I heard that your ROTBTD Highschool AU is really good, and I'm making one myself. But now I feel so extremely self conscious cause by the looks of it yours is REALLY good... And I'm not sure if mine is gonna be any good tbh. I am in no way wanting to imitate your own take, but it makes me sad to think if MY take doesn't get much attention.
Oh gosh, I don’t know how I missed these messages and I’m really sorry I did. I’ve been a bit tumblr MIA aside from my queue for the last month or so and even then, my username is not saraoverlandfrost anymore it’s stilinskisexual. Sorry for the confusion!
Anyway, the only advice I can give you is write what you want and fuck everybody else. Including me. I love Escape and I love the Big Four and I love that other people love my story, but if you want to write your own RBTD Highschool AU, write it. Don’t worry about mine. Don’t even think about mine because the fact of the matter is, only you can write the story you want. You can use some ideas I’ve used or you can use your own or you can do both. Don’t worry about imitation because the truth is everything has been done before. As long as you’re not copying and pasting and calling it your own, no one is gonna be mad. Especially not me.
Also, as to your other message, don’t worry about sucking either. No matter what stage you’re in as a writer, you’re going to get better so long as you keep writing. Even if your writing does suck (which I highly doubt) you’re gonna keep writing and then, in a few months or a few years you’ll look back at what you wrote now and think “god, this sucks what was I thinking.” The best piece of advice I can give you now is this:
What you write now that you think is amazing will suck in a year.
Not because it sucks. Not because you’ve achieved some higher plane of existence. But because you kept writing. And you got better. And writing that you think sucks now is a stepping stone for writing that you think sucks later but that is actually really good. Trust me, I’ve had a lot of practice. I think all my writing sucks.
Whether you like what you write now doesn’t matter. Whether other people like what you write now doesn’t matter. What matters is having fun while you do it. Even if you sit back at the end of it and go “wow this was shit but whatever fuck it, I had fun” it was worth while.
Because let me tell you something. When I started Escape I was blocked and I thought “fuck it i’ll write a big four highschool au for kicks no one will read it i’m just gonna have fun.” And I did. And then…something weird happened. Writing I thought was terrible got a little attention. And then more people started reading it. And then I really started to love what I was writing. It didn’t matter if it was good or not. I just… I had a lot of fun with it. And I learned a lot. I learned so much. About writing. About myself. And about the people reading this story.
Never write for other people. Write for yourself. No matter how much attention it gets. If you write to get attention you’ll be swimming against an incredibly powerful current. Just write the stuff that you like. Write to give yourself ship feels or to try something new with the characters or just because you love them. I can’t promise you’ll get tons of readers. I can’t promise you’ll get glowing reviews. But keep writing. Write a story you’re proud of. Others will follow.
And on that note, I have to thank you. Sometimes it’s easier to give advice than to take it and I’ve been going dry on words for months. As usual, something about this story is always saving little bits and pieces of me.
So really, write something for you. It’s really important that you remember that.
Also, if you have or you do write that story, I'd love to read it. Please send me a link when you get the chance.
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