shots and multi-chaptered fics.  I actually keep most my one shots in one project, titled “Tumblr Prompts,” just to make it easier than having a zillion project files for single stories.  

If you want a pretty detailed walkthrough of how I use scrivener, I put it all below the cut. :D

Here’s one of my my well-used project files: 

There’s a lot going on here. The left column is your navigation bar. This is basically your entire book. As you can see I have folders within folders. The main one, called “Manuscript” by default, is basically the book in its entirety. I then use more folders for each chapter.  Right now, since I’m still drafting, I actually just have it broken into ‘events,’ rather than chapters. This is just a me thing and is what I figured out to help me keep better track of everything. 

So I have the Prologue, and then event 1.1 (act 1, event 1), 1.2, 1.3, etc.  In 1.3, as you can see, I have both chapter 3 and 4 as scene cards.  1.4 has five scene cards that will likely turn into 7 chapters, once I do a revision! 

All the various colors of text are revisions.  By default, the first draft is written in black.  

When you’re ready to do a revision, you can turn on revision mode and select which version you’re on. I’m on my third revision. I really like this function because it lets me see my progress. 

Now, inside all these folders you can see a couple different symbols there.  You can actually change the symbols of these things yourself by right clicking on the object in the navigation pane and selecting “change icon.”  I put the pencil on all my notes, so it’s very easy for me to know what to get rid of when I’m cleaning up and about to call something “done.” On Precedent, for example, whenever I publish a chapter, I go ahead and name the chapter folder in Scrivener and get rid of all the note cards so all that is left is what I actually published.  

Probably one of the best things about Scrivener, is when you want to get rid of something, you don’t have to erase it entirely.  On this project here, you can see I have a file a couple under the file selected for viewing called “trash pile.”  Whenever I remove large chunks of text, I actually just copy it over to a blank scene card so it’s not ‘lost.’  I then “move to trash,” so it’s not in the way, but it’s always available to me.  Scrivener does not delete anything you ‘move to trash’ unless you specifically move to that trash bin and make it delete it.  This is great because I can’t tell you how many times I’ve ‘thrown something away’ just to realize, sometimes months later, that that exact scene would work perfectly now! And good thing I saved the draft, so I had something to start with!  

Now, back to these ‘scene’ cards.  Scene cards are just the files you actually write on. I don’t know if Scrivener calls them that or not, but they’re set up like notecards. I don’t know if you ever did the notecard method in school, where you wrote major points on note cards and then arranged them into a logical order on the table? That’s basically what this is. 

To get to this screen, I selected the folder for section 1.4.  You can pick any folder you want, even the over all manuscript to get here.  Then you pick the view option, where the top arrow is pointing.  The first view option shows it as a document, as my other pictures have already demonstrated. 

What the notecards are going to show you is your synopsis, if you have one written.  Each and every file, even the folder itself, has a spot for ‘synopsis’ and ‘notes,’ which do not count into your overall word count.  It’s really nice for keeping stuff out of the way.  I’ve found I prefer having my notes as actual scene cards, but the notes section is handy for throwing important things.  I also save the link to where I’ve posted stuff on tumblr for easy saving or research so I don’t lose anything.  

If you do not have anything written in the synopsis section, the card will just show as much as the text as it can in a dark grey, rather than the black ink of the synopsis.  I rarely use the synopsis section, so you can see all my documents just have the first bits of text.  

On this screen you can start dragging around cards and move them however you think things need to line up.  This works remarkably well if you write in a lot of small scenes, and need to reorganize because you realized that Tim needs to have a panic attack before he faces Ra’s.  Or whatever.  You can also reorganize at any point in the navigation pane itself.  I drag stuff between folders all the time.  That’s another reason I love having my notes on actual scene cards, because a lot of times I end up punting scenes off into the future, and it makes it way easier to drag and drop it into the next chapter folder to deal with later.  

Another feature I really like is ‘targets.’ 

To get here, I selected the overall manuscript, and then switched to the third view option, up there next to the note cards option.  It shows me my whole book this way, as well as the status of each folder or document (which I have to set myself.)  It also shows me if I had a target word count, and how close I am to reaching it.  I like my chapters to be about 3k words, so I make that my target. (set your target by clicking on the target icon on the bottom right corner of a document while in document view.)  The purple goes from a dark purple to a lighter one the closer you get. (This is because I am using the ‘theme’ “Purple Haze.” The color is based on your theme. I forget what the default is.)

You can also set daily word goals, and up at the top, below the project’s name, it’ll show you progress toward that goal. I’ve written two words today.... so I don’t have a progress bar yet.  The bar above the project’s name is for the overall word goal set. I have this project set to 100k. 

I think that’s pretty much it.  The only other feature I use regularly I haven’t mentioned is the split screen.  

Basically, click where the arrows are pointing. When you’re in just regular view, it’ll look like a split screen, rather than a single document view button.  When you hit it, it opens your currently selected document twice, on both sides of the screen. Click on the bar for the document you want to change and then select whatever you want from your navigation pane.  I use this mostly for putting my notes on one side and my actual working document on the other. Yesterday I was using while revising, throwing anything I didn’t want anymore into my ‘trash pile’ by just dragging it across.  

Once you’re done with something, you can run spelling and grammar check (because it does not check as you go, unless you go into settings and make it do that. It’s turned off by default. I find the squiggly lines distracting, so I love this feature) and use the various text tidying tools, such as the one that turns all multiple spaces into single spaces! 

So yeah! That’s Scrivener. I love it so much. It has made writing so much easier. I wrote most of Life Happens in a single Microsoft Word document, and that was a huge mess and horrible and really difficult. I’ve written two long fics in their entirety now on Scrivener and I won’t ever go back.  

Oh, and if anyone was curious, this is how I use Scrivener for my one shots: I just label the folders with the main relationship or the collection they’re from, rather than treated the folders like chapters.  I then name the scene cards either with their actual titles or a brief description (if I didn’t give them titles) to let me know what’s been published and what isn’t done.  

[missfaber]

author interview

I was tagged by @orangeflavoryawp, thank you so much! 

I already know I’m going to enjoy this way too much, writing is such a lonely endeavor and I just love talking about it, sooo... I apologize in advance for rambling. 

name: Madeline/Maddie 

fandoms: this is complicated because there’s fandoms I very much consider myself a part of because they’re just a huge part of my life, even though I don’t contribute content to them, and then there’s fandoms I do create content for. So idk where the line is drawn! 

fandoms I contribute/ have contributed to: Avatar the Last Airbender, Game of Thrones, Merlin BBC, Once Upon a Time, Legend of Korra

fandoms I haven’t contributed to but are so dear to me: Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings (my two favorite things ironically lol), and lots more 

where you post: AO3, used to be ff.net and livejournal too

most popular one shot: by kudos, it’s as if death itself was undone (zutara, atla: katara wakes up to azula in their house and wants to find out a) why she is welcome b) why zuko is acting so weird) 

most popular multichapter: by kudos, it’s soldier, go bravely on (jonsa + gendrya, got, complete, rewrite of the last episode of got with sweetness and angst and action, and may i say some common sense?)

favorite story you wrote: fuck omg this is difficult lol! because I both criticize and love all my stories in equal measure, I honestly don’t write anything that i don’t love, that doesn’t give me butterflies / actual chest pain (from angst). I feel like I’m being asked to choose a favorite child lol. so I’ll try to justify these picks somehow... 

closest to my heart: soldier, go bravely on (also mentioned above). this is the fic that brought me back to writing fic, and to tumblr even! I was on hiatus (that I didn’t know was a hiatus because I had no intention of coming back) for six years before writing this fic. I wrote it so quickly after the got finale, it was such a passionate and fevered few days and it just sucked me back in to everything I used to love as a teenager. It was also a nice stretch out of my comfort zone, because of the dialogue (which was so tightly planned it’s ridiculous, I wrote the whole fic as a screenplay type thing first to make sure there wasn’t a single dialogue word not needed) and tv-episode style. It’s also such a wish-fulfillment fic that I can’t read certain parts without getting a bit teary. for all those reasons and more, this fic will always be so special to me. 

most proud of: wolf, circle north (jonsa, got, alternate season 7 & 8). this is the longest fic I’ve ever attempted and the number I’ve hours I’ve sunk into it is astounding and i should be ashamed.  It’s going to be obscenely long (my outline is 70+ chapters) and when I pull it off, best believe it’s going into a bound book so I can look at how thicc it is and be like, “I did that!” lol. The range of POVs is one of the most challenging but most rewarding part of this fic, and why I’m so proud of it. This is another wish-fulfillment fic for me, not just because it’s another fix-it fic but because I have been writing bits and pieces of this fic for about three years. I kept thinking of jonsa scenarios and little scenes I would have loved to see after season 6 and writing them in a little secret doc, just for me, as I never thought I’d write fic again. After writing “soldier” i had already broken my hiatus and I realized this fic was an actual possibility, so I put it out into the world. I couldn’t be more happy that I did that. Not only did it give me the chance to be in such an excellent, lovely fandom, but the feedback I get is so validating after having this be my secret little project for so long.  

most formative: Coffee & Cigarettes, (merthur, merlin bbc) I’m ashamed to list this and the merthurs reading this 100% want to kill me for having the audacity because it’s incomplete and hasn’t been updated since 2013 when there’s only one chapter left so what’s my excuse?  I call this the most formative for me because until I published this I didn’t really have a fic that people followed and liked, eagerly awaited updates for, and commented regularly on. I was writing a lot of one-shots and atla stuff on tumblr (I used to RP lmao I was like 15 ok?) This was the first time I experienced so many fic-life things, like being excited to get AO3 emails, etc. This was the first time I started to really focus on character which is so important to me now, my writing is completely character driven. Not to mention Merlin and Arthur’s dumbassery and sheer attraction and denial is just... *chef’s kiss* 

guiltiest pleasure: my recent foray into nedsei, who am I??? one more word and you won’t survive, just international hate sex

story you were most nervous to post: ummm idk I’m usually excited not nervous, since for me fic writing is just fun, I write things I’d enjoy reading and that I’m proud of. I read my own fics more than anyone else does, I guarantee it. am I a narcissist? who knows I guess I’ll say “soldier” again because I hadn’t posted fic in six years.

how you choose your titles: wow the hardest part of fic writing for me!!!!! thanks!!!!! lol. Okay so for my work titles, which are always terrible and I literally regret them immediately after posting, it’s usually just some words I play around with and string together that are somewhat thematic and related to the work... they’re always terrible lmao, I hate making titles. I mean, look at “soldier, go bravely on” and “wolf, circle north” for god’s sake, I hate them lmao. But I have to pick a title to post, so!!! For chapter titles and one-shots I’ll usually go with a song lyric, and especially for my chapter titles I spend so long seeking out the perfect one that reflects some thematic or emotional content of the chapter somehow. I’m very proud of my chapter titles for wolf, circle north. I have a doc on my scrivener just for chapter titles that I created in the very early stages of writing it, where I just dumped HUNDREDS of song lyrics that I thought I might use. Then by them I wrote some scenarios where they could work. here’s a screenshot:

It’s so helpful now. Sometimes posting an update will take an hour more than necessary because of me going through that doc, finding the perfect lyric. 

do you outline: OH, DO I OUTLINE... Hell Yeah, I outline. I couldn’t live without outlining. I love outlining. My outlines have outlines. I’m a planner centric, calendar centric, bullet-journal bitch so of course I love outlining. In all seriousness though: I write out of chronological order. I feel my writing is best when I write the scene I’m in the mood to write- unfortunately this scene could be ten chapters down the line from the chapter I’m gonna post next. This is the biggest reason outlining is necessary for me. If I didn’t have an outline, my story would be a non-post-able mess. 

I wasn’t kidding when I said my outlines have outlines. For wolf, circle north I have, um, a few. Character/location centric outlines where I bullet every scene that needs to happen for that plot to happen cohesively (these were all more or less completed before I even started writing the fic), then a “loose” outline that I copy everything from the other outlines into for some semblance of chronological order, then a Polished Final Outline that I write from. I know that sounds psychotic. It’s how my brain works. Some photo evidence/explanation:

And here’s a screengrab of my Final Outline, this is pretty much how it is all the way down- The POV character is italicized in the front, I talk to myself a lot in there, let myself get carried away, will sometimes write out whole segments of the scene if they come to me while outlining. Spoilers for chapters 1-3 of w,cn I guess!!!

Then, because scrivener is awesome, I get to see this outline in the corkboard view (I input every scene as a card) and so I get to see every part of my outline as a Synopsis on the right hand side of the doc where I’m writing the scene:

The POV and status tags (which are completely customizable) on the lower right are helpful too. This post is just a scrivener ad. 

complete: 9 works 

in progress: 4 works

coming soon / not yet started: I have so many fics in the works, I’m an indulgent person so if an idea comes to me I usually go with it for a time. I’ve had a very not-serious Jonsa PLL AU I’ve been writing on and off since summer. I have three different fairytale AUs (also jonsas) I’ve been working on and one time travel AU for @sunbeamsandmoonrays. I can’t say when or if any of these will see the light of day, because my priority is my WIPs and my original writing. But the most prevalent are my Halloween fics (one jonsa, one gendrya, one merthur) which I really want to be able to put out this month, but only if I meet some other goals. I’m trying to rein in my indulgent ass, ya’ll. 

do you accept prompts: no. sorry! but I do workshop ideas with friends, for example the nedsei fic happened that way by talking with @flibbertigiblet. But I don’t take writing prompts in my inbox. 

upcoming story you are most excited to write: my halloween merthur fic. it’s witchy, sassy, and I’m so excited to get back into the heads of these characters.

Tagging! @uchihabat @anniebibananie @noqueenbutthequeeninthenorth @sailorshadzter @vivilove-jonsa and any other lovely writer soul who wants to do this!

[ahiddenpath]

My Favorite Writing Stuff

One of the best things about writing is that all you need is a pen and paper!  But we all have our favorite tools and luxuries, and I thought it might be fun to talk about mine below the cut.  Lotsa pics, long post.

Word Processors

Scrivener

The single writing item I use most is my word processor, Scrivener, by Literature and Latte.  At some point waaaaaay back in 2012, I found myself writing Growing Up with You in Microsoft Word...  And having to wait ten seconds for the screen to adjust and load new text as I scrolled.  It was just too danged long for the program to handle.  Just reading my manuscript was a nightmare, let alone copying and pasting to move text, shuffle paragraphs, etc.  Making a new doc for each chapter quickly became a clunky chore.

THEN I FOUND SCRIVENER, AND IT’S THE BEST.

Scrivener is... not very user friendly; there’s definitely a learning curve.  But it was immediately so much better for writing long fiction than Word that I bought a book on the program and read it from cover to cover, which...  I don’t think I’ve ever done before.  That’s how much of a game changer this was.

The feature I rely on most is the binder.

This is the binder for Four Years, which currently has...  Forty-eight chapters.  I corralled the chapters into two folders, one for the first year of college (1), and one for the second (2).  

If I click folder 1, all of the chapters appear, each snug in their own folder.  Once the Scrivener file loads, there is no further loading time.  Each folder can be moved by clicking and dragging, as can each text file inside each folder.  FREEDOM!

This feature alone was worth the price of the program.  They offer a free trial, so please check it out if you’re interested!

Portable Word Processors

I’ve mentioned these before, but I have two portable gadgets that allow me to write on the go, distraction free.

Alpha Smart Neo 2

This might look like the baby of a toddler’s toy computer and a keyboard, but it’s actually my baby.

Just kidding!  Sort of!  The Alpha Smart Neo 2 is a portable word processor that boots up in a second, is powered by three AA batteries for eons, and weighs about 2 pounds.  They are no longer in production (which is a crime), but there are oodles available on Ebay for about $20-30.  

(I used to own and talk about my Alpha Smart 3000.  The Alpha Smart Neo 2 is the latest model before the company shut down, and the keyboard is nicer; it’s quieter and easier on the fingers).

I honestly can’t say enough about this device.  I rarely draft on a computer anymore; it’s just too easy to find yourself surfing the web, falling down a research vortex, or even reading your manuscript instead of writing.  Alpha Smarts can remember what you wrote until you delete it.  That’s it.  That’s all they do.  It’s beautiful.

I write about 800 words/hr on a computer.  I write about 1,500 words/hr on an Alpha Smart.  Distractions are so, so real.

When you’re ready to port your writing from your Alpha Smart to your word processor, all you have to do is connect a printer cable to your Alpha Smart, then plug the usb end into your computer.  Open your word processor, turn on your Alpha Smart, select the file you want to transfer, and hit send.  If you forget any of this, it’s written on the back of the Alpha Smart.

I know that no one should blame their success or failure on their tools, but...  I wouldn’t be able to write nearly as much without my Alpha Smart.  And if you ever do writing meet ups, you’ll be the only person who isn’t fighting for a power outlet!  It also fits easily into a tote bag or backpack.

Oh, Alpha Smart Neo 2.  My partner and friend!

Freewrite

The Freewrite by Astrohaus is... um.  Well, it’s a lot like the Alpha Smart Neo 2, except that it’s waaaay more expensive, much harder to use, and has terrible firmware.

There are cool things about it, for sure!  For one, it has this weird...  Pseudo typewriter feel.  It’s much larger and heavier than an Alpha Smart, and I’m not sure that I actually consider it portable...  But the thick, angled base practically functions as a lap desk.  It’s comfortable to use and has a nice mechanical keyboard.

It has wifi capability, so you can send drafts directly to your dropbox/cloud/email, no cords or transfers needed.  The screen is an e-ink scree, like a Kindle Paperwhite, easy on the eyes and readable in the sun.  It’s also backlit, which is the one major win over the Alpha Smart.

I bought mine used off ebay for a fraction of the list price (this thing is NOT worth $600 on any planet, goodness gracious mercy dang!  I paid about $180), and, um...  I still don’t know if it was worth it, not when I can buy an Alpha Smart Neo 2 for $30 tops.  I mean, I like the e-ink and the backlit screen, but...  There’s a lag between typing and the words populating on the screen.  There are no arrows to fix a typo.  I had to send 10 emails back and forth to tech support to get it updated and working.  It was not broken, and I understood all the directions...  It’s just god awful firmware.  I also lost a draft because it wipes your device if you open their Sprinter program while using your Freewrite.  

I still use it, though!  The tactile sensation is really nice, the keys make a satisfying clickety clackety, the E-ink screen is lovely, I adore the option to write in a not-that-well-lit room, and the wifi transfer is faster than my Alpha Smart’s wired method.  But I still can’t recommend it as long as Alpha Smart Neo 2s are available, not unless you’re some combination of the following: a writing nut who writes so gosh dang much that these toys are worth it, someone who is big on tactile sensation, someone who likes hipster stuff, or someone who would love an Alpha Smart but can’t read the electronic screen well.  If this is you, make sure you also have a strong grasp on how to talk to and understand tech support, because you will need them.

Just never ever EVER open Sprinter...

Notebooks

Leuchtturm1917, hard cover, A5, dotted

MAY I INTRODUCE YOU TO MY LOVE, THE LEUCHTTURM NOTEBOOK.

WHERE DO I EVEN START.

The Leuchtturm is...  Just the best.  The hard cover takes abuse well, stickers hold onto it nicely, it has two ribbon bookmarks and an elastic closure, there’s a folder attached to the back inside cover...  The dot version is unobtrusive and encourages smaller writing, which helps the notebook last.  And it is available in a rainbow of colors!

The paper is lovely, the pages are numbered, and IT HAS AN INDEX.

I’m a scientist, and working in a Leuchtturm is just like working in a fancy, expensive lab notebook.  The set up is done already, man.  You just gotta jot down what pages contain what.  IT’S SO ORGANIZED, with almost zero effort!  Mi amor.

Sure, I could make an index page and number all of my pages manually...  But I’ve met myself.  I won’t do it.  When you combine all of these lovely features, you have one unbeatable notebook.

Plus, they’re easy to obtain in the states!  I order them off Amazon or buy them at my local Barnes & Nobles.

Midori MD Notebook, A5, grid

The Midori has even nicer quality paper than the Leuchtturm, but the cover can’t take abuse, and it lacks the nice features.  I truly appreciate the paper quality, but the other features bring me back to my Leuchtturms every time.

It’s a Japanese item and is more difficult to import to the states.  You can get them off Amazon, though!

Pens

I use Uni-ball Signo 207 gel pens.  They write comfortably, and using them feels satisfying.  They should be available in most Walmart/Target type stores, at least in the states!  

It should be noted that I’m just not a pen buff.  I tried fountain pens, and it was more trouble than it was worth for me.

Folios/Traveler’s Notebooks

Okay, so you found the perfect notebook!  Wanna make it SUPER DUPER FANCY PANTS?!  Well, you could try a traveler’s notebook.  

I only learned what a traveler’s notebook is about a year ago, so if you’re also in the dark...  It’s a leather cover that holds notebooks inside with elastic.  I own these chic sparrows, one for my Midori notebook (or whatever notebook I’m using at the time), and one for my journal.

My full name is etched into them, so please pardon my censorship XD

The chic sparrow traveler’s notebooks are so elegant and decadent and...  I won’t lie, I literally move one or both around the house with me, just so I can look at them.  

The one on the left is a Mr. Darcy deluxe, size A5, in the Wickham color.  The one on the right is an Enchanted Woods deluxe, size A5, in the Elderwood color.

They have lots of pockets on the inside, a pen loop, and elastics to hold multiple notebooks.  This one is strung with a Midori notebook.  I also have a smaller B6 one that I use as a wallet!  It holds a small notebook, so I can write down those ideas that always happen when I’m out and don’t have paper.  The pockets hold IDs, credit cards, and cash.

It’s just this... magical, opulent item.  While it’s likely the least practical thing on this list, it’s very special to me.

Lap Desks

I HAVE A HARRY POTTER RAVENCLAW STORAGE DESK FROM POTTERY BARN AND I FEEL LIKE A WITCH WHEN I USE IT.

Oh dear, I took a terrible picture, it looks so lovely in person.  

The top can slide in both directions, revealing enough storage for several A5 notebooks, pens, and more.  It’s a great way to cart your stuff into your favorite cozy nook for a writing session.  Plus, you’ll feel like a Hogwarts student!  It’s available in all four house designs, plus a Hogwarts crest version.

Pottery Barn puts these on sale occasionally.  I’d aim for 25% off before buying.

My Writing Bag

I decked out a tote bag in writing pins to carry my Alpha Smart, thesaurus, a notebook, and pens.  You can use any bag, as long as it accommodates what you need!  Here are my fave sources for writing-related pins:

Literary Emporium, who makes my favorite pin, “Still I Rise,” a Maya Angelou quote.  They have the most gorgeous pins.

When life gives you lemons, read them, advice for the ages

And fandom:

Digivice pin

My beloved Sailor Moon pin, the loveliest pin I’ve ever seen (not shown because it lives on my Sailor Moon jacket!).  All of the inner senshi are available!

THAT’S ALL, THAT WAS SO MUCH.  Please let me know if you try any of these out!

[quincywillows]

how do you plan out your books/wips bc I have a solid idea and pretty much a billeted list of what I want the plot to be and how my book goes but I’m lost at outlining everything in a coherent and organized way it’s highkey frustrating

okay i’m going to do my best to try and give some helpful tips here for how you can organize your thoughts, and i’ll take it from the perspective of both fics, novels, and just general story ideas! a lot of the principles i follow overlap, and obviously it differs by project (and by writer, for example me and my roommates have completely different outlining styles), this is just what has worked for me so far. hopefully it’ll give ya some things to chew on!

firstly, to make sure i’m orienting myself correctly -- from what i understand, it sounds like you’ve already got a sense of what your beginning, middle, and end is. not beat-by-beat, but the general gist of it. this is already a lot of progress, so kudos!! it can be hard to get from just that general warm and fuzzy and exciting idea phase to an actual concrete sense of what you want to plot to be, so feel good about that. it’s not easy work.

i think what you’re now trying to do is get your ideas down into a tangible format that you can follow to start actually working on it, yes? if so, here are some of my thoughts.

method #1: phase-by-phase, beat-by-beat method

i’m starting with the sort of straightforward outlining method here just because that’s what i’ve employed with quincy willows, so it’s most fresh in my mind. when it came to outlining quincy willows so i could start actually writing it down in concrete scenes, i decided to visualize my story by beat rather than by chapter or major plot points. “beat” is a sort of loose storytelling term that means different things to different people -- for me, it’s not a set “scene” (some beats include 2 - 3 scene changes), but more so an important emotional or context moment. this could be a reveal of information, it could be a relationship building scene, it just in some way drives the story forward even if its just the tiniest step.

how this ended up panning out was that i actually divided my full story into “phases.” these are sort of like the stereotypical “acts” in classic storytelling structure, but less strict on how they’re interpreted. so i can have 7 “phases” to quincy willows, for example:

for me, each of those reflects a distinct SECTION of the story where a major development is occurring plot wise, and sort of roughly reflects story structure. (new kid in school is through the “inciting incident”, unlikely partnership & secrets unravel is up to the midpoint, inevitable decay & halloween are the rising action, and the final gamut is the climax).

within each of those phases, there could be anywhere from 6 - 12 beats. by sort of outlining what the general progression of things would be and what beats i THOUGHT would be included where, i was able to create a good enough skeleton of an outline that i felt comfortable starting to actually write. but one thing i think is important to note is that the phases and beats are totally flexible. i’ve deleted beats entirely, i’ve moved beats between phases, i’ve added beats where i felt like something was missing. it’s a malleable outline, and i think you should never feel tethered to an outline. it’s a roadmap, but it’s not the only way to get to your destination. sometimes, your story will change on you, and that’s okay. hear it out! you can make the decision to stick to your original plan or adjust accordingly.

then, i’ll also say, once i have my general idea of my beats down i will go in and almost... like basically, every beat gets about three synopses. there is the “title,” which is the most basic, often quippy take on what is happening in the story. then i have the “logline,” which is the essence of the beat boiled down to one or two encompassing sentences. then, i have a greater description of what is happening in that scene emotional turning point by emotional turning point. so, to use qw again as an example:

this is the title (up top) and then the logline. when i go into the actual scene on scrivener, i have my notes about all the things that happen in the actual scene which i worked off of to write the scene. but even then, i don’t always follow the original idea of my notes explicitly. sometimes i don’t think an idea works all that great anymore by the time i’m actually writing it, and that’s okay. it’s flexible!

one thing i have loved about this outline structure is it allows me to write out of order. i can jump in and work on whichever beat feels fresh and exciting to my brain, which is so helpful for working on a long project that needs a complete draft from the get-go like quincy willows. however, on projects like fanfic where i can take my time, want to write and post in order, etc...

method #2: bare bones outline

full disclosure -- i have written all the lonely people with a bare bones outline since its inception. sure, i have a whole little doc where i wrote down all the major themes, plotlines, and emotional beats i wanted to cover, but as far as structuring it and deciding what would go into each chapter (especially the early chapters), i mostly winged it.

this is where a looser outline can be a nice approach. you sort of outline how long you want the project to be (i.e., atlp is 16 chapters), and you have a vague IDEA of the Major thing that will happen in each chapter (“11 and 12 are the back story chapters,” “10 is where the romantic tension will finally snap but also they’ll have their fallout that they have to come back,” “4 will be the first kiss”). but then you just start working on the beginning, and as ideas come to you you can toss them in the general realm of each chapter without explicitly outlining when each and every beat will happen. that allows you to start walking around in the world of your project and playing with the characters rather than waiting until you have a Perfectly Perfect outline. you know?

then, usually, when i prepare to write a new chapter (atlp... i’m coming for u in december baybee), i will examine the little beat ideas i had and try to construct a more concrete mini-outline of that chapter alone before diving in. sometimes i do, sometimes i don’t -- but it goes to show that depending on the story, you don’t need a super strict outline to follow.

but even then, if you’re still feeling lost, i feel like the most tried and true method is honestly...

method #3: let it marinate

it might very well be you’re just not yet ready to jump into actually digging the narrative yet. and that’s totally chill. i came up with the initial nugget of an idea for quincy willows in sept of last year, let it exist as a fic for about 4 months, and then took it down in like dec to start working on it as an original work (bc that’s really what it was). i then thought about it for 6 months until the outline jumped out of me basically fully formed over 2 days in early june. so that’s... 9 - 10 months of ruminating and thinking about character and worldbuilding and jotting down notes and making playlists and talking to friends -- that’s almost a whole year of just wiggling in the idea until i stretched it out enough to start seeing the writing on the wall.

i hope all of this is a help in some way, or at least gives you things to think about that guide you in the right direction for you! let me know if there’s any other way i can help or things you’d like advice on. i will try my best to articulate well and offer some insight haha. you got this, writer friend!!

[corsairesque-blog]

11/11/11 tag game

I was tagged by both @glasskaleidoscopes and @bonafidealchemy​ for this, so I’m knocking all ?’s in one post. This was fun!

From @bonafidealchemy​:

1. how would you pitch your wip to someone who knew nothing about it?

I’ve had to try and find numerous ways to talk about my wip without dumping the entire story on someone. I suppose the best way to describe it is that it’s a what if scenario of France becoming a world empire, all because the French Revolution never happened.

2. do you have a specific audience in mind for your wip?

Not exactly. It’s adult fiction, but I suppose whoever was into the Leviathan series as a kid would be super into this story.

3. is it important to you that your wip has a moral or a message?

I don’t think it’s majorly important, but it’s always nice to have one.

4. what kinds of relationships do you like writing the most (romantic, platonic, familial, etc)?

Honestly I’m a huge romantic, so I absolutely adore writing slow burn, destined lover stuff. Buuuut I also love writing platonic found sibling relationships.

5. what kind of research have you done for your wip? what have you learned?

Where do I begin? I have an entire shelf dedicated to research. I took an entire class in college to research for this book. I’ve learned so much. My knowledge of French History has increased probably 5x as much as it did before. My knowledge on steampunk and air balloons even more so. My goal with my WIP is upend disbelief. I want you to read my story and go, technically this shouldn’t make sense, but the writer discusses it in such a way that it’s pretty believable. Ever read The Effluent Engine by N.K. Jemisin? I want to write about the mechanics of the world like that. So I’ve done a shit load of research

6. if your wip became very successful, would you want to make a movie adaptation? why or why not?

Can I have a TV adaptation instead?

7. did you have any alternate title ideas for your wip? if so, what are they?

Sea of Air is just a placeholder title. Currently this WIP is the story without a title, because I have yet to find something right for it

8. what has been the hardest part about writing your wip so far?

Balancing the world building and the actual writing.

9. do you prefer writing action or description?

Action, always. I’m not good at descriptions (still/yet)

10. what do you want your readers to come away with after reading your story?

Oooh… a sense of accomplishment. Empowerment. I want them to feel content because the storyline and ending went the way it should have, or at least felt that way.

11. what’s your favorite part about your wip? what makes you excited to write it?

My characters, specifically Rosalie. The airship. Thinking about what Paris would look like when the imagination of cafes on rooftops with air balloons comes to life. Thinking about France as an empire, and it’s devastating impact on any growth if it ever did become one. That’s just super interesting to explore. Finishing it is what makes me most excited to write it.

And from @glasskaleidoscopes​:

1. What do you do when you need to think of writing ideas?

I usually work out. Running gets my brain going. If not I usually call my girlfriend and ask if she’ll listen to me rant about my story. We then go off of questions she gives me throughout the convo and ideas form from there

2. Do you know how your WIP ends? Or are you figuring it out along the way?

It’s a bit of both. I know in a broad sense, but not specially. I.e. i know I want the Revolution to succeed, but I’m not sure what I want the ruling government to be after. Or the effect it has on the rest of the world

3. What do you struggle with the most when writing?

I think I struggle with keeping on track. I easily get distracted to find an obscure detail for a sentence or a scene. I have to remind myself that this is a first draft

4. How have your characters evolved over your WIP?

I think my characters have been given more depth over time. Multiple went from side characters to essentials for plot. Caddis, actually, has gone from semi-redeemable father figure to being the sort of dude you really don’t want your children around.

5. Has one of your characters done something you never thought they would have done when you created them? If so, what?

Most definitely. Josephine, a side character, will become a bit of the enemy later on in the story even though her introduction is as a good character.

6. How far into your WIP(s) are you?

Heh. Well for the first part of this story I’m about 75k words in and have maybe another 15k to go? Times that total by say, four? I’m barely a quarter into this WIP!

7. What inspired your current WIP(s)?

My love for French history and a love for their imagination in a time where traveling in the sky was starting to rise.

8. What is your stance on using flashbacks in writing?

They’re good if done right. Which isn’t an answer at all. I feel like I’m back and forth on flashbacks. I love writing them now in my first draft but I don’t think a lot of them will stay come revisions

9. Which genre is your least favorite?

Horror. I don’t have the stomach for horror books

10. What is your worst writing-related habit?

I love to overcomplicate sentences. Like. A lot.

11. What bits (if any) of your personality have you added into your WIP?

My endless admiration with pirate coats has wormed its way in. There’s a lot more, I’m sure.

I’m cheating with this but here’s 11 I’m tagging (found some of y’all over a post asking to be tagged in tag games) @odpadkywriter @tjswritingstuff @bookenders @fantasy-shadows @libra-writes @mercutioswriting @typewrxter @shattered-starrs @designermolotovcocktails @alittlegoblinwrites and @the-corner-girl

My questions for y’all are the following!

1. Do you create playlists for your stories or characters?

2. What is your stance on endings that don’t end with some hope?

3. What author would you love to hear feedback from on your WIP?

4. What is the genre of your WIP(s)?

5. How do you come up with new ideas for your WIP(s)?

6. What do you use to keep all your writing on? (Scrivener, Google Docs, good old pen and paper...)

7. What gave you initial inspiration for your WIP(s)?

8. How long have you been working on your WIP(s)?

9. What was the first thing you came up with for your WIP(s)?

10. Have you considered Hogwarts houses for your characters? If so, what are they?

11. What do you find easiest to write? (Description, dialogue, etc.)

[bookenders]

For anyone who’s curious about how I write and edit at the same time, this is what most of my first drafts look like. This is one of the giveaway stories I’m almost done with! (Blurred for spoilers, of course.) And one of the less rainbow docs I’ve had. 

Each color means something different: green is editing notes; orange and yellow are fix and add later, respectively; pink is a key plot detail; and blue is a line I really like. Look at all that blue! Woo!

There are a lot of strike-throughs, too, where I deleted something that might not end up staying deleted, or that I could move somewhere else, or they’re there so I can keep track of how I originally planned the scene. At the very bottom of the doc I keep a list of all the lines I cut, just in case.

If I find myself losing momentum, I’ll go back and start editing. It usually helps my brain get back in the zone.

[The writing program I use is Scrivener! I got it as a birthday present to myself years ago. It’s great, and you can have a lovely full-screen view with a background of your choosing!]

[klywrites]

11-11-11 Tag

Thank you to @reininginthefirewriting for the tag!! <3

The book cover idea you have for SOABM sounds really cool!

1. Do you know who you’re ocs are or do they change a lot while developing them?

It depends how long I’ve thought about them, but I think they don’t truly become themselves until I write them.

2. Favorite fictional world you have ever written?

probably Illanthys (RSverse). If it counts, I could also say Maya, which was a world completely shrouded in illusion after an apocalypse -- but that’s from a game I was working on in the past. One of my favourite things about that world is the clock tower, wherein time stands still

3. When you let your mind wander, do you sometimes think about your life as a story with dialogue tags? Is it in first person or third?

I don’t think so? Oh, maybe as a documentary sometimes lol

4. What favorite author would you love to someday have read your WIP?

Shakespeare or Emily Bronte so I guess I will have to literally take my WIP with me to my grave

5. If you end up publishing, is there someone you have in mind to dedicate it out to?

writeblr and my younger selves

6. Which of your ocs would you love to hang out with in real life or would you rather hang out with them in their world?

I would love to hang out with Alessendra in the magedom but she’d probably be too busy. I’d probably chill with Elles because I’m all about the quiet life by the sea (and we could both use the company).

7. Somebody on the street recognizes you for your writing. How do you react?

I’d be too embarrassed and awkward to say anything probably lol

8. Do you have any little writing secrets?

Hm... What kind of secrets? Do memes count? I like to stick memes into my writing. Sometimes they’re very subtle, but they’re there :P

9. What is writing to you?

WRITING IS LIFE

10. Do you have a favorite writing computer program?

ugh I went back and forth between a few of them. When I got Scrivener I liked using that but then I realized I got more writing done while lying in bed (I used whatever notepad app for that because scrivener still doesn’t have an android app), so I decided to transfer to Google Docs and have been using it since

11. If you could say one thing to your oc, what would it be?

I’M SORRY but hang in there, I’m struggling with you, and I love you

[hobbledhobbit]

Scrutiny of the Scrivener

The first thing I ever wrote about the Institute Green. I hope to one day have enough of these for an anthology

When the house is in order, there is order in the house. At least that’s what the idea is.  Was kind of recursive, redundant even. But what was life without the consistent churning of themes and intent.

Choices abound, inaction being one of them. There were no wholly innocent parties when it came to the wrongs of one’s life. That is, if one ascribed to the blame game. But truly, strife can make for interesting stories.

They’re all alone, you see. Each of those specs of consciousness floating on that blue sphere. They can see each other, certainly. Destroy, connect, create with one another, most assuredly. But in the end, when their light flickers and changes to something new, each is completely alone.

The place in which all of those specs end up is very posh. Hardwood, marble, and iron clad. Each is sent through the correct channels in an orderly fashion to record how they viewed their lives.

Seated in slightly uncomfortable leather chairs, they dictate their stories to those that record them. Some would call these recorders angels, but they are yet different types of consciousnesses, they glow a green instead of a yellow.

Dressed sharply was one of these consciousnesses called Mr. Pale. He had, as his name implied, a paleness to him. His suit was a Gainsboro gray, lending nothing to the ashen blonde hair nor the pallor of his skin. Even his eyes looked more beige than hazel.

Across from him, in the slightly squeaking leather chair sat a young and yellow young man. He looked well dressed. Stylish collared blue shirt, paired with bark brown slacks that cut a lovely figure. He had dark hair and eyes, and like all who sat there, looked apprehensive.

Confusedly, he asked, “Where am I?  I was just getting ready for bed,” asked the young man.

Mr. Pale almost sneered, but settled with a quick smile, smoothing out the wrinkle in his rather long nose. “Ah, a surprise then,” he said in a bland manner, “No matter. Shall we get started?”

Shuffling some papers on his desk, Mr. Pale pulled a page out and nodded, setting it into his typewriter.

“I’m sorry, I still don’t understand where I am. Who are you?”

Mr. Pale rummaged in his desk and pulled out a box of cigarettes, Offering one to the man and being rebuffed when he shook his head. He pulled one out for himself and slid it behind his ear, placing the box on the desk next to a clean ashtray.

“You may call me Mr. Pale. Sir, I’m here to take down your life story. Let’s start with the basics. Name and age.”

The man sat up straighter, clearing his throat, “My stage name is Roland Pierce, but the name on my license is Pedro Montoya.”

The clicking of the typewriter was light, Mr. Pale not taking long. “Which would you like to be called by?”

The young man smiled, “I’d like it if you called me Monty. My friends and family do back home.”

Mr. Pale nodded, biting the inside of his cheek. He wasn’t overly fond of getting too friendly with those that sat before him, but he only showed a thoughtfulness as he typed more.

“This is your story. You may state anything you like for the record but I much prefer honesty and candor. I will state that you would prefer that too...Monty.” The name was said with a bit of a low pitch, as if he were trying it out for the first time.

Monty smiled and nodded, “I understand. Where do I begin?”

Mr. Pale stretched his shoulders, “Wherever you think the beginning is.”

Monty nodded and crossed his legs, trying to get a bit more comfortable. “Okay.”

“My childhood was fairly average, school was a little hard for me because of the dyslexia, but I managed to get through to highschool and graduate. Family time was good when it happened, both of my parents-”

Mr. Pale held up a hand to stop him, “I should mention that this is your story. If you are going to mention anyone else, it must be in passing or direct effect on you. No pressuming motives or actions of others without your direct witness… For posterity...Monty.”

His name still sounded foreign in Mr. Pale’s mouth, but Monty nodded in understanding. “Right, okay.”

“My parents were not around much, their absence is why I started to look for attention elsewhere.” Monty raised his eyebrows at Mr. Pale, checking to see if that was alright.

The typist nodded and made a gesture with his hand to say continue.

“Though reading was hard, I started to go to the library to research acting after getting the stage bug from highschool. My town didn’t have a lot of resources for that kind of thing, but they did have some play scripts.

“The papers said there was a community theater offering auditions. I prepared for all those weeks, pestering all my friends and family to read with me and make sure I got everything right. I was tenacious and felt more confident with each read through.”

Monty laughed, wiping his tears from the memory.

“I bombed the audition so bad. I was so nervous that I tripped over my own feet and fell right off the stage onto the director’s daughter, who was the leading lady.” He was interrupted again by a fit of giggles, “I got up and tried to apologize, but threw up right on her face.”

Mr. Pale sat back, taking the cigarette from behind his ear and lighting it. Try as he might, he enjoyed when someone found humor in their social gaffs, the giggle fit allowed him to take a few clean hits.

The smell of the smoke was sweet, almost too sweet, but just enough to set a calming atmosphere in the room.

Monty rubbed his cheeks from smiling too much and adjusted in his seat again. “Sorry, I haven’t thought about that in ages.”

“Quite alright,” Mr. Pale said, sliding his blazer off to hang on the back of his chair, placing the cigarette on the ashtray. “Please continue.”

“Oh, I thought that was the end of acting for me. Everywhere I went I heard giggles and heard people fake retching. Couldn’t get a date or a job because I was too embarrassed to even show my face.

“The director’s daughter came to my house and told me that it was okay, but acting was probably not for me. Made me sad and I decided to look into something else as a career.”  Monty smiled knowingly.

“It was hard to get into the programs I wanted in college. Didn’t really have money, but ambition managed to get me out of there with a few broken hearted times and a masters in criminal justice. It was around graduation that I had met the girl who I would eventually marry. We had gone on a few dates, but opportunities drove us different places.

“My opportunities drove me to law enforcement. First a sheriff’s office, then a police officer in a big city, finally landing as an FBI agent. It was a pretty good gig until I got an injury in the field. Guess “female fbi agent made into swiss cheese in standoff” wasn’t a good look.”

Mr. Pale paused and gave a warning look, plucking and taking a drag of the cigarette.

Monty held up his hands, “Alright, alright, you’re right. I’ll keep to just me and not speculate on others’ motives.”

Mr. Pale found himself smirking, “I’d appreciate it. While I love a good narrative, we must keep to protocol.”

“Maybe we’ll gossip and speculate over drinks after we’re done, huh?” Monty offered.

Mr. Pale smiled genuinely, “Maybe.”

Monty wagged a finger, “Careful, Mr. Pale. It looks like we may be friends after this.”

Mr. Pale gave a shrug, “Nothing is certain, Monty.”  The name now sounding more natural.

Monty wiggled in the seat again to find a good position. A lost battle, unfortunately.

“Okay, so I was in pretty bad shape. Physically not okay. But my lady showed up while I was recovering and literally claimed her undying love for me!”

Monty grunted at Mr. Pale’s raised eyebrow, “Her words! Not mine!  ‘My love for you never faltered and should you have died, Beatriz, I would have died with you!’” Monty had stood with the recitation, giving a flourish.

“It was so romantic that I was rendered speechless. Took a full five minutes before I managed to squeak out, ‘Cool. Let’s get married.’” Monty was laughing again, leaning back in the chair.

“That woman, my Reina, could take all my composure and suavity in just a look. I was a bumbling fool and worked my hardest to get back on my feet, missing a few organs or not! I wanted to do everything in my power to get back to work so I could provide for my magical bride. So I could always be worthy to look upon her face and earn all her smiles.”

Mr. Pale stamped out his cigarette and got another behind his ear.  He looked to be in a much better mood than when he had first laid eyes on Mr. Pedro Montoya.

Monty closed his eyes and took a breath, “I eventually was put back on duty, though in another department. Because of my voice, I was set in a unit devised to take down child predators. It was hard to read and report on the sickening habits of fellow humans. It took a lot out of me to pretend over a microphone to really be a child or teenager that wanted that putrid attention.

“It was only two years that I could last before problems really started to show at home. My lady encouraged me to resign and go to therapy.  She went with sometimes. The doc was a bastard at first, making me admit to the feelings I tried to hide to protect Reina from, to protect myself from...It was hard.”

Monty rubbed his face and slicked back his hair, “But because of it I could admit to myself that I was scared for a long time. It let me go through with becoming Pedro fully, not just in the bedroom or at clubs. I could breathe easier with the monsters no longer hidden in my dreams or under my bed.

“I named myself for my father. My family supported me and accepted Reina when we visited. It was there that the funny story of my failed acting career reached my darling wife. With chanting and pressure I acted out the whole audition scene for my family.

“Of course I still remembered it, you don’t religiously do something hundreds of times and forget.”

Monty put a hand over his eyes and smiled, “Reina claimed to be star-stuck and started on a mission to get me into acting. Unfortunately for us, I still had horrific stagefright. But despite my continually diminishing confidence, an opportunity arose.

“Someone in somewhere had heard my rehearsing in the next room, specifically my making fun of a script.  They insisted that I try voice acting. And lo and behold!  Roland Pierce was born.

“I went for several years with pretty consistent gigs, usually playing a lady or a child, but I didn’t mind. Acting was acting and I had made it!

Monty was sitting upright again, thinking of where to go with his story. Mr. Pale took the opportunity to light up again. “Favorite part?” He offered.

“That would be a villainess role. Claw Rissa, from the teen cartoon Sweet Purrfection. Rissa had a large fan following, I was surprised that most villains do.”

“Reina and I liked to answer fanmail and respond. Only very seldom did we get anything awful. Only had to hand a letter to my old colleagues at the FBI once…” Monty thought, “Maybe twice.”

“I never truly felt threatened, all the mail was taken in by several proxies and we weren’t millionaires, so everything was pretty nice. A little lonely when Rei was away on a set, but otherwise very peaceful.”

Monty’s brow furrowed, “She’s away now. I have a surprise waiting for her on the kitchen table. Found a place that does adoptions. Wanted to run it by her before setting an appointment. Would be a good reason to redecorate the reading room.”

Mr. Pale let out a long drag, eyes scanning Monty. He wondered if the human before him realized what had happened yet. He motioned for him to continue.

“I had just done the dishes and was getting set to retire for the night, maybe watch one of her movies while I waited for her goodnight call. The house felt spooky somehow. I’ve never felt like that unless something was amiss.”

Monty closed his eyes and thought, “I remember feeling watched, then there was a crash. Near jumped out of my skin. I grabbed the baseball bat from the bedside and went to the front door. That’s where I had heard it.

“There was a frame on the floor, I accidentally got some glass in my foot and was cursing. The picture was her and me in college. A picture we kept in the office down the ha- the hall… Then there was pain and…”

Monty’s nose was pink and his eyes were starting to puff. He took a breath and covered his face, letting out a sob. Mr. Pale gave him time, offering a tissue. Monty instead used the collar of his shirt to wipe his eyes.

“It’s all gone, huh?” He asked, his voice a little choked.

Mr. Pale shook his head, letting out a drag with a sigh, “No. It’s still all there, Monty. Only you left.”

“Why?”

Mr. Pale shook his head slightly and shrugged, “I don’t have the answers to those questions.” He pinched out his cigarette with his fingers and placed it back behind his ear. “All I can do is ask if you’re satisfied with everything you told me.”

Monty fixed his collar and thought. They sat in silence for a while, Mr. Pale folding his hands on the desk in front of him, tilting his head slightly as he watched the human.

Finally, there was movement. Monty stood and nodded, “I had a pretty happy life, all things considered. I’m satisfied with it. Thank you, Mr. Pale.” He held out a hand to the typist for a shake.

Mr. Pale stood, looking into the light that shone behind Monty’s eyes. He smiled and nodded, shaking his hand.

In the next second, Mr. Pale is alone in his office again. He looked down and grinned, nodding to himself. Stacking all the papers with fresh, golden and glowing ink, he placed the pages neatly in a box.

“It was a pleasure, Monty, my friend.”

The scribe packed the box on a stack of other boxes next to a door labeled “Out” and took a box from a door labeled “In”.

He thought for a few moments, chewing on his bottom lip and shook his head. He opened the box and watched  the next yellow energy flow from it and into the slightly uncomfortable leather chair.