#why do writers use certain words? certain sentence lengths? who is the pov from and why? what associations do they draw?

[ethereiling]

im going to be so real i think im going to snap if i see one more person talking about how There Is No Objective Quality In Art because yes there is!! there arent strict rules about what objective quality is, theres no one size fits all metric, but high quality art is effective in evoking emotion and thought in ways that low quality art isnt. there are so many ways that people can choose to evoke certain feelings through art but the effectiveness of that Is a pretty solid means to determine quality in my experience

[duckprintspress]

How to Edit an Over-Length Story Down to a Specific Word Count

One of the most wonderful things about writing as a hobby is that you never have to worry about the length of your story. You can be as self-indulgent as you want, make your prose the royalist of purples, include every single side story and extra thought that strikes your fancy. It’s your story, with no limits, and you can proceed with it as you wish.

When transitioning from casual writing to a more professional writing milieu, this changes. If you want to publish, odds are, you’ll need to write to a word count. If a flash fiction serial says, “1,000 words or less,” your story can’t be 1,025 and still qualify. If a website says, “we accept novellas ranging from 20,000 to 40,000 words,” your story will need to fall into that window. Even when you consider novel-length works, stories are expected to be a certain word count to fit neatly into specific genres - romance is usually around 80,000 words, young adult usually 50,000 to 80,000, debut novels usually have to be 100,000 words or less regardless of genre, etc. If you self-publish or work with a small press, you may be able to get away with breaking these “rules,” but it’s still worthwhile to learn to read your own writing critically with length in mind and learn to recognize what you do and do not need to make your story work - and then, if length isn’t an issue in your publishing setting, you can always decide after figuring out what’s non-essential to just keep everything anyway.

If you’re writing for fun? You literally never have to worry about your word count (well, except for sometimes in specific challenges that have minimum and/or maximum word counts), and as such, this post is probably not for you.

But, if you’re used to writing in the “throw in everything and the kitchen sink” way that’s common in fandom fanfiction circles, and you’re trying to transition only to be suddenly confronted with the reality that you’ve written 6,000 words for a short story project with a maximum word count of 5,000...well, we at Duck Prints Press have been there, we are in fact there right now, as we finish our stories for our upcoming anthology Add Magic to Taste and many of us wrote first drafts that were well over the maximum word count.

So, based on our experiences, here are our suggestions on approaches to help your story shorter...without losing the story you wanted to tell!

Cut weasel words (we wrote a whole post to help you learn how to do that!) such as unnecessary adverbs and adjectives, the “was ~ing” sentence structure, redundant time words such as “a moment later,” and many others.

When reviewing dialog, keep an eye out for “uh,” “er,” “I mean,” “well,” and other casual extra words. A small amount of that kind of language usage can make dialog more realistic, but a little goes a long way, and often a fair number of words can be removed by cutting these words, without negatively impacting your story at all.

Active voice almost always uses fewer words than passive voice, so try to use active voice more (but don’t forget that passive voice is important for varying up your sentence structures and keeping your story interesting, so don’t only write in active voice!).

Look for places where you can replace phrases with single words that mean the same thing. You can often save a lot of words by switching out phrases like “come back” for “return” and seeking out other places where one word can do the work of many.

Cut sentences that add atmosphere but don't forward the plot or grow your characters. (Obviously, use your judgement. Don't cut ALL the flavor, but start by going - I’ve got two sentences that are mostly flavor text - which adds more? And then delete the other, or combine them into one shorter sentence.)

Remove superfluous dialog tags. If it’s clear who’s talking, especially if it’s a conversation between only two people, you can cut all the he saids, she saids.

Look for places where you've written repetitively - at the most basic level, “ ‘hahaha,’ he laughed,” is an example, but repetition is often more subtle, like instances where you give information in once sentence, and then rephrase part or all of that sentence in the next one - it’s better to poke at the two sentences until you think of an effective, and more concise, way to make them into only one sentence. This also goes for scenes - if you’ve got two scenes that tend towards accomplishing the same plot-related goal, consider combining them into one scene.

Have a reason for every sentence, and even every sentence clause (as in, every comma insertion, every part of the sentence, every em dashed inclusion, that kind of thing). Ask yourself - what function does this serve? Have I met that function somewhere else? If it serves no function, or if it’s duplicative, consider cutting it. Or, the answer may be “none,” and you may choose to save it anyway - because it adds flavor, or is very in character for your PoV person, or any of a number of reasons. But if you’re saving it, make sure you’ve done so intentionally. It's important to be aware of what you're trying to do with your words, or else how can you recognize what to cut, and what not to cut?

Likewise, have a reason for every scene. They should all move the story along - whatever the story is, it doesn’t have to be “the end of the world,” your story can be simple and straightforward and sequential...but if you’re working to a word count, your scenes should still forward the story toward that end point. If the scene doesn’t contribute...you may not need them, or you may be able to fold it in with another scene, as suggested in item 6.

Review the worldbuilding you’ve included, and consider what you’re trying to accomplish with your story. A bit of worldbuilding outside of the bare essentials makes a story feel fleshed out, but again, a little can go a long way. If you’ve got lots of “fun” worldbuilding bits that don’t actually forward your plot and aren’t relevant to your characters, cut them. You can always put them as extras in your blog later, but they’ll just make your story clunky if you have a lot of them.

Beware of info-dumps. Often finding a more natural way to integrate that information - showing instead of telling in bits throughout the story - can help reduce word count.

Alternatively - if you over-show, and never tell, this will vastly increase your word count, so consider if there are any places in your story where you can gloss over the details in favor of a shorter more “tell-y” description. You don’t need to go into a minute description of every smile and laugh - sometimes it’s fine to just say, “she was happy” or “she frowned” without going into a long description of their reaction that makes the reader infer that they were happy. (Anyone who unconditionally says “show, don’t tell,” is giving you bad writing advice. It’s much more important to learn to recognize when showing is more appropriate, and when telling is more appropriate, because no story will function as a cohesive whole if it’s all one or all the other.)

If you’ve got long paragraphs, they’re often prime places to look for entire sentences to cut. Read them critically and consider what’s actually helping your story instead of just adding word count chonk.

Try reading some or all of the dialog out loud; if it gets boring, repetitive, or unnecessary, end your scene wherever you start to lose interest, and cut the dialog that came after. If necessary, add a sentence or two of description at the end to make sure the transition is abrupt, but honestly, you often won’t even need to do so - scenes that end at the final punchy point in a discussion often work very well.

Create a specific goal for a scene or chapter. Maybe it’s revealing a specific piece of information, or having a character discover a specific thing, or having a specific unexpected event occur, but, whatever it is, make sure you can say, “this scene/chapter is supposed to accomplish this.” Once you know what you’re trying to do, check if the scene met that goal, make any necessary changes to ensure it does, and cut things that don’t help the scene meet that goal.

Building on the previous one, you can do the same thing, but for your entire story. Starting from the beginning, re-outline the story scene-by-scene and/or chapter-by-chapter, picking out what the main “beats” and most important themes are, and then re-read your draft and make sure you’re hitting those clearly. Consider cutting out the pieces of your story that don’t contribute to those, and definitely cut the pieces that distract from those key moments (unless, of course, the distraction is the point.)

Re-read a section you think could be cut and see if any sentences snag your attention. Poke at that bit until you figure out why - often, it’s because the sentence is unnecessary, poorly worded, unclear, or otherwise superfluous. You can often rewrite the sentence to be clearer, or cut the sentence completely without negatively impacting your work.

Be prepared to cut your darlings; even if you love a sentence or dialog exchange or paragraph, if you are working to a strict word count and it doesn't add anything, it may have to go, and that's okay...even though yes, it will hurt, always, no matter how experienced a writer you are. (Tip? Save your original draft, and/or make a new word doc where you safely tuck your darlings in for the future. Second tip? If you really, really love it...find a way to save it, but understand that to do so, you’ll have to cut something else. It’s often wise to pick one or two favorites and sacrifice the rest to save the best ones. We are not saying “always cut your darlings.” That is terrible writing advice. Don’t always cut your darlings. Writing, and reading your own writing, should bring you joy, even when you’re doing it professionally.)

If you’re having trouble recognizing what in your own work CAN be cut, try implementing the above strategies in different places - cut things, and then re-read, and see how it works, and if it works at all. Sometimes, you’ll realize...you didn’t need any of what you cut. Other times, you’ll realize...it no longer feels like the story you were trying to tell. Fiddle with it until you figure out what you need for it to still feel like your story, and practice that kind of cutting until you get better at recognizing what can and can’t go without having to do as much tweaking.

Lastly...along the lines of the previous...understand that sometimes, cutting your story down to a certain word count will just be impossible. Some stories simply can’t be made very short, and others simply can’t be told at length. If you’re really struggling, it’s important to consider that your story just...isn’t going to work at that word count. And that’s okay. Go back to the drawing board, and try again - you’ll also get better at learning what stories you can tell, in your style, using your own writing voice, at different word counts. It’s not something you’ll just know how to do - that kind of estimating is a skill, just like all other writing abilities.

As with all our writing advice - there’s no one way to tackle cutting stories for length, and also, which of these strategies is most appropriate will depend on what kind of story you’re writing, how much over-length it is, what your target market is, your characters, and your personal writing style. Try different ones, and see which work for you - the most important aspect is to learn to read your own writing critically enough that you are able to recognize what you can cut, and then from that standpoint, use your expertise to decide what you should cut, which is definitely not always the same thing. Lots of details can be cut - but a story with all of the flavor and individuality removed should never be your goal.

Contributions to this post were made by @unforth, @jhoomwrites, @alecjmarsh, @shealynn88, @foxymoley, @willablythe, and @owlishintergalactic, and their input has been used with their knowledge and explicit permission. Thanks, everyone, for helping us consider different ways to shorten stories!

[arsenicpanda]

coming from an amateur writer, do you have any tips on writing smut?

ngl, I’m an amateur myself, having not finished much smut and still not written the actual act of sex from the perspective of one of the people experiencing it. So idk why you came to me, but I am flattered. I'm not great at advice on the act of writing, but I’ll do my best to talk about process and shit.

1. Read smut. Read lots of it, read varying qualities and varying lengths and as soft-core and hard-core as you’re up for. Read it for fun, just taking it in, and then read it with a critical eye. What works? What doesn’t? Are there any tropes (general, character-specific, or ship-specific) that you like or dislike? Why? What’s especially hot? What makes you cringe? What kind of language do you like? And so on and so forth. Ask questions and answer them.

2. What’s your setup? Like, which characters, which ship, which universe? If it’s an AU, how does the AU change things from canon (especially important if you’re doing ABO, which is its own can of worms I’m not getting into here)? What’s the relationship between your characters and what’s the situation in which they fuck?

3. How do your characters feel about sex in general and with respect to the ship you’re writing? How horny are they in general, for the other character(s) in the ship, and in this specific situation? What are they into and not into? What are their previous experiences (or lack thereof) with sex and romance? What experience do the characters have with each other? Are there specific experiences they might remember and use or is there certain knowledge they do or don’t have about their partner(s) (For established ships, I like to mention previous experiences and knowledge of what the POV character’s partner(s) are into as a way to show that there is real history there. For unestablished ships, I like to include that figuring out process some and the reactions to experiencing stuff for the first time, either in general or within the specific ship, to show that newness of the relationship. Maybe there’s mention of a certain preference the POV character already knows about, or maybe the POV character makes note of a preference they learn during the fic. Stuff like that.)? How loud are they during sex? Are there any sex acts that this ship would engage in no matter what (e.g. I maintain all smut with Jughead that isn’t a quickie should include him giving some amount of oral sex)? How many times can they orgasm? How sensitive are they? What’s their refractory period? And so on, and so forth. Note: once you come up with answers for this section for your ship once, the next time you write smut for them, you’ll really only have to make adjustments according to the universe you’re in, so that’s nice.

4. What kind of fic are you writing? Is it pwp? Smut within plot? A character or relationship piece? Basically, are there any arcs to get through, what are they, and how are they going to relate to the smut? How explicit is the smut? What language do you want to use to refer to genitals and orgasms and such? What POV are you writing in? How much do your characters talk? How “realistic” are things? Are they practicing safe sex, including safe oral sex?

5. What’s actually happening? I like to plan out a smut scene ahead of time so I know how it starts, where they are physically, what the characters are doing (hand, mouth, genital, etc location and movement), how one sex act moves into another, what can be seen/heard/felt/etc based on POV, what’s physically possible at all times, if there are any accessories or toys I need to explain them owning and where they’re kept before the smut, and how it ends. It also helps me make sure the smut doesn’t significantly overlap with something I’ve already written or am planning to write. I also write an outline, which you don’t have to do, but does help if you ever go weeks or months between working on it because then when you come back you don’t have to strain to remember what the plan was. You can also just go with the flow and just write, but definitely keep location of body parts and what the POV character can actually see/hear/etc (for example, if your POV character is blindfolded or bent over, they can’t describe their partner’s face) in mind as you do.

6. Write it. Vary your sentence structure. I find good smut includes not just physical action, but emotion and especially sensation, but you might disagree. If you're struggling with repeated words and shit, maybe look for lists of words to use when writing smut. Probably look up tips for writing smut in general, ask people for advice (which you already are, so good for you!), etc. Draw upon your own experience if you have any, and if you don’t, maybe look into people’s accounts, sex tips, etc and check if any questions you have about sensation have been answered online anywhere, e.g. on reddit. But don’t try and make it perfect all at first; just write it. One approach that’s often effective is to do writing "sprints", that is, sit down for fifteen minutes and just write; you can continue for another fifteen minutes when you're done if you want, but you'd be surprised how much you can get done in fifteen minute segments over multiple days. Also, I recommend writing in google docs with the setting of “Add space after paragraph” (go to Format, then Line & paragraph spacing) for ease of transferring to AO3. Actually, here's a good guide on working from google docs an moving to AO3; look at it before you start. Google docs is also useful for when you have a beta because it lets them make suggestions instead of straight-up changing things themselves. Also, take note of where you use italics and non-italicized punctuation together (this will be useful when you need to publish to AO3).

7. Read it carefully and with a critical eye like you would someone else’s fic up in #1. Make sure that you can follow the action based solely on what you wrote and that nothing impossible or contradictory happens (e.g. teleporting body parts, a single hand in two locations at the same time, people twisting or reaching in physically impossible ways). What do you think is missing, where, why, and how might you fix it?

8. Revise it.

9. Repeat 7 and 8 as much as you desire until you’re satisfied, or at least as satisfied as you can be without peer review.

10. Send it to beta. Like, seriously, send it to beta because, if nothing else, your beta won’t know what’s supposed to be happening in the scene, so they can tell you if you’ve successfully conveyed what happens. If you have anything in particular you are uncertain about or want help with, ask your beta to pay close attention to it. Seriously, betaing is going to be much more effective if your beta knows what they should be focusing on most.

11. Repeat steps 7 and 8.

12. Title it and write a summary. Feel free to ask your beta for help here.

12. Congrats, you’re done! Transfer it to AO3 from google docs and save it as a draft. AO3 by default puts a space between italics and non-italicized punctuation, so go through your list of those combos and manually delete the extra spaces. Now add your title, tags, and summary. Don’t tag side pairings/pairings the fic doesn’t focus on in the relationship section; if you need to warn readers of them, put them in the additional tag sedition. If you’re writing an ot3+ that isn’t an established, feel free to tag the pieces of the ship involved (e.g. Betty/Jughead/Tabitha would also tag Betty/Jughead, Betty/Tabitha, and Tabitha/Jughead). But if the ot3+ is already popular within fandom, only tag the ot3+. Don’t tag characters who aren’t central to the story. Tag all warnings and kinks involved especially.

I think that’s it? I guess I might have overly walked you through, but that’s the process I recommend. I mean, I don’t always follow all the steps (While I get the gist of character/emotional arcs before I start plotting the smut, I often really nail them down after I’ve decided on the events of the smut because the latter is generally what has me writing the smut in the first place and I tend to get ahead of myself. Things would probably be easier if I didn’t do that though), but they’re good guidelines, I think? Regardless, I hope this helps!

[captain-of-the-historicfuture]

~hello~ !! For the meta asks!: 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, and 25 :))

Hello!! Thank you for sending these; I was really excited to see that ask game and I was hoping somebody would send some in. It still took me a while to actually answer them though, and for that I apologise. But without further ado! Some meta answers (under the cut because they ended up being fairly long, whoops):

3. What is that one scene that you’ve always wanted to write but can’t be arsed to write all of the set-up and context it would need? (Consider this permission to write it and/or share it anyway.)

I thought of a few examples, but they could basically be grouped together under a common theme: whumpy/angsty scenes that were self-indulgent as all heck. The whole self-indulgent aspect often required the characters to be just the teeniest, tiniest bit OOC and/or necessitated rather unrealistic plot circumstances. So it was simply easier to keep such scenes as maladaptive daydreams, rather than trying to think of explanations for the character/plot issues…or exposing myself to judgement for them LOL.

Receiving permission to write/share one such scene anyway is an opportunity I can’t let slip by though. It might be because I’m writing this while running on zero (0) hours of sleep—let’s hear it for insomnia, y’all!—but I suddenly couldn’t remember any of my newer ideas under this category. However, I did recall a one-shot I had started writing a couple of months ago that sort of counts? “Sort of” because I could actually be arsed to write it since I was, ya know, writing it. Only got about six hundred words down though.

…should I share those six hundred words…?

………nahhh. I don’t think I’m quite ready for that yet.

But here’s the gist of it: Coulson and May (because of course it’s Philinda) were married for quite some time before the Attack on New York. But then Coulson DiedTM and then got ResurrectedTM. But gasp of horror, he had to lose his memories of his romantic relationship with May because reasons. (I actually did have some ideas for those reasons but sshhhh this is about me yeeting context and setup.)

The first half of S1 still happens as normal (except MayWard doesn’t happen because??? Vows) and it’s now post-E20 “Nothing Personal”. The morning after (or a morning soon after, whatever) the T.A.H.I.T.I. reveal! May’s mom—who doesn’t know about GH.325 and whom May fed a cover story about Coulson divorcing her or something equally as oof, IDK—shows up at the hotel and starts ripping into Coulson for breaking her daughter’s heart, then dragging her back into the field with her ex-husband (him), then accusing her of terrible things and forcing her away again.

Poor guy’s confused as heck, and so is the team, and soon enough so is Lian. The only one who understands what’s going on is May, and she’s freaking dying off to the side like why is this happening to me and eventually everybody’s like! Explain??? (Was thinking about including something from Coulson like, “Are you still keeping things from me?” Just for that extra smidge of angst, yay!)

So yeah then May gives a, like, two-sentence debriefing that elicits more questions than answers. Coulson decides to take May aside and they have a heart-to-heart. Lots of feelings and angst and hurt/comfort and at some point plenty of kissing too. Just! May hiding her feelings for Coulson’s sake but really magnified, plus some actual apologies and consideration of the grief May’s been through on Coulson’s part.

And uhh yeah that’s basically it I dunno hdsjncjshd. I warned y’all it’s OOC, plot-bendy, and very self-indulgent!

6. What character do you have the most fun writing?

I don’t think I could name a single character for this. I get different things out of taking on different voices, you know? I guess recently I’ve found myself gravitating towards more taciturn and introspective points of view, like JQ from my original novel Rosewood or M. Yisbon from my…other original novel Temple.

Generally, however, I like tackling stories from an outsider’s perspective. That’s why I so rarely write my more “substantial” (serious? demanding? for lack of better words?) projects from the PoV of my “preferred” character. This usually means writing from their love interest’s perspective, but not always. With shorter fanfic, using a more removed/unconventional/niche PoV can be really fun. Like, I once wrote a canon compliant ficlet purely(-ish) about Philinda from Tony Stark’s perspective. That isn’t always sustainable with stories that demand more character development or closer character studies, however, which is why it’s a good thing I like writing drabbles!

9. Are you more of a drabble or a longfic kind of writer? Pantser or plotter? Do you wish you were the other?

My word counts tend to run long, but I usually only write one-shots for fanfic. If I’m even inspired with a novella- or novel-length story idea for a fandom, you already know I’m in deep with them. And if I actually find the motivation to plan and execute that idea? Dangg. That’s only ever happened…twice, maybe thrice, and I’m in a lot of fandoms.

At times, I wish I could go for more of a middle ground ’cause, like, you know what I love to see? An AO3 dashboard with several completed novellas for my ship/character of choice. I mean yes, I hecking love >90k fics, but sometimes I’m in the mood for quick reads…and what am I supposed to do when I burn through all the drabbles and 2k one-shots? (Besides despair and/or reread my faves desperately.) Novellas are basically always safe for me LOL, and I’d hope to be able to give as much as I take.

Ultimately though, I think I’m okay with where I am with regards to that. I wish I could write more in general, but I’d be okay with “writing more” just meaning “writing more one-shots”, ya know? More than okay, really. I have mad respect for fic writers who have, like, a hundred or more one-shots under their belt for this one ship. The fandom ecosystem would be incomplete without them (as well as every other type of writer, but sshhh that’s the type of writer I’m closest to being right now).

I’m definitely a plotter, and I definitely prefer it that way. It’s cool having such a detailed record of my process. I like feeling like a frazzled genius on the brink of a major discovery with all of my different outlines and colour coding and many drafts and various websites.

12. Do you want your writing to be famous?

Not exactly. It might be cool if my original works were recognisable in the world, but I don’t think I’d want to be recognisable. As for fanfic, I’d low-key enjoy gaining a place in that fandom’s community as a fic writer. Like someone who gave and got fic gifts from fic writer friends, who participated in challenges and GCs, who received writing prompts on Tumblr, whose name was known for doing a certain trope/genre a bunch of times… Ya know what I mean?

Unlikely to happen when I’m so hecking hesitant to publicly (i.e., outside of AO3) claim credit for my writing, but fjnskfsjhfjs. A writer can dream, right?

15. Which is harder: titles or summaries (or tags)?

Of those three, tags are the easiest for me, for I have a reliable system for figuring out those.

Next easiest would probably be titles. For fanfiction, I like to use titles that are a quote from the source material. You should have seen all of my old Hamilton fanfic… I was really proud of some of those titles. And I don’t mean, like, whole lines—usually only two to five words. It’s a unique type of wordplay that I just love dabbling in.

And lastly, summaries. Sometimes inspiration strikes me and a snappy and intriguing synopsis just jumps out—one that I’m quietly pleased with—but most of the time I’ll spend way too long trying to think of such a synopsis and eventually just go with whatever I’d come up with so far. And live with my quiet dissatisfaction for the rest of time.

18. Do any of your stories have alternative versions? (Plotlines that you abandoned, AUs of your own work, different characterisations...?) Tell us about them!

Typically, no. If I have deleted scenes, I save and publish them separately, but that’s about it. I sometimes think of AUs for my own work and might talk about them in my author’s notes—might even talk about writing them—but I never really do anything with them.

Although…

It’s not uncommon for me to decide a plotline isn’t working for a certain story or to think of an interesting but undoable arc for a certain character, but what I’ll do is make a whole new story for those ideas. Once I’m done developing the original idea and the branched-off one, you probably wouldn’t be able to tell they grew from the same roots. Does that count?

21. What other medium do you think your story would work well as (film, webcomic, animated series, etc.)?

That depends on the story. I’ve actually written stories in other mediums—movie screenplay, musical stageplay, poetry, TV show scripts, play scripts, roleplay—but the novel does tend to be my comfort zone. Sometimes, if I have an idea that I think could work, or would even work better, as another medium, I’ll label it as such in my folder of ideas and decide not to write it as a novel.

Most of the time, my non-book projects are collaborations. I’m working with five different people on six different story ideas: two webcomics, one stage musical, one anime, and two animated TV shows. Little concrete progress has been made in any of those, mind you, but they’re still fun to discuss!

24. Would you say your writing has changed over time?

Absolutely. But I’ve been writing stories since I was five years old, so we would hope so, huh?

I wouldn’t say my writing’s changed completely, though maybe that’s just my insider’s perspective.

25. What part of writing is the most fun?

Oh gosh, I can’t believe you’d make me choose. Writing is just such a wonderful experience for me; I love just about everything to do with it. Admittedly, not all the time, but. Since that barely qualifies as an answer, however, I’ll give you this—

The endings. Not only that intense feeling of rightness when you wrap up that last sentence, but also the moments before. The adrenaline of knowing you’re almost there but you gotta push just a bit more to actually get there. And also the part right after—the real wrap-up, honestly: the revision and the editing. Heavens, I love revising and editing my work.

Which is not to say I don’t like writing it out for the first time, too—there’s nothing quite like seeing your cursor scroll to the next page, like going from a blank expanse to a Oh man, how many more lines are even going to fit on this page?, like watching that page counter tick up another number. However, there’s something cathartic about finally ironing out those problems I had to force myself to stop worrying about earlier because “just finish the first draft dangit”.

I guess that’s not really the end of the writing process, but whatever. Close enough (as fic writers are wont to say).

Another thank-you for these asks, and feel free to come back with more at any time! ;P

Send in fun meta asks for your friendly neighbourhood writer!

[phandomficfests]

Beta Reader FAQ: Writer Version

First things first: why do you want a beta reader?

The most general interpretation of ‘having a beta reader’ is someone who takes on multiple of the following roles, but it’s very important that the writer and the beta reader do have a conversation so that the beta reader knows what specifically you want from them. If that doesn’t happen, the beta reader will have to determine for themselves what it is you want them to comment on. That can result in anything from a one-note read through where they just correct spelling and grammar when you wanted more, to a fully marked document where they pick apart every aspect of the story when that’s not something you were prepared for. Communication is the key. 

If you want them to focus on one area over the other, know what area that is and how to explain it! Hopefully the following list will be helpful in doing so. 

Spelling/Grammar - Your beta reader will look for typos and grammatical issues. The beta reader should take character voice into consideration (dialogue does not need to be grammatically correct), but will point out grammar issues that make the meaning unclear. 

Geographic Accuracy - If you’re writing a story set in a place you aren’t familiar with, having a beta reader that is familiar with the area can be very helpful. For example, if you’re setting a fic in England, a “britpick” can help you with location names, educational systems, locations and distances, regional slang, names of snacks or drinks, local store chains, etc. Subtle details can really lend to the authenticity of the story. 

Continuity - A beta reader keeping an eye out for continuity will point out plot holes and timeline mistakes. This can be really helpful if you’re writing a multi-chapter story where it’s important that later on you remember details you may have written a while ago. 

Content/Character Analysis - A content/character beta reader is going to specifically look for things that make your fanfic feel realistic to the characters you’re writing and the world you’re writing them in. They’ll point out areas in which the dialogue sounds unrealistic, ask questions about motives if actions seem out of character, point out inconsistencies in the setting, etc.

Pacing - Pacing is just the unfolding of your story. If you’re writing a chaptered story, or even just a story where you’re trying to achieve a certain length, you may need outside eyes to tell you where the story needs more detail, what seems like too much detail, what’s happening too fast, or what’s being dragged out too long. 

World Building - The benefit of writing canon fanfic can often be that the world is already built for you, but fanfic still requires a lot of world building if you step outside of the real life timeline and throw the characters into an alternate universe. World building can be a lot of fun for a writer to do, but alternate universe stories are often in danger of becoming more about the writer showing you how much of the world they’ve built and less about the actual story. Beta readers that you enlist to help with world building will be there to tell you what parts seem confusing, where you’ve included more backstory than is needed, where you might need more backstory, etc. 

Sensitivity Reading - Sensitivity readers are there to check your work for anything that may be inappropriate, offensive, or inaccurate regarding a culture or group of people. Usually you’ll want your sensitivity reader to either be part of the culture/community that you’re writing about or have some sort of background in the topic. If you want to write a character as trans for your story, you’ll want to have a trans sensitivity reader. If you’re writing about a culture that isn’t yours, you’ll want a sensitivity reader from that culture. The same goes for disability, religion, race - anything you’re writing that you feel your personal ignorance may be causing you to unintentionally misrepresent. 

Initial Conversation 

The better prepared you are to talk to a beta reader, the better luck you’ll have. Go ahead and figure out what rating your fic will be (or at least ballpark it), what genre you want to write in, what potential triggers you may be writing, and a brief plot overview. This is informal and just for your beta reader, so you aren’t locked in to any of these details permanently. You just need enough of a solid summary to convey to the beta reader what they need to know in order to make an informed decision about reading for you.

If your approach is informative and that’s the first thing you send a beta reader, then you’re saving both of you a lot of time - if they see something in there they aren’t available to read, they can go ahead and let you know and you can move on to someone else. Likewise, make sure the beta reader is the demographic you want to reach. If the beta reader primarily reads angsty fantasy based au fics then your slow burn canon friends to lovers just may not be the best fit for them. Someone who is naturally inclined to be interested in what you’re writing is going to be the best person to give you feedback. 

Once you’ve determined that it’s a good fit on both sides, it’s also important that you tell them right away what it is you’re looking for in a beta reader. If you want someone that can specifically critique your details of a particular setting or if you want a sensitivity reader for a certain topic then that allows your beta reader to immediately decline and you can move on to trying to find someone else more quickly. 

To sum this up - the important things to include in an initial conversation with a beta reader are: fic summary, expected rating, setting and time period (whether it’s an au or a canon fic set in a specific time frame), triggers or content warnings, and what exactly you are looking for in a beta reader. 

Where to Find Beta Readers

This one can be tricky. Beta readers are definitely out there, but sometimes tricky to find. Here are a few tips to get started!

Ask writers! A lot of writers also double as beta readers for their friends, so they have experience. Even if they don’t, they may be able to recommend beta readers that they’ve worked with to you. 

Writing groups! A lot of niches in fandom will have writer group chats or discord servers. You can also ask the people that run challenge communities or fic rec/fic finders communities. People immersed in the writing culture of a fandom will probably be able to throw some names your way, or ask people they know. Some may even have beta reader directories that are used for challenge purposes or resource lists from previous challenges. 

Check your favorite fics! Beta readers are usually credited in the notes of a fic, so just look at how beta readers for authors that you like and contact them to see if they’ve got the time or desire to take on more writers. Don’t be nervous about this; most beta readers find it a compliment to be asked to beta read for someone. 

Once you have a beta reader on board who is receptive to what you’re writing and eager to help, it’s time to sit down and have a more in-depth conversation about what they offer, what you’re looking for, and where to find the comfortable overlap there. Most beta readers will probably be able to fulfill multiple roles, but it’s helpful to discuss what those roles are. 

Questions to Ask Your Beta Reader

You have a beta reader! Congrats! Now, how do you make the most of them? 

First, decide when you want their involvement. If you think you’d like encouragement along the way, then you can start discussing your fic from the conception phase or share the document with them immediately. If you’re more comfortable discussing a fic once you’ve already gotten the bones of it down, you can get your entire first draft out and then share it with them. 

Once they have your fic, there are two common methods used by beta readers to convey their thoughts. The first is leaving comments on the actual fic during the read through process. This is helpful for pointing out strange sentence structure, typos, and factual inaccuracies, and highlighting lines or paragraphs that are particularly good, etc. You, as the writer, can also leave comments on your own fic to indicate which areas you’d like them to focus on or what you’re having trouble with. These can often be clarified immediately, but sometimes can still lead to productive discussions!

The second is the conversation you’ll have after they’ve read it. This is where you can really take advantage of that second set of eyes. Figure out the best method of communication for you and your beta reader (either a scheduled time that you can have an immediate back and forth conversation about it or exchanging emails/intermittent messages). Use this to respond to comments that they’ve left that you want to discuss more or to ask them questions about how they’re interpreting tone or character motive, what parts may need fleshing out or minimizing, or just generally what’s working and what isn’t. 

If you’re unsure how to go about this, here are some helpful questions you can ask your beta reader to guide the conversation. 

Did the story hold your interest? If not, during what part did you start losing interest?

How long did it take you to understand the setting? 

Were there any parts that confused you? 

Are there any lines where the dialogue or actions seem out of character, or you weren’t sure why the pov character was doing something? 

What was your favorite part, and why did that part work well for you? 

Are there any descriptions that you were unable to visualize?

Does the ending feel satisfying?

Did anything happen in the story that you weren’t expecting, and was that a good kind of unpredictable or a bad kind? 

If you had to choose three words to describe the tone of the fic, what would they be? 

Are there any parts where the characters don’t feel three-dimensional?

Having a beta reader can make your story better. That’s the whole purpose of one. They’re someone who is voluntarily taking on the dedicated task of working with you to help you put out the best version of your writing that you can. It’s a little bit like finding a therapist - because compatability plays such a big part in a beta/reader relationship it can take more effort than you’d like sometimes, but once you find a good one you’ll understand why it’s worth it!

If you’d like to see the beta reader companion version of this post, please click here. 

[youknowmymethods]

Content Creator Interview #8

Here we are again folks, number 8! This time we’re continuing on from last week’s interview with a bit of role reversal, @ellis-hendricks posing questions to her friend and beta @geekmama, chatting about Brit-picking, bad writing habits, favourite authors, and, most importantly, which of Sherlock’s shirts does it for her. 

But starting off with a recap of last week’s intro...

We are, respectively, a Californian and a Geordie, and we got to know each other through reading and reviewing each other’s fics (geekmama’s ‘Time of the Season’ series was one of the first fics I read and loved). Geekmama has been writing in the fandom for around 3 years, and I’ve been doing the same for around 2 years, spurred on by the end of series 4 (and the ILY scene in particular). We started beta-reading each other’s work around a year ago, and are always discovering new and unexpected words and phrases that don’t translate across the pond! Although we’ve used the same set of questions for these interviews, we haven’t seen each other’s answers – so it does mean that if nobody else is interested, at least we will be!

Series

 ellis-hendricks: Was there a particular moment in the series that set the ship sailing for you?

geekmama: I think it was A Scandal in Belgravia, and specifically Sherlock’s unprecedented apology to Molly, that got me thinking that the possibility was there, that it wasn’t just Molly’s schoolgirl crush vs. Sherlock’s needs when the game was on. I have to say, even though the Sherlock/Molly ship is easy to board, Mofftiss, etc., were very clever about leaving the way open for other pairings throughout the series. Even the ILY scene and its fallout could be interpreted very differently, if one was so inclined. It is really thanks to all the amazing fanfic authors out there that I jumped on board and took up residence on the good ship Sherlolly.

ellis-hendricks: What's your favourite episode and why?

geekmama: I love bits and pieces of all of them, but the one that I’ve watched more than any other is The Sign of Three. It’s heartwarming, hilarious, and only mildly heartbreaking. Even the villain of the piece, as little as we see him, has a motive one can understand.

ellis-hendricks: If you could ask/tell the series writers one thing, what would it be?

geekmama: Killing off Mary was a mistake, and I don’t care if that event sets up the entire story arc of season four, you should have thought of something else. Come on! You are brilliant writers, you could have done it.

ellis-hendricks: Do you have a controversial opinion about the series? E.g. a character who everyone else hates, but who you love?

geekmama: Or everyone loves but you hate? I’d say Moriarty qualifies. Andrew Scott is very cute, but though he’s in a number of the episodes we’re never given much insight to his character’s motives. Moriarty is pretty much just murderously insane in canon, and I don’t understand how one gets around that to write Molly/Moriarty or any of the slash pairings.

ellis-hendricks: Have you ever, when watching an episode, cracked a case before Sherlock?

geekmama: Well, if the writers want us to, then we’re given the information to crack the case before Sherlock.  The series is about him, after all. The cases are secondary.

ellis-hendricks: With whom would you rather be stuck at a wedding table –

Janine or Irene?

geekmama: Janine, she is just fun and rather ordinary, whereas Irene has numerous ulterior motives under her veneer of smug vanity.    

ellis-hendricks: Donovan or Anderson?

geekmama: Anderson, since he actually felt remorse for what they did to Sherlock, and came to admire him, too. There might be more to Donovan than what we’re given, and certainly that’s what fanfic is for -- I’ve made her a sympathetic character in a couple of my own fics. And apparently she and Sherlock have some pretty interesting history between them.

ellis-hendricks: Who would you rather bring back in series 5 - Mary or Moriarty?

geekmama: Mary, of course -- she is a far more well-rounded (and loveable) character. One wants to know more about her.

ellis-hendricks: Whose house would you prefer to live in - Sherlock's, John & Mary's, Molly's or Mrs Hudson's?

geekmama: Probably Molly’s, though Sherlock’s would be tempting. Molly’s looks pretty state-of-the-art in the ILY scene, if rather bland -- I couldn’t imagine Molly living in a place that’s all granite gray. It doesn’t reflect her personality at all, and I didn’t even think it could be her home the first time I saw that episode.

ellis-hendricks: In your opinion, who has been the best series villain - Jim Moriarty, Charles Magnussen, Culverton Smith, or Eurus Holmes?

geekmama: Eurus. We’re at least given some idea of her motives, and one can feel some sympathy for her, even though she is as insanely murderous as the other three. The other three are pretty equally revolting.

 Your writing

 ellis-hendricks: What was your first fic? What prompted it, and how do you feel about it now?

geekmama: My first in the Sherlock fandom was Visiting Hours, written in March 2016. I first watched seasons 1-3 of Sherlock in October 2015 and I’d been reading other authors’ work for several months. There were ideas I wanted to explore, and I wanted to see if I could still write at all, lol! I hadn’t written anything since July of 2013, when I celebrated a decade of being in the Pirates of the Caribbean fandom with a series of ten 50 word drabbles. Visiting Hours is only 100 words, official drabble length, and it’s held up pretty well, I think. I don’t hate it, at least.

ellis-hendricks: Which fic are you most proud of/most attached to, and why?

geekmama: This is a really difficult question since I’ve written quite a few Sherlock fics. If I had to narrow it down, maybe Idiots in Love, which is part of the Aftermath series and from Greg Lestrade’s pov, which is always fun, and The Kensington House, kid!fic from my Time of the Season series. But then there are all  the holiday fics… and the historical AU’s…

ellis-hendricks: You write great AUs set in other historical periods - do you prefer this or present day?

geekmama: I’ve read, and written, a lot of historical fiction, and certainly writing it comes much more easily to me than writing something set in the present day -- particularly current culture in the UK. It’s a good thing my dear Ellis_Hendricks is willing to Brit-pick for me. I did my best, but I’m sure my early Sherlock fic has plenty of errors in that regard. That was the most difficult thing for me when I was beginning to write in this fandom. However, I have grown to enjoy writing fic set in the present almost as much as writing historical fic.

ellis-hendricks: What are your worst writing habits?/What are your most overused phrases, plotlines, etc?

geekmama: Wow. There are probably a LOT of bad habits (run-on sentences, excessive use of parentheses and ellipses, etc. etc.etc.), and overused phrases/words. As for plotlines, I find the (comparatively) reality-based canon of Sherlock to be somewhat limiting to begin with (which is why AU’s were invented, I suppose). I try not to repeat plotlines, but of course I’ve used post-ILY scenarios multiple times (and no doubt will again -- the anniversary is coming up on the 15th), and I tend to overdo the h/c as that’s one of my favorite things.

ellis-hendricks: Do you have a writing routine? Where and when? And is everything digital, or are things ever handwritten first?

geekmama: Laptop, ideally in the morning, alone in bed (except for a pile of snoozing dogs), with no distractions like music etc. I can write with the TV or music on, but it takes a lot longer to produce anything. I haven’t produced finished handwritten works since I was in high school, and when I first got back into writing in late 2003 it was on a laptop I borrowed from work -- and it was a revelation! I wouldn’t bother handwriting more than a drabble or the outline of a story, now. Computers FTW!!!

ellis-hendricks: Who do you enjoy writing the most?

geekmama: Sherlock (if I have to choose -- I love Molly, Mycroft, and Lestrade pov, too).

ellis-hendricks: Who do you find easiest/hardest doing first person POV? - Sherlock seems fairly easy a lot of the time (hopefully readers agree -- I may be way off base, who knows?), and maybe Molly for hardest. We see so little of Molly over the course of the series it’s sometimes difficult for me to get a handle on her.

ellis-hendricks: Which fic would you recommend to someone who has never read your stuff before? - Benefit of the Doubt, maybe. I like the way it came out. It was one of those that practically wrote itself.

ellis-hendricks: What do you value most when it comes to feedback?

geekmama: Any feedback is very much appreciated, from Kudos to brief comments, but it’s always nice when someone references a particular phrase or idea they liked. I know how difficult that is to do, sometimes, though.

ellis-hendricks: Would you ever go back and revise old fics - or do you consign them to history once they're published?

geekmama: If I discover (or someone points out) an error I will go back and correct it, but I don’t really revise my stories once they are posted.

ellis-hendricks: What's the nicest/weirdest bit of feedback you've ever had? And does feedback ever influence what you write next, either within a story or in terms of future fics?

geekmama: I have to say I’ve had a lot of great, encouraging comments over the years, and maybe a few negative ones, mostly on FF.net, which I pretty much ignore, though one or two brought up interesting points. I think mostly people leave a comment if they really like something, or just go away if they don’t. Feedback does influence what I write to an extent -- say if someone really wants more of a certain story, or aspect of a story, that gets me thinking how it could be done.

ellis-hendricks: Do you - or would you - write other pairings?

geekmama: Well, yes, I’ve written Mycroft/Lady Smallwood, and John/Mary, and I have a few fics that reference Lestrade/OFC. And of course there are other F/M possibilities. But mostly it’s Sherlock/Molly.

ellis-hendricks: How would you define your style? (E.g. mine was called 'fluffy realism’, which I quite liked!)

geekmama: I agree with that ‘fluffy realism’ definition, the sweetest stuff and easily related to. I would call mine “Romance” if I had to choose a word, the old definition of romance that entails fluff, angst, humor, adventure -- all the stuff that makes a story interesting and fun to read.

ellis-hendricks: What's your method in approaching a story? Do you plan methodically, or wing it?

geekmama: I am somewhere in between. With longer fic I sometimes use an outline, but more often I have a basic plot in mind, complete with ending, and think about it until I’m finally ready (and have the time) to write it.

ellis-hendricks: Who do you write for? Is it you, or are you thinking about trying to please your audience?

geekmama: Mostly me. I started writing fanfic in the Pirates of the Caribbean fandom because I wasn’t seeing fic that went where I wanted to go with that story. With Sherlock it was some of that, and the fact that I wanted to further explore these compelling characters, and writing fic was the best way to do that. But I do write for my audience, to an extent, and it is fun to accept a prompt or theme from someone and write to it. In the PotC fandom we had a weekly drabble challenge for years, and I really miss that sort of thing.

ellis-hendricks: Do you have any WIPs, and do you think new chapters will ever see the light of day?

geekmama: I do have a WIP, Souvenirs, for which I’ve written a couple of additional chapters, and hope to finish some day. But it sort of got waylaid by the whole post-ILY thing. I may finish it. You never know. I also hope to write some more of that Regency AU, Uncertain Terms.

ellis-hendricks: Are you working on anything at the moment?

geekmama: I’m going to try to write something for the ILY Anniversay (January 15th).

ellis-hendricks: What’s harder for you - writing the start of a fic, or coming up with a decent title?

geekmama: Writing the start, I guess. Titles are usually easy. It’s plot and particularly a good ending that take a lot of work.

 Reading other people's fics

 ellis-hendricks: What are your favourite tropes in the fandom?

geekmama: Post-ILY scenarios, for sure, h/c, kid!fic, Mary is still alive, Christmas stories. Etc.

ellis-hendricks: What things are likely to turn you off a fic?

geekmama: Bad characterizations (we read fanfic because we want more of the characters we love);  poor editing / grammar; too many crazy tags; Intro posts that have TMI (I don’t want to know that you’re bad at titles/summaries/etc.), or that solicit reviews too blatantly. Well, those things and just stuff I don’t want to read -- bad porn, excessive violence (torture in particular), stories focusing on characters I dislike. I’m kind of picky, actually. But we write and read in a particular fandom for personal pleasure, and I think authors have to expect that their work won’t please everybody (or maybe anybody - who knows?).

ellis-hendricks: Can you recommend 3 favourite fics that aren't your own?

geekmama: Only 3??? Well, I’ve printed out miabicicletta’s A fearful hope was all the world, and sunken_standard’s Fumbling Toward Ecstasy, so I guess that counts for something. It’s virtually impossible to choose one of  Ellis_Hendricks’ fic, they reference so many of my favorite tropes and are all of them deliciously  memorable. But then, how can I leave out Quarto’s Competition? Or Emma_Lynch’s Quarantine? Or so many others?

ellis-hendricks: What compels you to leave comments on top of kudos?

geekmama: If some idea or turn of phrase stands out for me, and if the fic is well-done in general.

 ellis-hendricks: Quick-fire questions!

 John's TEH moustache or his TAB moustache?

geekmama: TAB (I don’t think we are meant to like his TEH moustache, are we?).

Sherlock's purple shirt or white shirt?

geekmama: Gah! Why do I have to choose? Purple, then.

Molly's stripy jumper or cherry cardigan?

geekmama: Stripy jumper, I think, as their relationship is more fully developed at that point.

Mary's christening outfit or black-ops gear?

geekmama: Christening outfit, for sure.

 Submitted by OhAine: this is a joint question for Ellis and geekmama: Do you feel that working together as betas has changed the way you both write?

geekmama: Not really, my process is the same and any input from Ellis_Hendricks is given after the fact. I edit the story accordingly, but there are usually only minor changes involved. I am particularly grateful for her “Brit-picking” skill, which obviously makes her far more valuable to me than I am to her -- it’s surprising how many little differences there are between the UK’s culture and California’s. I was woefully ignorant about that when I became involved in this fandom, and I don’t feel I’m much better now, really.

Next week, Friday 12th April 2019, @thisisartbylexie interviews @writingwife-83

[crescentmoonrider]

Fics I sorta want to write, sorta don’t want to, probably never will (a non-exhaustive list)

A:tla/LoK

Of the inequality of palindromes

What it is : A canon divergence in which Noatak and Tarrlok leave together, build the Equalists much earlier, and the world once more descends into war. Avatar Aang is killed, Equalists occupy most of Earth Kingdom and spread the mercy of the Spirits-sent brothers who will make all equal, and a young Korra is raised behind the walls of the Northern Water Tribe. Also Jet is here, somehow, and would probably be one of the PoV characters, maybe along with Tarrlok ?

Why I want to write it : Lots of potential here for a lot of stuff, I’ve always loved Tarrlok and Noatak’s story, I already made a few sketches after the inciting dream and I kind of like what this all looks like. Lots of situations, lots of characters, lots of trauma. I feel like it could work with a non-chronological storytelling - or at least less chronological than A viper-lizard’s tales - and I’m curious to see how I would go about structuring that.

Why I don’t want to : The Timeline Is Fucked !!! I seriously have no idea what would be going on with the dates and ages of most characters and just trying to figure out and make sense of that stuff is killing me. Also, it would be Long, and Viper-lizard will probably have exhausted me by the time I finish it, so starting another long fic would be. HHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Ace Attorney

I will fill your thermos with Worcester sauce or so help me

What it is : A canon divergence in which bratty prosecutor Miles Edgeworth and Diego “I think I am a good person but I’m barely there” Armando somehow join forces to take down Dahlia. They’re both douchebags who despise each other. It’s a great collaboration. They meet one young and innocent Phoenix Wright at the legal library and it’s all downhill from there.

Why I want to write it : Douchebag duo !! Reluctantly working together !! I want these two to interact and to barely resist kicking each other in the shins like the little brats they are. And well, I’ve already made Content(TM) for this, so I’d say it speaks to how much I like the idea. There is a scenario somewhere in my mind and in the sketches I did.

Why I don’t want to : I’m barely in this fandom anymore (if I ever really was) and I don’t like research. What the fuck is a legalese and do I need to know it to write about lawyers ? Whatever the answer may be, I’ll have to look shit up, and it will take time, and I’ll get distracted, and the fic will never write itself.

Hannibal (NBC)

Ode au pêcheur (long ver.)

What it is : A role-reversal AU, in which Hannibal is not a cannibal but still a psychiatrist, and Will is a teacher and profiler with a, uh, taste for uncommon meats. They still meet during the Shrike case, which is what the current Ode au pêcheur is about, and this would be the following events.

Why I want to write it : For one, I already wrote a short piece for this verse, so jot that down. But also I want to explore the change in dynamics, and also Hannibal being completely fucked up but in a different way. And writing Will as this kind of mysterious and fascinating being through Hannibal’s eyes... yeah, that’d be good.

Why I don’t want to : I spent hours reading the scripts, deciding what I would and would not keep, how to phrase it, for a 878 words standalone. I do Not want to know what I’d do with a long fic.

Six Sibylline Books (oracles willfully blind)

What it is : A Psycho Pass AU, with Will as an Enforcer specializing in profiling, having been declared a Latent Criminal since he was 6, because of his high empathy. He lives in fear of the day his Coefficient will reach 300. Hannibal is, of course, criminally asymptomatic, and working as a therapist for the government.

Why I want to write it : Let’s be honest, these two in the Sibyl System would be a fucking mess, and I for one am here for it. Mostly I want to see Will struggle with his place in this world, and watch what his Becoming would be like. Hannibal as a worse version of Makishima who just does shit for fun is terrible too, I love it. He probably wouldn’t even try to do a revolution and pretend to help people, the asshole.

Why I don’t want to : I Would Die. Two very complicated shows with literary references and philosophy mixed in just about every sentence, and a very well-rounded world as the setting ? Instant death. Or a very slow one, induced by the constant need to reference every little detail.

Kekkai Sensen

Fallen Hellsalem

What it is : A noir AU in which Daniel Law is a hardboiled detective who has been looking for answers regarding the disappearance of his younger twin brother for the past three years. A two-parters (by which I mean, two fics of consequent length, or a Huge fic with two very long main arcs), with the first case introducing the world through Steven A Starphase being accused of murder and needing Daniel’s help to find the real culprit. Turns out he didn’t do This murder but is also a crime lord involved in the disappearance of many other people, reigniting Daniel’s quest for answers. The second case is actually much more focused on the actual investigation surrounding Marcus’ disappearance, with Daniel gaining an apprentice in the person of Leonardo Watch, and learning to let go of the past a little.

Why I want to write it : I made a 5 page comic of the very first scene in 20 days. I just really like the noir aesthetics, and also Daniel. I have something resembling the beginning of an actual plot. I love Daniel. Did I mention I love Daniel ? It would be very interesting to have to actually think things in advance and build a case that makes sense.

Why I don’t want to : It would be so much work !! Two parts ?? Two fics for one story ? Or even just a Mega Fic - I would just fucking die. Also, while having to figure out how to build a case that makes sense is a fine challenge, it’s also a Lot of work, especially when I’m more the type of writer to figure stuff out as it comes, or to plan for Big Emotional moments and then turn the plot around it so that it all works organically. I’m not really a planner of plots, more of scenes. Plots kinda just happen. And that doesn’t fly for detective stories if you want it to be decent.

----------

Psycho Pass

The blind Sibylla (long ver.)

What it is : A canon divergence directly following the events of The blind Sibylla (in which Akane shot Makishima during episode 11). Makishima didn’t die but is injured, still somehow escapes ; meanwhile Akane is kind of scouted by Sibyl because she shot a guy with the intention to kill him and her Crime Coefficient didn’t rise, and she considers the offer. Kogami gets a phone call that leaves him sick to his stomach, and he too has to make a choice.

Why I want to write it : I mean, I already wrote two short chapters on impulse, so it’s more of “why I want to continue it”. Anyway the answer is that I’ve got ideas and I want to see where they go. Also if I can get Kagari and Choe Gu Sung to stay alive that would be swell.

Why I don’t want to : Psycho Pass Is Complicated. The worldbuilding is on point, but that also means fucking it up is incredibly easy. Also the literary references. It would be a lot more work than I am used to putting into my writing and I really don’t feel like memorizing the wiki and constantly rewatching the series just to get everything as accurate as possible.

Reborn

The illusion of love and the reality of hate

What it is : A TYL 186918 story about Hibari and Mukuro navigating their hate-relationship and trying to make it work. Especially after Mukuro was thought to have been killed by Byakuran. Would involve Mukuro asking Ryohei for advice because he is literally the only person in a stable relationship who has any idea what he’s doing, and also he knows what Hibari is like. A contract is drafted. I’m not saying Mukuro and Hibari get hate-married but. They get hate-married. Kind of.

Why I want to write it : I’ve wanted to explore a full-blown, healthy blackrom for a while now, and these two are one of my oldest ships, and also one I’ve written a lot for in the past. Love me a good mix of fucked up shit and humor. And boy would there be fucked up shit between these two.

Why I don’t want to : Two words : Sex Scenes. I can’t imagine this story (or this relationship, for that matter) without sex, as it would be one of the most primal way they have of communicating with each other, along with fighting. But I’ve never written smut in my life. Also I barely remember the TYL arc (better than the later ones, but not by much) so I’d have to look that up again, and probably more (likely re-reading the whole thing), but that’s a minor issue.

Red Raven

Cave Canem

What it is : An early canon divergence in which Ricardo gets lost in the panic of the five days of blood and is believed to be dead, while Walter meets Calogero at Castor Arte and decides to follow him around out of a mutual hatred of the Scaggs. Anyway Ricardo joins the Red Ravens because he believes he was abandoned and can’t trust the mafia anymore, while Walter more or less gets adopted by Calogero and becomes Laura’s right hand.

Why I want to write it : I just. I love this manga so goddamn much,,,,,,, Also Walter and Ricardo are very similar while being pretty different, and the changes in dynamics a switch would make are. Pretty darn interesting. I made sketches. I want to see what would stay the same and what would go differently. I want to send more Red Raven content into this world.

Why I don’t want to : This fandom is comprised of three people and a crow, and I know myself well enough to be certain I’ll have trouble staying motivated in these conditions. Also this would be Long, I can feel it. And I don’t really have a scenario planned, so that’s that.

Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle

Snow blossoms

What it is : A canon divergence (?) in which Fai (the dead one, not our Fye) is a dream-walker and meets child Kurogane a few times this way. At one point, Kurogane promises to find Fai and Yui and to help them, no matter what. Later, the then grown Kurogane is eternally confused by Fye’s presence for one more reason.

Why I want to write it : It’s an old headcanon of mine that Fai is a dream-walker, I figured I might as well do something with it. Also I want to write this kid !! Give him some life !! And of course the KuroFye angst might just triple from this. Also, the truth is that I started this one (in January 2018...), and it looks promising. I already have a structure for the first arc, so that’s neat.

Why I don’t want to : For one, it would be Long, and as mentioned earlier in this post, I don’t think I’d have the strength to go through this again. For two, TRC is a cool story that I like a lot, but I hardly think about it anymore most of the time.

W.I.T.C.H.

Whispers under my skin

What it is : A canon divergence in which Cedric (still in his kind librarian skin) seduces Matt as a way to get to Will, and it backfires horribly when he realizes he is loved by this human and Phobos will never love him like that, and he will never get what he really wants. So at the final battle in Meridian, instead of going full Super Saiyan Lizard, he betrays Phobos. He gets badly injured, but he also gains a half-freedom as thanks from Kandrakar, in the way of a human life (plus some minor magic if the girls allow him to) and a duty to help the Guardians in their mission.

Why I want to write it : Like many of my dream-inspired things, it is very weird, and for once I think it’s a very good thing. Yes I had a dream in which Matt and Cedric had A Thing, no don’t ask me how that happened I don’t control my brain. Anyway, I’ve always liked Cedric and I want to explore his character, and the dynamics he could form with the girls in such different circumstances. Also, I’d get to play around with the magic system, which is very cool.

Why I don’t want to : I re-read my w.i.t.c.h. comics maybe once every two years, and while some of them still make me cry (why did you have to die you filthy lizard man), it’s probably not enough of a basis to start a Long Fic. Also it would be Long and I am tired. And ! I don’t have nearly enough references at home and that means I’d have to look shit up, and the wiki is Not Great, from what I’ve seen.

[brynwrites]

How To Give Useful Critique.

Specifically for fiction oriented feedback, but with concepts worthwhile for all areas of critiquing.

Originally requested by @ephirae.

The Devil is in the Details.

If you signed up to give feedback on a manuscript, be prepared to do two things:

1. For every opinion you give, explain why. 

What lead you to the conclusion you reached? If you don’t know this, you may need to reread a few times until you figure it out.

2. For every specific situation, concept, or relationship the writer asks about, describe your interpretation back to them. 

Give a short summary, whether its of what you believe happened, or how you think that piece of world building works, or why you believe those characters came to that conclusion, or why the PoV character is feeling these emotions. 

Often problems appearing toward the end of a manuscript are caused by misunderstandings in earlier segments. If you tell the writer your interpretation of the key events as you go, they can identity the root of those problems much easier.

Negative Critique: Courtesy Is Key.

Unless you are either (a) a professional editor who’s being paid to whip the manuscript into shape or (b) a long time critique partner with a strong relationship with the author, always be as kind and gentle with negative critique as you can. If a writer trusts you enough to let you look at something they poured their soul into, it’s your responsibility to be honest but also courteous.

Try to avoid:

Sarcasm; “Like that would ever happen.”

Absolutes; “This would NEVER happen.”

Abruptness; “Bad. Change.”

Arrogance; “This wouldn’t happen. [My way] would. Do it instead.”

Better ways to approach negative critique:

Make it clear that you understand the problem might not be in the writer’s ideas, but your interpretation of them. Don’t harp on a writer’s creativity-- guide them towards explaining their awesome concepts better!

Respect the time and effort that’s already gone into the writing by demonstrating that this work as valuable, even if major changes are still needed. Example: ”You have a lot of great concepts here, like [this and this], but I think they would hit home a lot harder if you rewrote the chapter [like this], while still including [the good aspects of the current chapter].”

Your personal writing style is unique to you. Pick out incidences of passive voice, filter words, and bulky or awkward sentences, but don’t try to rewrite sentences to fit your personal preferences unless you’ve already talked it over with the writer in length.

All your critiques are only your opinion, and they aren’t necessarily the same opinions of this writer’s future publisher. Mention when a writer’s use or breakage of a “writing rule” throws you off, but don’t claim your preferred way is the correct way.

Good examples of courteous negative critique:

Plot--

“As I understand it, [this situation] happened because of [these reasons]. It seems like [these other reasons] should have prevented [the situation] from playing out that way. I thought something like [this] made more sense based on [these reasons].”

Character--

“I had a hard time connecting with [this character], because of [this reason]. Lines like [this one here] implied they [exhibited these goals or traits], but without [this addition or removal], I couldn’t quite believe them.”

Prose--

“The [specific prose topic] between [this line] and [this line] felt a little stunted to me. The first time I read through it, [I had this reaction]. [These reasons] contributed to this feeling.”

Notice how these replies (a) show where in the manuscript the issue arose, (b) state that a change is needed without being rude, (c) imply the reader knows the mistake may be on the interpretation end, and (d) gives specific details on why the reader came to the conclusions they did.

Not all negative critique needs to go so in depth, but if you’re picking out something which requires significant or difficult changes, always take the time to provide all the details the writer will need.

Positives Critique: Explanations are the New Vague.

A writer gets back character reviews from four critiquers, as follows:

“I really liked them, especially the protagonist!”

“Good characters. I enjoyed their conversations.”

“I thought the characters were pretty fleshed out, nice job.”

“I couldn’t differentiate between any of the character. Their personalities and goals need to be fleshed out more.”

Only a quarter of these reviews are negative, but they leave the writer feeling incredibly confused and worried. Maybe the first three critiquers were just being overly positive? Maybe they’re not as analytical as the last critiquer? Maybe they projected personalities onto the characters? Maybe they just don’t want to hurt my feelings?

If the writer only received the first three reviews, it would’ve been easy to accept that their characters are good, and move on, but that one negative review is enough to convince them maybe things aren’t as well off as they seem.

Now look at the same situation, but in which the positive critiquers are more detailed in their reviews:

“I really liked the protagonist! She’s clearly book smart, with her use of large words and how she brings theories into the discussion, but the way she notices the subtle changes in her sister’s expression make me think she knows a lot about people. She craftily manipulates the conversation when she decides she wants to know more about the temple’s explosion, and she’s quick to realize when her sister is lying. Her sister, on the other hand...”

“Good characters. I enjoyed the way their dialogue revealed more about their goals, especially in the side characters. I could tell that...”

“I thought the characters were pretty fleshed out. I liked the little habits and quirks you gave them, like the protagonist's finger tapping. The way the sisters do their hair seems to be intrinsic to their personalities, particularly...”

“I couldn’t differentiate between any of the character. Their personalities and goals need to be fleshed out.”

The writer’s whole view of this negative critique suddenly changes. The positive cirtiquers were obviously reading critically, and could pick out many differences between the characters, as well as their goals and basic personality traits.

Maybe the negative critiquer wasn’t reading very carefully, or maybe they’re accustomed to books in which the reader is explicitly told things about the characters instead of implying and hinting and showing. Whatever the case, the writer can breathe easy knowing that analytical readers are still understanding and enjoying their characters the way it’s meant to be enjoyed.

Giving detailed positive critique is also good, even when there are things which need to be fixed, because it helps the writer know what was worked well and should therefore be kept when they make adjustments.

The take away: While vague positive critique is certainly better than ignoring the good aspects of a story, telling the writer why you feel positively towards that area of the story can (almost literally) save your writer’s life.

The Rules are What We Make of Them.

Sometimes abruptness is okay. 

Granted that the writer asked for this level of critique to begin with, if you already explained that you’re picking out filter words, repeated words, typos, or other small fixes, giving detailed explanations on why these things should be fixed can get tedious and feel demeaning towards the writer. 

If you’re having trouble putting your reasoning for something into words, you can always just let the writer know to ask you if they want a more thorough explanation of why you feel a certain way about a plot or character or prose choice.

If you’re critiquing for a good friend, or someone who you really jive with, they might not mind sarcasm and low blows, and sometimes you have special circumstances where the writer wants you to be vague.

And somethings we’re just human. We won’t always be perfect critiquers.

It never hurts your honor as a critiquer to apologize. If you realize after the fact that you were too harsh, or too vague, or too anything -- let the writer know: 

“Hey, I’m sorry if my feedback came across as overly negative! Despite how I may have sounded, I really enjoyed this chapter, especially [this and this and that other thing]. I think it has a lot of potential and I can’t wait to read more!”

Want to learn more about critique in fiction? Check out these articles on...

Beta Readers

Critique Partners

Dealing with Critique

[dauntless-dragayn]

Life is Strange fanfiction: All Wounds

   HEY ALL, somethin different for today. I will honestly say I don't read tons of fanfic, call me picky or just, see the truth as being i don't have much spare time to read, period so I've never reviewed one.  BUT. I really want to call attention to one this time, and what better way to do that then by helping out the author with a review? I don't think people realize how much criticism is worth to writers, even taking the time to type out something small is great. (quick note: this review contains spoilers for Lis and BtS. spoilers for the fic itself will be left to the end)   All Wounds by @destiny-smasher is a fic taking place in the Life is Strange universe, almost directly after the 'bae' ending. Throughout, it switches between Max and Chloe's PoVs, however Max is still the main protagonist here. But this is no fluffy feel-good fic (though there is some spots of fluff here and there) it's real and it's painful. It deals with the trauma and emotions that have built up in these women over that fateful week, even their teenage years - stuff that doesn't just magically disappear after the climax. That premise hooked me, because the kind of nitty gritty that often gets ignored in the fandom is exactly what tends to interest me. It actually (minor spoiler!) timeskips after a bit to when they're adults, and when things finally start crashing around their heads .. again.   I will say outright, this isn't for the faint of hearted. It's lonnnng, at 3.5 k words, which rivals many novels!! And it deals with PTSD, mental illness, suicidal ideation, and even a certain amount of psychological horror. Themes present in both games definitely come up again. And no, Max and Chloe's relationship isn't without its bumps. Or rather catastrophic crashes. Don't worry, it'll hurt you but patch those wounds up, by the end. see what i did there   Truthfully, I tried to read it in a RIDICULOUSLY short time frame for Reasons™ (unrelating to the piece) but just could not. I would continuously find myself compelled to slow down, sink into each sentence, into Max’s head or Chloe’s frustrations. I was living in their world more than mine for a few days. It was great - a piece of fresh writing hasn’t done that to me in a while.   I highly recommend taking the time to appreciate this story; it’s ups and downs, romance and time fuckery. If you loved Life is Strange (duh) there’s little reason you wouldn’t love this, too.   You can absolutely tell that this is a project woven together of heart and struggle. Art is never easy when you truly care about the outcome and the fact that this took years of the creator's time and attention stuns me. She did all that mind you, for FREE. Not for publishing, not for profit, not for fame. For a fandom she cares about. Serious writing for fandom is tough, because frankly it's not the easiest medium to sell (sell being used nonliterally here of course, and also, this applies outside of fandom too, just especially so in it) I have an INCREDIBLE amount of admiration for creators like her who dive into these characters they love - but did not create! developing them further, taking them in new directions or continuing them on paths they were already set on -  and write novel length stories or comics for absolutely nothing. You have thoroughly earned my respect.   That’s not to say it’s flawless! Nothing ever is, psh. I do have criticisms here and there, but with those I’ll be more specific, which means they’ll be put under the cut. This is mostly for Destiny-Smasher’s sake, since she is in the process of turning the fic into a visual novel! I’ve read the first few chapters of that too, it’s a cool adaption.   So yeah, if ya haven’t read it, please stop here.   (Also before you go, check out her girlfriend’s art, I’m in love with that too!!)

SPOILERS BEYOND

   Some of these tend to be on the side of minor and nitpicky, I feel, but I'll still go into them. Not trying to be annoying !

  Okay so OBVIOUSLY the repetitiveness of certain scenes or conversations was purposeful, and a big part of how you told this story. And that's GREAT I think you used that unusual element well, certainly paying attention to details. There were some times when it felt repetitive in the wrong places though I think, and I guess I mostly mean some conversations. Or sometimes rather than being repetitive they just felt unnecessary as a whole. If I'm remembering correctly sorry its been a little while by now the conversation between Chloe and Steph in the diner before Chloe realizes she can rewind time now felt like that - just unneeded, like if you had cut or shortened it nothing would be lost. I can't think of any more examples right now, but maybe just keep that in mind?   In general there are definitely a few filler scenes but I hesitate to condemn that because like I said, this world really breaths and feels genuine, and I think those are part of why.   The addition of quotes and especially linked songs was an awesome touch I thought, since ya don't normally get auditory nods like that in writing. There were a few times it broke my immersion but for the most part it was a very appealing layer to your storytelling, so I look forward to seeing that carried out with the adaption.   One thing I didn't like much in general were Chloe's pirate dreams in the second half. I understand that there were some important nods and revelations about what was going on in her psyche, not to mention the role of dream weaving being hinted at, but for the most part they just left me pretty confused.   As far as inconsistencies, I know you were worried about that, but I really think you're fine? Like other than the stuff involving Before the Storm and what that revealed/changed (which you can't be blamed for because this story was written over yEARS) there was nothing major that I noticed. And considering the utter insanity of the timelines n shit, I'm seriously in awe you kept it relatively smooth. I have a HUGLY less complicated story in the works (no time travel) and I still managed to fuck up the timeline. Moving on. :')    I’m embarrassingly forgetful, and that’s all my initial notes on the subject had to say, so I may be missing some things? But yeah, I honestly don’t have much in the negative to say.    So let’s talk about THE plot twist. Yes that one. I remember around, chapter 16.4, the idea piecing together in my mind .. the title of the chapter, her behavior, speaking patterns, the fact that yes, this wasn’t a deviation like any of the others, it was in fact the canon divergence of timeline.... hoLY CRAP ITS OTHER MAX SHES REAL AND - yeah I fangirled a bit. (I was freaking so badly about my theory that I was so sure had to be true - and I was right, heh - that I tried to explain it to my dad. Who, FYI, has minimal knowledge on Life is Strange’s plot, and no hope of understanding the convoluted details of the fic thus far. I finally gave up and went back to reading while squealing excitedly over it in my head. And then I shut up because things got dark)   Just, gods, the details! That was the most satisfying fucking feeling, seeing all these seemingly little or random things come to be crucial. Things like Max clinging to her reality with the wedding bands on her finger, or like Other Max’s particular personality, from being aggressive and upfront more than Max has ever been, to her freaking sexual behavior. Her having red streaks in her hair to represent both sides to her, the cover of the fic and the visual novel not being a symbolic picture but an actual look at the End of Time and Other Max!!   Her falling in love with Stella was definitely a curveball I did not expect, and admittedly I was pRETTY weirded out. Cuz like.. she's engaged to Chloe in the other timeline, and obviously I ship them over anyone else.. I'm not complaining! Just, a very fresh take on Stella and their relationship. Speaking of- it did seem a little strange to me that, after the awkward start to their dating and the mention of how it was going right after, that it never came up again. Obviously things got cut short, but, how was it really working? Did Stella turn out to actually be gay? I interpreted that she was doing it out of a sort of obligation and platonic love for Max, and that she was 1000% straight. Maybe you left that open on purpose? It seemed coded that way, though..   All in all I loved what you did with Other Max. She was an edge of a concept in Life is Strange, in that confrontation scene after the nightmare of episode five - which I loved for its implications - and you took that and RAN with it. So I go in thinking "okay. she's a more literal form of this mental battle Max faces, made so much worse by death shes surrounded by after the storm" And for a while that holds up.. Max finds herself moving on, as a teenager, with Chloe's pushing, and things get better for a while. Great!! Woohoo!   Except ..  the past will always find you .. especially when that past is yourself ... and not even time travel can keep it away forever.   That's the shit you don't see delved into. This power is like, a drug. A limb she's gotten used to and relies on as much as any other. I've never believed she would just, drop it. Does it go away when the storm hits / chloe dies? Maybe, I always thought. But that's so convenient. And without an explanation for why it showed up, we have no basis for why it would go away.   And why not use it, Max convinces herself. ‘I must still have the power for a reason.’ Maybe so, and you've certainly grown, Caulfield, but you are still avoiding consequences. You are still a god amongst mortals, but guess what? That immortal facade can only be contained by a human body for so long. Things start crumbling, and as a reader you see the inevitability of all, feel the hopelessness. She's keeping things from Chloe, BIG fucking things, and I want to reach over and grab her by the shoulder and shake her. "CHLOE YOUR GIRLFRIEND IS MINDFUCKED"   I literally couldn't breath for a minute when I realized the implications of the car crash scene, where Max says she's been regularly getting lost in time for months. But, no biggie. Quick weed, call, and you’re right back where you should be. Right? Just wipe the blood off your face, no one will notice.   Damn.   Anyway, enough about that. Remember earlier, when I said 'psychological horror'? Truthfully I don't know if that's the right word for it, or even if its a real thing. But whatever it is, I live for it. People's mind are their own worst enemies, and that bit is ultimately and personally relatable. Max is constantly arguing with herself. But this time, the nightmare - mine, and hers - is creeping into real life. The Other is ripping control from her shaky hands. Its twisting her into someone she never wanted to be - a literal worst version of herself, and, we find out - a real version, just from a different timeline. A broken one. A nonhuman one .. or that's what she says. But as we see this Other raise her voice, and read on in bafflement alongside Max, we get to see that her intentions, aren't necessarily evil. Has she done evil things? Yes. Did Max see her as evil? Yes, and even Chloe did for a while. But the big question I found myself asking, and Chloe eventually challenging is.. is the Other.. still Max? Is the worst reality, the worst view in the mirror, still us? All Wounds says yes. But not to give up hope, far from it - instead that we MUST confront these self made demons, we MUST accept these wounds for them to ever heal.   While spurred by a morality grounding near-death experience, that last fight at the End of Time - while a supernatural slew of symbolism, time travel, and dreamscapes - also sung to me of reality. That's what the best fantastical fiction is.   Amazing.

  To top it all off, the ending chapter was perfect. I'm not gonna lie, I teared up a bit. It felt right, and more importantly, real. Not some overdone fictional fanservice crap. But still the happy ending these women MORE than earned.   Through it all, the exploration of characters who didn't probably get what they deserved in LiS (I'm thinking about Victoria, but also Stella and even Joyce..) was really satisfying and ultimately shifted my perception of them.

  Honestly, there are so many quotable moments throughout this thing. (I have a ton of screenshots of some on my phone, actually.) But I'll go with .. "You Power isn't what makes you special, Max. Stop worrying about fixing. Focus on being. Yes, even those parts. That's all in the past. All I care about now is the future. And I want to share that future with you."

-Chloe 

 What you called experimental bullshit, I applaud. So.. Thanks for writing All Wounds.

[dictacontrion]

Here is my second question: Which you answered as a message to me. Can I ask another question? If I can, then here it is - What aspect of storytelling is most challenging for you? How did you overcome it, if you did? Or what strategies you employ to get yourself to write and face that challenge. #thankyou #asks #yay

Yes of course!! (and omg did i really? #fail)

Smut.

Smut was without a doubt the hardest worst most challenging aspect of writing when I started writing fic, and even harder as an aspect of storytelling. I had no training in it, no idea what I was doing, and a very keen awareness of all the things that could go terribly, mockably wrong. Trying to write it felt roughly equivalent to tweezing my eyebrows in a room full of hungry mosquitos.

How to make it unawkward? How to keep track of the body parts and positions? What to call things? How to make it read smoothly? How to make it hot? How to make it *do* something and not feel awkwardly shoe-horned in for the purposes of that reader-attracting Explicit rating? (I have some feelings about those incentive/that whole train of thought but that’s another post.) Because if I was going to put myself through learning to write it, I’d be twice dammed if I didn’t learn to make it good in every possible sense.

I’m stubborn like that.

I would like to think I overcame it and the very lovely reaction to Endowment suggests I am not totally wrong, so here’s what I did:

1) found smut I really admired and read it over and over and absolutely took it apart to figure out what made it work in or as a story. Read different authors’ smut side-by-side for commonalities and differences. Came up with a working mental list of things I thought made smut work as part of a story.

2) combined that with a good long think about what I think sex can and cannot accomplish in human interactions and what purposes it therefore could and could not serve in fiction, and came up with a basic list of things I want smut in my work to do, like:

reveal someone’s motivations or state of mind

reflect the dynamic of the larger story (even if it’s a PWP and therefore not all on the page, it’s part of one)

reveal something about the people having the sex that could not be revealed through speech (maybe they say they’ve forgiven and trust each other, but are their eyes open or closed while they’re having sex and why?)

create a sense for the presence or absence of intimacy in a relationship (or for a person’s ability or inability to experience intimacy)

potentially forward the plot in some way (raising the stakes, cementing a bond, allowing for catharsis/letting the tension, creating a point of crisis, etc.)

turning the reader on (this last one is not at all universally held among writers and I know some who don’t like to consider that bit, so this is not to say that you should go tell writers that you’ve gotten off on their work, but for me personally being aware, in a generally abstract hypothetical way, of that possibility helps make the smut and smut-writing better)

(2a) I think it really really helps, if possible, to think about the very broad array of things that sex *can* and *does* do in human interactions rather than getting caught up in hand-wringing about what sex *should* (or shouldn’t) do in human interactions. Regardless of whether you think people only *should* have happy fluffy loved-up gentle monogamous tender sex with partners who fit within certain parameters (or should only have kinky rough emotionless sex with strangers) it is a true fact of the world that people have sex with all kinds of people and in all kinds of ways and for all kinds of reasons, and that sexual desire (or lack thereof) isn’t a separate thing from who we (or are characters) are. People who are scared, desperate, tired, angry, vengeful, callous, etc. have sex that reflects and enacts those feelings. People who are ill or injured have sex that reflects those experiences. People have sex that isn’t fluffy or tender or monogamous for a host of reasons that are very much about intimacy and closeness and understanding and emotion. People have sex that is fluffy and tender and monogamous and that can have all sorts of underlying feelings attached. People have sex that is mind-blowing and electric and full of chemistry and feelings. People also have sex that’s boring and rote, and sex that’s about one thing while attempting to appear to be about a different thing.  People, in my experience, very rarely (compared to fic, anyway) have sex with people they barely know or former sworn enemies, particularly in office settings, but maybe I just need some different experiences idk. tl;dr: a mismatch between your smut and your characters/plot is going to make for a strange read. And strange morals and sexual ethics, if that’s something you care about.)

3) Did some research. It had been a minute (by which I mean several years) since I’d engaged with a penis and I was not really prepared to write accurately about them. (there is a scene in If Memory Serves where they have semi-clothed sex over a table and I legit agonized about how testicles would work in that scenario) So I googled and read guides and asked friends who I knew were chill about and up for talking about personal experiences with sex and bodies and scrutinized gifs for a while and read guides for and by gay men (many of which counter common fic scripts about sex, which I still find tricky to navigate but that’s also another post). It was not very different from research I’ve done about other things, except for not being able to do it in public.

4) Practiced describing bodies having sex. Not just randomly! But in the course of writing stories with smut. ngl this was a slog. Just lots of drafting and letting it sit and re-drafting and trying to laugh at the misplaced elbows and whatnot. I tried listening to music and that sort of helped (and I think the right music can be really instructive for writing good smut, in terms of how to pace things, how to create build-up, where to bring things up and take them down, how to get a good rhythm going, etc.), but mostly it was just a slog for a while.

5) thought about how I could write smut in ways that would feel less like a slog, how I could take this particularly hard part of writing and combine it with things that played to my strengths/could be combined with things I enjoyed as a reader and writer (strong personalities, emotion, intensity, dialogue) and avoided things I disliked as a reader and writer (long mechanical descriptions, staring at gifs of balls)

6) went back to #1 and thought about what made smut work mechanically, like:

careful POV choice

reflecting the moment in structural decisions about things like sentence and word length (essential for rhythm)

giving scenes a particular purpose or focus and using that as an anchor

taking word choice seriously (there’s a difference between a cock, a dick, a prick, a penis, a willy, and all the millions of horrible euphemisms people use. meat swords and whatnot. it is easy to want to blow this off bc it’s words for dicks, but there is a meaningful difference between saying that someone is sucking cock and sucking penis (or giving head, or giving a blow job) and the words you choose say something about your characters and their perspective, and therefore matter a lot)

focusing on desire, sensations, emotions, and reactions instead of mechanics

7) practiced. The unavoidable and most necessary. But better after #s 4 and 5, and when in scenarios that were about using smut to tell different sorts of stories or to story-tell in new ways, and when I was focused on combining it with the things I most enjoy writing.

8) had a really good beta who understood what I wanted the sex to do and told me whether or not it I was accomplishing that, and who was willing and able to be candid about what wasn’t working and tell me so. And I was, and had to be, willing to hear all that feedback and change things, from moving an elbow to rewriting entire scenes.

That’s more than you may have bargained for (and I have approx 90 more tangents about smut and fic and fandom that I am barely containing) but tbh I think the same basic process applies to any aspect of writing someone is trying to improve:

Read things you like

Think about what you like about them

Take them apart technically

Research as needed

Practice

Find ways of practice that you can enjoy and invest in

Get trusted feedback

Take trusted feedback seriously

Remember that it is never perfect, but that it does get better

Keep practicing

[scifrey]

Improbable Press put out a call asking fan fiction authors how they went from Free to Fee. Here’s my response. Happy reading!

The Story of How I Started Selling Stories

My parents, teachers, and acting/singing coaches will all tell you that I've always been a story teller. For the first twenty four years of my life, I was determined to do so through musical theatre, though I had always secretly harbored the desire to write a hit stage play. My early writing consisted of plays for my friends and I to put on, interspersed with prose that I supposed would one day become a novel, but which wasn't my passion.

I was a big reader, but where this habit came from, I'm not certain. While my mother always had a book on the go - whatever crumbling paperback law thriller or murder mystery she'd been handed by the woman down the street when she was done it, which was then passed on to the next neighbor - my father and brothers preferred sports (either on TV or outside in the yard) over reading. I stumbled into fantasy and science fiction because Wil Wheaton was hot, and his show was on every Friday night, and from there I consumed every Star Trek tie-in novel my tiny rural library carried, then started following the authors of the novels into their other worlds and series.

So you won't be surprised to learn that this was how I found fan fiction for the first time. My "I love this, gee, I wonder what else there is?" muscle was well developed by junior high, and before the internet had come to The Middle Of Nowhere Rural Ontario, I had already gotten quite adept at search keywords and codexes to track down more books to consume.  Imagine my shock and joy when, in the middle of my Phantom of the Opera phase (come on, fess up, you had one too), the internet in my school library told me about not only Fredrick Forsyth and Susan Kay's stunning re-tellings, but of something called fan fiction.

I wasted a lot of the librarian's ink and paper printing out these books and secreting them into binders and pretending to do school work at my desk or backstage between scenes. A lot. And yes, I still have most of them.

And as we all well know, the jump between reading and writing is a short when one is submerged so fully in communities of creators. Everyone else's "What If" rubs off on you, and it's just a matter of time before you find yourself playing with the idea of coaxing a few plot bunnies over to spend some time with you. Not everyone loves to write, but gosh darn it, if you want to give it a try, then you couldn't ask for a better, more supportive community. It doesn't matter how new you are to it, everyone reads, everyone comments, everyone makes suggestions. People beta read. People edit. People co-write. People cheer, and support, and recommend, and enthuse. Yeah, there are the occasional jerks, flammers, and wank-mongers, but on the whole? There's literally no better place to learn how to be a writer than in fandom, I firmly believe this.

So, of course, born storyteller that I am, I had to give it a try.

I started writing fan fiction in 1991 for a small, relatively obscure Canadian/Luxembourg co-pro children’s show called Dracula: the Series.  I used to get up and watch it on Saturday mornings, in my PJs, before heading off to whichever rehearsal or read through or practice I had that year.

1995 brought the English dub of Sailor Moon to my life, (and put me on the path to voice acting), and along with a high-school friend, I wrote, printed out, illustrated, and bound my first “book” – a self-insert story that was just over eleven pages long, which introduced new Scouts based on us.  From there, I didn’t really stop.

1996 led me to Forever Knight and Dragon Ball Z, and from there to my friend’s basement where they’d just installed the internet. We chatted with strangers on ICQ, joined Yahoo!Groups and Bravenet Chat Boards. (Incidentally, a friend from my DBZ chat group turned out to be a huge DtS fan, too. We wrote a big crossover together which is probably only accessible on the Wayback Machine now. We stayed friends, helped each other through this writing thing, and now she’s Ruthanne Reid, author of the popular Among the Mythos series.)  In 2000 I got a fanfiction.net account and never looked back.

In 2001, while in my first year of university for Dramatic Arts, I made my first Real Live fandom friends. We wrote epic-length self-insert fics in Harry Potter and Fushigi Yuugi, cosplayed at conventions (sometimes using the on-campus wardrobe department’s terrifyingly ancient serger), and made fan art and comics in our sketchbooks around studying for our finals and writing essays on critical theory or classical Latin.  I was explaining the plot of the next big fic I was going to write to one of them, an older girl who had been my T.A. but loved Interview with the Vampire just as dearly as I, when she said, “You know, this sounds really interesting. Why don’t you strip all the fandom stuff out of the story and just write it as a novel?”

You can do that? was my first thought.

No! I don’t want to! Writing is my fun hobby. What will happen if I try to be a writer and get rejected by everyone and I end up hating it? was my second.

But the seed was planted.  Slowly at first, and then at increasingly obsessive pace, I began writing my first novel around an undergrad thesis,  fourth-year  essays,  several other big fanfics that popped me into the cusp of BNF status but never quite over the tine, and then a move to Japan to teach English. From 2002-2007 I wrote about 300 000 words on the novel that I would eventually shut away in my desk drawer and ignore until I published on Wattpad under my pseudonym on a lark. It was messy. It was long. It was self-indulgent and blatantly inspired by Master of Mosquiton, Interview with the Vampire, Forever Knight, and anything written by Tanya Huff, Laurell K. Hamilton, and Charlaine Harris. This was fine for fanfic, but in terms of being comfortable with presenting it to agents and publishing houses, I felt that it wasn’t original enough.

By this time I was teaching overseas, and in my spare time (and boy, was there a lot of spare time while sitting in a Japanese teacher’s office for 40 hours per week when one only actually teaches for 11 of them) I started applying to MA programs (where I eventually wrote my thesis on Mary Sue Fan Fiction). I also spent it researching “How to Get Published”, mostly by Googling it and/or buy/reading the few books on the topic in English I could find at the local book store or order from the just-then-gaining-international traction online bookstore Amazon.

What that research mostly told me was “Write and sell a bunch of short fiction first, so you have proof that a) you can do the work and b) you can finish what you promise you’ll finish and c) you have proof that other people think you’re worth spending money on.”

Short fiction. Huh. Of course we’d studied short stories in school, and I’d even taken a short story writing class in university, though nothing I’d written for the class was indicative of the kinds of stories I preferred to tell. But I felt pretty confident about this whole writing short stories thing… after all, I’d been doing weekly challenges for years. Drabbles. Flashfic. Stories and chapters that were limited to the word count cap that LiveJournal put on its posts. I’d written novellas without knowing that’s what they were called; I’d written whole novels about other people’s characters. All I needed was an idea. Short fiction I could do.

Unfortunately, everything that came to me was fanfic inspired. It frustrated me, because I didn’t want to write a serial-numbers-filed-off story. I wanted to write something original and epic and inspiring. Something just mine. I started and stopped a lot of stories in 2006-2007. I’d been doing NaNoWriMo for years by then, having been introduced to it in undergrad, and I was determined that this would be the year that I wrote something I could shop. Something just mine. Something unique.

While I adored fanfiction, I was convinced that I couldn't make a career on it.  What had once been a fun hobby soon because a source of torment. Why could I think of a hundred ways to write a meet-cute between my favorite ships, but come up utterly blank when it came to something new and original and just mine?

It took me a while to realize that my playwriting and short story teachers had been correct when they said that there are no original stories in the world, no way you can tell a tale that someone else hasn’t already tried. The "Man vs." list exists for a reason.

The unique part isn’t your story, it’s your voice. Your lived life, your experiences, your way of forming images and structuring sentences. Your choices about who the narrator character is, and what the POV will be, and how the characters handle the conflict. In that way, every piece of writing ever done is individual and unique, even the fanfic. Because nobody is going to portray that character’s quirk or speech pattern quite like you do, nobody is going to structure your plot or your imagery like you. Because there is only one of you. Only one of me. Even if we're all writing fanfiction, no one's story sounds like anyone else's,  or is told like anyone else's.

That is the reality of being a storyteller.

And strangely enough, the woman who opened my eyes to this was a psychic from a psychic fair I attended, who told me that Mark Twain was standing over her shoulder admonishing me to stop fretting and just get something on the page – but to never forget character. My strength, she said that he said, was in creating memorable, well written, well rounded characters. And that my book should focus on that above concerns of plot or pacing.

Well, okay. If Mark Twain says that’s what my strength is, then that’s what my strength is, right? Who am I to argue with the ghost of Mark Freaking Twain?

An accident with a bike and a car on a rice patty left me immobile for six weeks in 2006, and I decided that if I was finally going to write this original short story to sell – especially since I would need income, as the accident made it obvious that I would never be able to dance professionally, and probably would never be able to tread the boards in musicals – now was the perfect time. I was going to stop fighting my fannish training and write.

I cherry picked and combined my favorite aspects of Doctor Who, Stargate: Atlantis, Torchwood, The Farm Show/The Drawer Boy, and my own melancholy experiences with culture shock and liminal-living in a foreign culture, and wrote a novella titled (Back). It was a character study of a woman named Evvie who, through an accident of time travel, meets the future version of her infant daughter Gwen. And realizes she doesn’t like the woman her daughter will become. It was a story about accepting people for who they are, instead of who you wish they would be, and had a strong undercurrent of the turbulence I was going through in trying to figure out my own sexuality and that I wouldn't have the future in performance that I had been working toward since I was four.

Deciding that I would worry about where I would try to publish the story after it had been written, I sat down and wrote what ended up being (at least for me) a pretty standard-length fanfic: 18,762 words. It was only after I had finished the story that I looked up what category that put it in – Novella. Using paying  reputable markets, like Duotrope, the Writer’s Digest, MSFV, Absolute Write, SFWA, my local Writer’s Union, Writer Beware, I realized that I had shot myself in the foot.

It seems like nearly nobody publishes novellas anymore. SF/F and Literary Fiction seem to be the last two bastions of the novella, and the competition to get one published is fierce.  The markets that accepted SF/F novellas was vanishingly thin I had to do a lot of Googling and digging to figure out who I could submit to with an unagented/unsolicited SF/F novella. If I recall correctly, it was only about ten publications. I built an excel database and filled it with all the info I found.

I put together a query letter and sent it off using my database to guide me. Most of the rejections were kind, and said that the story was good, just too long/too short/ too sci-fi-y/not sci-fi-y enough. Only one market offered on it – for $10 USD. Beggers couldn’t be choosers, even if I had hoped to make a little more than ten bucks, and I accepted.

It was a paid professional publication, and that’s what mattered to me. I had the first entry on my bibliography, and something to point to in my query letters to prove that I was a worthy investment for a publisher/agent.

And energized by this, and now aware that length really does matter, even in online-only publications, I started writing other shorts to pad out my bibliography more.

I tried to tailor these ones to what my research told me the "mainstream industry" and "mainstream audiences" wanted, and those stories? Those were shot down one after the other. I was still writing fanfiction at the time, too, and those stories were doing well, getting lots of positive feedback, so why weren’t my stories?

In 2007 I returned to Canada and Academia, frustrated by my lack of sales, desperate to kick off my publishing career, and feeling a creative void left by having to depart theatre because of my new difficulties walking. I wrote my MA, and decided that if (Back) was the only original story that people liked, then I’d try to expand it into a novel.

Over the course of two years I did my coursework, and  read everything there was to read about how to get a book deal, started hanging out in writer’s/author’s groups in Toronto and met some great people who were willing to guide me, and expanded (Back) into the novel Triptych. I kept reminding myself what Mark Twain said – character was my strength, the ability to make the kind of people that other writers wanted to write stories about, a skill I’d honed while writing fanfic. Because that's what we do, isn't it? Sure, we write fix-its and AUs and fusions and finish cancelled shows, and fill in missing scenes, but what we're all really doing is playing with characters, isn't it? Characters draw us to fanfic, and characters keep us there. Characters is what we specialize in.

Fanfic had taught me to work with a beta reader, so I started asking my fic betas if they'd like a go at my original novel. Fellow fanfic writers, can I just say how valuable editors and beta readers in the community are? These are people who do something that I've paid a professional editor thousands of dollars to do for free out of sheer love. Treasure your beta readers, folks. Really.

“It reminds me a lot of fan fiction,” one reader said. “The intense attention to character and their inner life, and the way that the worldbuilding isn’t dumped but sprinkled in an instance at a time, like, you know, a really good AU. I love it.”

Dear Lord. I couldn’t have written a better recommendation or a more flattering description if I’d tried. Mark Twain was right, it seems. And fanfic was the training ground, for me – my apprenticeship in storytelling.

Of course... what Mr. Twain hadn't explained is that character-study novels just don't sell in SF/F. They say Harry Potter was rejected twelve times? HA. I shopped Triptych to both agents and small presses who didn't require you to have an agent to publish with them, and I got 64 rejections. Take that, J.K.

At first the rejection letters were forms and photocopied "no thanks" slips. But every time I got feedback from a publisher or agent, I took it to heart, adjusted the manuscript, edited, tweaked, tweaked, tweaked. Eventually, the rejections started to get more personal. "I loved this character, but I don't know how to sell this book." And "I really enjoyed the read, but it doesn't really fit the rest of our catalogue." And "What if you rewrote the novel to be about the action event that happens before the book even starts, instead of focusing solely on the emotional aftermath?"

In other words - "Stop writing fanfiction." There seemed to be a huge disconnect between what the readership wanted and what the publishing world thought they wanted.

Disheartened, frustrated, and wondering if I was going to have to give up on my dreams of being a professional creative, I attended Ad Astra, a convention in Toronto, in 2009. At a room party, complaining to my author friends that "nobody wanted my gay alien threesome book!" a woman I didn't know asked me about the novel. We chatted, and it turned out she was the acquisitions editor for Dragon Moon Press, and incidentally, also a fan of fan fiction.

I sent her Triptych. She rejected it. I asked why. She gave me a laundry list of reasons. I said, "If I can address these issues and rewrite it, would you be willing to look at it again?" She said yes. She was certain, however, that I wouldn't be able to fix it. I spent the summer rewriting - while making sure to stay true to my original tone of the novel, and writing a character-study fanfiction. I sent it in the fall. I do believe it was Christmas eve when I received the offer of publication.

From there, my little fic-inspired novel was nominated for two Lambda Literary Awards and a CBC Bookie, was named one of the best books of 2011 by the Advocate, and garnered a starred review and a place on the Best Books Of The Year at Publishers Weekly.

The award nominations led me to an agent, and further contracts, and even conversations with studio execs. It also made me the target of Requires Only That You Hate, and other cranky, horrible reviewers. But you know what? I've had worse on a forum, and on ff.n, and LJ. It sucked, and it hurt, but if there's one thing fandom has taught me, it's that not everyone is going to love what you do, and not everyone interprets things the same way you do. The only thing we can do is learn from the critique if it's valid and thoughtful, and ignore the screaming hate and bullying. Then you pick yourself up, brush yourself off, and go write something else.

 Because a screaming hater? Is not going to ruin my love of storytelling.

But for all that... the day someone made me fan art based on Triptych is one etched in my memory. It means far more to me than any of the emails I ever received inquiring about representation or film rights, or wanting meetings to discuss series.

The lesson I learned from publishing Triptych  - now sadly out of print, but we're looking for a new home for it - is that if I chase what the "mainstream" and the "industry" want, I'll never write anything that sells because my heart won't be in it. I have to keep writing like a fanficcer, even if I'm not writing fanfic, if I want to create something that resonates with people. And if it takes time for the publishers and acquiring editors to figure out what I'm doing, and how to sell it, then fine - I have an agent on my side now, and a small growing number of supporters, readers, and editors who love what I do.

Do I still write fanfic? Very, very rarely. I’ve had some pretty demanding contracts and deadlines in the last two years, so I’ve had to pare down my writing to only what’s needed to fulfill my obligations. Doesn’t mean I don’t have ideas for fics constantly.

Sometimes the urge is powerful enough that I do give into it – I wrote To A Stranger, based on Mad Lori’s Performance in a Leading Role Sherlock AU recently, when I should have been writing the second and third novels of The Accidental Turn Series. And even more recently, I cleaned up To A Stranger  into something resembling a real screenplay and started shopping it around to film festivals and producers because I love this story, I love what I did with it, and I’m proud of the work. If To A Stranger is only ever a fanfic, that’s fine with me. I poured my heart into it and am so proud of it. But I figure that if there’s one more project I could possibly get into the real world, then why not go for it?

The worst thing the festival heads and producers can say about the work is: “No, thank you.” And being an online writer has taught me not to take the “no, thank you”s personally. Applying the values of Don’t Like Don’t Read or Not My Kink to your publication/agent search makes it much easier to handle the rejections – not every story is for every person.

Maybe once every producer in North America has rejected it, I might think about working with someone to adapt the screenplay into an illustrated comic fanbook? Who knows?

That’s the joy of starting out as a writer in fandom – felixibility, adaptability, creative problem-solving and cross-platform storytelling comes as naturally as breathing to us fan writers. It’s what we do.

You may not think that this is a strength, but trust me, it is. I was never so shocked at an author’s meetup as when I suggested to someone that their “writer’s block” sounded to me like they were telling the story in the wrong format. “I think this is a comic, not a novel,” I’d said. “It sounds so visual. That's why the story is resisting you.” And they stared at me like I suddenly had an extra head and said, “But I’m a novelist.” I said, “No, you’re a writer. Try it.” They never did, as far as I know, and they never finished that book, either.

As fans, our strength isn't just in what we write, or how we come to our stories. It’s also about the physical practice of writing, too. We’re a group of people who have learned to carry notebooks, squeeze in a few hundred words between classes, or when the baby is napping, or during our lunch breaks, or on commute home. This is our hobby, we fit it in around our lives and jobs, and that has taught us the importance of just making time.

We are, on average, more dedicated and constant writers than some of the “novelists” that I’ve met: the folks who wait for inspiration to strike, who quit their day jobs in pursuit of some lofty ideal of having an office and drinking whiskey and walking the quay and waiting for madam muse to grace them, who throw themselves at MFAs and writing retreats, as if it's the attendance that makes them writers and not the work of it.

We fans are career writers. We don’t wait for inspiration to come to us, we chase it down with a butterfly net. We write when and where we can. More than that, we finish things. (Or we have the good sense to know when to abandon something that isn’t working.) We write to deadlines. Self-imposed ones, even.

We write 5k on a weekend for fun, and think NaNoWriMo’s 50k goal and 1667 words per day are a walk in the park. (When I know it terrifies some of the best-selling published authors I hang out with.) Or if we fans don’t write fast, then we know that slow and steady works too, and we’re willing to stick it out until our story is finished, even if it takes years of weekly updates to do so. We have patience, and perseverance, and passion.

This is what being a fanfiction writer has given me. Not only a career as a writer, but tools and a skill-set to write work that other people think is work awarding, adapting, and promoting. And the courage to stick to my guns when it comes to telling the kinds of stories that I want to tell.

This is what being a fanfiction writer gives us.

Aren’t we lucky, fellow fans? Hasn’t our training been spectacular?

*

J.M. (@scifrey) is a SF/F author, and professional smartypants on AMI Audio’s Live From Studio 5. She’s appeared in podcasts, documentaries, and on television to discuss all things geeky through the lens of academia. Her debut novel TRIPTYCH was nominated for two Lambda Literary Awards,  nominated for a 2011 CBC Bookie, was named one of The Advocate’s Best Overlooked Books of 2011, and garnered both a starred review and a place among the Best Books of 2011 from Publishers Weekly. Her sophomore novel, an epic-length feminist meta-fantasy THE UNTOLD TALE (Accidental Turn Series #1), debuted to acclaim in 2015 and was followed by THE FORGOTTEN TALE (Accidental Turn Series #2) this past December. FF.N | LJ |AO3| Books | Tumblr