#when the earth stands still
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merionettes · 2 years ago
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Oh man just got caught up with rubicon and I’m on the edge of my seat! I know nothing about figure skating but the way you write it, the routines, the press, the bureaucracy, it just feels like this really rich and tangible world. Also, I saw in your notes from the last chapter that you’re taking time to do rough draft work, and I wanted to ask! What does writing a fic usually look like for you? How do you outline, draft, revise, post? I love hearing about my fave authors’ writing processes. :)
thank you SO much, anon, for this invitation to open mouth dump brain about How Writing. i love to talk about how writing.
this is gonna get very long, so here's the cut. [eta: jesus CHRIST it's long. you've been warned.]
so here is how it normally goes. for shorter fic, i start out with some kind of image or dialogue – for kindling it was the anecdote about sylvain and his childhood horse, for aubade it was claude (ha) in the windowsill – and first write until i get there and then write until the end. polish and it's done. it sounds quick and easy and in some cases it is, but that's just because like—if it's not, if it doesn't work itself out, then it doesn't get written, i don't make it to the end. sometimes i'll have turned over an idea for months or even years (recapitulation) before the actual fic gets written. my subconscious doing all the heavy lifting for me!
and sometimes i will THINK it's going to be a short fic ~shaped as i go~ and it turns out to be. long. (notably: green is the color.) for long fic, i don't exactly outline but i do make a list of things i know that happen in the fic. this might be detailed and it might not be. for gone to ground there was a lot of detail about the dramatic tent betrayal-murder and a lot of detail about sylvain's injury/delirium/big go-on-without-me scene and then a generic line item like, wilderness adventures! for when the earth stands still it was almost all worldbuilding, like what are the activities and feasts and would sylvain and felix play along or not. then i start at the beginning and write toward the first thing on the list. i may or may not get there before i jump ahead and start writing scenes in the middle or at the end. (meanwhile, the list is expanding as i figure out how the story goes and what needs to happen!) from there on it's a very haphazard process of writing whatever speaks to me at the time and structuring the story as i write bits of scenes here and there, until i have pretty much all the scenes in place and then until they're filled in. which is incidentally how the editing and revising happens, just a constant process of reread-tweak-tweak-tweak-polish as i write. rocks constantly tumbling in a stream etc.
as you can see i am big on the process of discovery lol. there are pros and cons to this. obviously if you get stuck you can get REALLY stuck. you can end up with pacing or relationship build or character arc totally out of whack. (i can name several instances where i feel that's happened to me!) but for me personally i've found i write better if i don't force myself to figure out everything in advance. to return to wtess and the worldbuilding – like, i did come up with a list of days (gifts/good works/hunt and horses/etc), but i didn't list what sylvain and felix would DO on every single one. so i knew they would ride instead of hunt, i knew felix would give sylvain a cloak and i knew why, but i did not know a lot of other things! i did not know about the play! this allows for not only the Joy of Discovery but also the freedom to mold and rework on the fly which i find much easier than trying to get my brain to understand "yeah that detailed plan you absorbed? you have to completely forget about it now because big revision."
anyway at this point when a full draft is done... i should go back and give it a thorough reading as a coherent whole and revise and edit accordingly but historically uh. i have not done that. historically i cannot stand to spend one more minute working on it and just. post. it's a weakness! sometimes this is fine, sometimes this is riddled with typos but otherwise fine, and sometimes i will spend MONTHS kicking myself afterward. lol.  
ok having said all 650 words of that lmao: rubicon is different. it had to be different because of the scale. and i knew the scale was going to be big from the beginning, three weeks into my fire emblem experience, although i didn't know… how big. [cut meandering origin story which is a different story for a different post lol.] i did know that if i tried my usual "idk write a bunch of scenes out of order until it's done" method i would simply die. so i tried something new. 
which was: made myself write the whole thing straight through in order, something between and outline and a rough draft. more than an outline because i had to try and actually make ideas work rather than just leave them as a bullet point and assume they would. less than a rough draft because uh otherwise i would drown. so like, some fully drafted scenes, some scene skeletons with just basic beats and dialogue excerpts, some [insert X here i guess??] placeholders. the goal was not good prose, the goal was to get to the end, ideally as fast as possibly so i couldn't perceive what i was doing and get freaked out about it. it worked! i generated a whole skeleton draft!
(li shang voice) Then The Real Work Begins. 
what i've had to do since is take that skeleton (storyboard?) section by section (usually 10-15k, but purely dependent on vibes) and flesh it out into an actual workable draft. that's what i mean when i say rough draft work—i don't have a better way to put it. the fleshing out process is similar to how i generally write, a little here a little there, not necessarily in order, until it's done. then i put it aside and go on to the next section. i may make some intermediary edits based on how the story is developing up ahead, but for the most part i don't return to a section until i'm ready to get it line edited (a new thing!! big step for me!!!), at which point i polish it up til i'm more or less happy, send it off, and then make any final feedback-based edits while preparing to post each chapter.
so far, SO FAR, the fleshing out stage is where i've caught all the really big revisions, like, oh wait actually NOTHING about this idea works, you need to completely rewrite this scene. you need to add a scene. you need to replace this conversation with a different one. you need to totally reconsider your plan for the resolution of this arc 30k down the road.
for the first act, i barely had to do anything structural. like, there was plenty to fill in, but nothing to really rip up and change. for everything after that……. hahaha. when i say this fic is kicking my ass, when i say i'm taking a break to focus on rough draft, that's what i mean. the deeper in i get, the more changes i have to make. which is, like, obvious! it's hard tho. atm i have the next 30k all fleshed out and ready to be edited/proofread. there is unfortunately probably another 50k to go before the end. that's what i'm deep in right now. i hope it's not that much! i hope i'm wrong! 
as for whens/whys of posting, i had dreams about finishing a whole complete full draft and then doing a real deep dive edit/revision and THEN posting, because i wanted it to be good and i didn't want to have regrets, and eventually i faced reality which is that i would never get out of the swamp if i didn't have some sort of externally imposed form of accountability. so when i'd gotten the whole first act drafted AND edited AND proofread—that was when i started posting. in retrospect, should have waited until rl circumstances were more accommodating, could have avoided that initial three month gap. but it's worked since then!
the biggest consequence is that of course it is going to be longer than it needs to be, and i'm sure i will look back and see significant cuts that could have been made. however. there is a point at which you have to accept this is fanfiction you are writing for your own personal satisfaction and if it's not as good as it could be—it's not as good as it could be. it's not the end of the world.
anyone who read this whole thing gets a bye to the grand prix of reading self-involved process posts final. +3 GOE every element. sorry/thank you/i love you.
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tuituipupu · 4 months ago
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well i cried heavily and my eyeliner didn't budge so that's a slay at least
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fucking-move-sancho · 4 months ago
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idk if anyone's asked this before but what do y'all imagine albert wesker wearing to sleep??? a fuckin wifebeater? silky PJs?? a bathrobe and slippers like the default sims 4 sleepwear?? and don't pull the 'he doesn't need to sleep card' lmao i need it for fic purposes
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front-facing-pokemon · 1 year ago
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#another bonus under the cut where i got up under their big head to get 'em a little closer and a little more front-facing#aggron#aggron is just cool. a big metal bitch who *could* hug you but is probably actually just gonna obliterate you. is that anything#i think i prefer lairon more. it's kinda just a little metal creature and i think that's awesome but aggron stands up#and normally i'm a big big fan of when pokémon stand up. when everyone wanted sprigatito to not stand up i was like#please stand up. because i am a furry and i knew it was gonna become favorite pokémon material if it did. and it did and meowscarada is#wonderful and i love it and it's one of my top like 10 of all time. but aggron is like. i dunno. a little too gruff for me#i think aron and lairon are cute and i'm generally a fan of and user of cute pokémon but aggron is very. how you say. aggressive#and also… ron… aggressive ron. new show on netflix i just reinvented aggretsuko but for pokémon#also weirdly every furry on the face of the earth likes aggretsuko but for one i've never had a netflix account and for two i just#don't ever watch shows. it's just not something that works in my brain. having to get them‚ and then just taking the time to sit down and do#it just never does anything for me. the last show i watched was because i was over at a friend's house and he was like hey. we're watching#this show now. i want you to see this show. and it's a show that folks generally lamented for a lot of reasons so i was like iii dunno about#that one! but he was like no trust me it's fine. and then i was like. kinda uninterested at first but it turned out to be really good#and i'm still ashamed. that i liked it as much as i did. so i will not say what it is. it's not supernatural. it's a short-ish show#but like it was good and i didn't expect it to be. which has nothing to do with aggretsuko OR with aggron for that matter#literally idk. look it's distraction (AGGRON DISTRACTION)
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razzle-zazzle · 2 months ago
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once again thinking about how growing up in that tomb affects cole's beliefs and ideals in raised by serpentine, more specifically the idea of the constrictai and tomb dwellers as this one big community where everyone gives to the collaborative effort. how that's reflected in cole's own friendliness and desire to Be Involved and Help Out even when he's with the ninja, how community and banding together are important to him. thinking about how earth masters have a semi-celebrated role in the community as Guardians and Pillars of Strength and Peace and Giving, how the legacy cole has to measure up to—one of selflessness and honor—further colors his decisions to the point where he almost fixates on the idea that one day he'll have to pay the ultimate price for the greater good—and how that idea fares against the reality of watching zane do exactly that in rebooted. i just.... augh. cole <3
#lego ninjago#raised by serpentine#cole ninjago#also just. tournament of elements oh my god#for one there's chen who should not be alive after 250+ years but still is bc ofc he is /neg#and also chen's like. a really nasty sort of boogieman figure to the serpentine at large bc of his involvement in the war#so cole is. especially off-balance when looking at this skeletal old man bc he's grown up with the stories surrounding chen and the war#so he's. he is genuinely pretty afraid of chen in a ''this is the fucking boogieman'' kind of way#idk if i'm explaining it right but yeah#AND THEN. WHEN COLE FORFEITS HIS FIGHT TO JAY. HOW IT'S A RETURN TO LIVING UNDERGROUND CUT OFF FROM THE SKY#HOW COLE STARTS OFF WITH THE GENERAL PRE-OPENING TOMB MENTALITY OF ''this isn't smth we can fix so let's not worry too hard''#AND HWO THAT ATTITUDE IS DECONSTRUCTED BC WHILE THE TOMB COULDN'T BE OPENED FROM THE INSIDE THIS FACTORY IS NOT THE SAME#AND IT'S BOTH A REBUTTAL OF SOME OF COLE'S BELIEFS REGARDING HIS ROLE IN THE WORLD#AND OF EVERYTHING THAT CHEN STANDS FOR AND EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED TO THE SERPENTINE AFTER THE WAR#BC IT WASN'T RIGHT TO LOCK THEM UNDERGROUND. AND IT ISN'T RIGHT FOR CHEN TO DO THE SAME WITH HIS FACTORY WORKERS#and then how that plays into cole as the master of earth and thus as one with the downtrodden and lowly#who's own ascension sheds light upon those below and raises them up as well#i just. oh my god. oh my fucking god#me when the silly au makes me fucking ill thinking about it (in a good way)
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fooltofancy · 4 months ago
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i like to go into a dungeon and perform Very Well on the first boss (shields when newfolk stand in things, i don't stand in things etc.) and then during the second boss stand in literally everything so they have no idea what to expect when the final one comes around.
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My brain is fixated after seeing FNAF and realizing Josh was in a lot of movies that drastically shaped my childhood (and current) tastes in fiction but I can't find them available anywhere so I'm just sitting here like
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breezeowci · 4 months ago
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umbrella academy season 4
five and lila, context
I’m so happy i wasn’t the only utterly grossed out and disgusted by Lila’s and Fives relationship.
Five didnt even get out of his school boy uniform till season 3 now your throwing him in a relationship with a woman 15 years older than him. This isnt the early 2000’s anymore, and lots of your watchers have already gone through their Pretty little liars faze and realized how disgusting and toxic arias and Ezra's relationship is.
Also still dosent work the other way cause now you’re throwing a 58 year old man at a 35 year old woman. Still 15 years senior, just slightly less disgusting because at least in that case shes not barely legal anymore.
additional context.
Rita (lillas actress) born; 1988
aiden (fives actor) born; 2003. (I feel like that says it all)
season 2 release 2020
filming 2019
aiden 15-16
rita 30-31
Five is still in his school boy uniform
first introduction between the two characters.
season 4
released 2024
filmed 2023
aiden 19-20
rita 34-35
they had a grown ass women kiss someone she met when he was freaking 15.
#the umbrella academy#season 4#spoilers#some people say that they were building up to this storyline since introductions#In which i say no they werent#If that counts as build up for a heteronormative couple#Than no one gets to say anything about bxb shipping anymore#Not when yamato over here cant even explain the chakra elements and oppositional natures without naruto relating it back to sasuke#How “hes the only one that can save him and guide him through his hate”#Not when they have freaking matching tattoos#Or any ship out their were the proclaim the other their ‘eternal rival’#And how the other is always ‘pushing them to be better’#How they trust them with their life#How they can always tell when the others a clone or a fake because they act little off#Like if that “was build up” geto and gojo were a whole fucking mountain exploding#Stiles and derek were a train collison#Kirk and Spock were the freaking big bang#Bucky and steve were thors hammer meeting caps shield#Draco and harry casted avakadabra at eachother#Natsu and gray caused an explosion todoroki would be jealous of#Shizou whacked izaya all the way to the moon#(With a stop sign guys#come on#wait#Sakuragi slam dunked rukawa all the way to earth core#Wait not again#And i don’t even ship half of these guys myself#The point still stands that five saw lilla in the bath and didnt look twice or try to look away.#Their was nothing their other than slight hatred and begruding respect#Of forcing themselves to get along because they both loved diego
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fragglerockopinions · 5 months ago
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white man experiences racism for the first time. sad!
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ermakeys · 2 years ago
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Get to know you video game edition! Tagged by the wonderful @ratcready
No pressure tags for @fooolisher @jekyllnahyena @certified-anakinfucker @jadowdra and anyone else that would like to! :)
Guess who forgot to add the blank as well 🙈
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nyxfaei · 3 months ago
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Blind guardian my beloved
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cannibalisticskittles · 4 days ago
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saw someone say they didn't get the people with 'older rooks' romancing emmrich bc they made their rook 19/20 to play up the drama and uh
girl i don't know what kinda drama you think you're intensifying because it certainly isn't going to be romantic, emmrich already has hang-ups about age, he is not going to fall for a goddamned teenager
and even besides that, the timeline of the game establishes that rook has been traveling with varric for about a year, and with some backgrounds, the event that made rook leave their faction and start them on the path to meeting varric could have happened weeks to months before that
in no universe would varric see a fucking 17 year old and decide yep, that's who's gonna get a crucial part in stopping a plot that could end the world
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opens-up-4-nobody · 11 months ago
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...
#tfw youre hanging out with friends and u throw out controversial take after controversial take#like its me hi im the hater its me#u wanna hear them? i mean thrm in in like the silliest way possible. its not that serious lol#i hated h4n solo growing up and still do. i dont think i like the writing of ne1l gaim4n and only liked the 1st season of g0od 0mens#i thought the 1st season of 0ur flag was fine and didnt really like the 2nd. i dont think anyone in l0rd of the rings is hot. especially#not 4aragon. leg0las is like whatever. sam is my favorite character. i also didnt like l0rd of the rings when i 1st watched it#the gathering was a watch party for that 1st movie and i like it way more now lol. also i dont like overt romance. i like the implication#of romance. if u kiss onscreen im like 99% of thr time not interested. also while im being a hater. i dont thibk steven king is a good#writer and domt like his books. i like the idea of them. wish they were written by anyone else lol. also im too dyslex1c to read physical#books :-( which no one vibes with bc everyone's a grad student overachiever lol. and back to back it all sounds like im trying to b#contrary but i promise its maybe just that i have weird standards. like i also hated movies about animals growing up. it made me mad that#those movies were trying to manipulate my feelings. like jesus child chill tf out. i would also randomly decide i hated lots of things and#characters. some of which i stand by today but most of which im like lol chill#so idk maybe i just have bad opinions. i also wander the earth wearing outfits that i pick out bc it feels like im playing dressup#and i have unhinged options abt narut0. sas and naru fall into the 1% of kisses i care abt lmao#and unhinged options abt bleach the show. idk maybe im just kinda weird. i also study organisms that most ppl look at as globs of goo#and i used to study bits of dirt. my brain was just build ever so slightly weird. not too weird. just enough that i have quote unquote#controversial takes ans im not afraid to say them in a room full of ppl who disagree with me bc its really not that serious lol#i dunno i just think its kinda funny i guess#im just slightly weird in the least interesting way possible#unrelated#also i don't yuvk other ppls yum im just like ay not for me i guess
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qrevo · 2 months ago
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i think i need to be more animal irl
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bumblingbabooshka · 1 year ago
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Started watching SNW season 2 episode 3 and my eyes literally glazed over the moment they both came out in matching all black hoodie-leather jacket-jeans outfits and I couldn’t keep watching after that
#it was TOOO BOOOOORING for me............I want to see HIJINKS I don't care about augments or war or whatever#the augment thing was fine in the last episode bc it also had a courtoom drama and I /do/ like courtroom dramas and mystery plots#but this one was just La'an and [redacted] having a very boring date on modern day Earth which ties into something something augments Khan#the only fun part was Pelia v_v#my opinion is very biased I really can't stand more grimdark metallic war depression type plots#I skip a lot of the borg stuff on Voyager for that reason ... I'm an early seasons silliness type of guy#I hope the next episode of SNW gets back to aliens and hijinks and people in bright clothing trying to worm their way outta THIS mess#idk if this episode is fun for people who actually do care about/understand the khan stuff and the augments stuff#but please don't explain it to me v_v it will never penetrate my heart#idk how to describe 'grimdark metallic' but it's like Picard...it doesn't feel warm. It's glossy and cold.#I don't like that vibe for star trek v_v#also THIS is what it looks like when I'm not having fun so you see I was telling the truth when I said I had fun the last episode#even though I was making fun of it relentlessly...episodes can be fun-bad and I'll still thoroughly enjoy them I just couldn't get into this#please!!!! -dying- please...the goofs and gags.....#livetweeting#please star trek...the STRANGE (NEW) worlds.....not shitty earth...I'm ON shitty earth!!!
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therighthandofvengeance · 2 years ago
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Yes, Delenn started a war. Yeah, that's objectively bad. But do we really think that EarthGov would have given anyone the courtesy of asking about why they killed a significant (political) figure before committing massive violations of the Geneva Convention?
Obviously we shouldn't condone this behavior- but let's at least give it some perspective:
It's literally her first day on the job. she just finished her internship the night before
she's been trained for this role and this role alone, her life experience is limited at best and nonexistent at worst
her mentor just died -> that's essentially going from training wheels on flat and even ground, with a helmet to a unicycle on a mountain during fire season... uphill
nobody really cared about what she said until 20 minutes ago when she became One of Them
there were four other members of the Grey Council that were pro-war, she didn't decide to go to war by herself
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