Fandom made me mad.

Not angry mad, but crazy mad.

[shieldofiron]

Derek: Your 'zest' is going to get you in trouble with alphas less fascinated with you.

Stiles: Wait, what?

Derek: I said what I said.

[sparassiss]

We will kiss with poison on our lips

Well, I'm not scared

We will touch and reach forbidden bliss

They can't stop us now, I won't let you die alone

Because I love you so

☽

derek’s dying of aconite poisoning. 

he lays helplessly on the forest floor, black blood oozing out of his side, dripping out his mouth and down his chin. there’s nothing left to do for him; the poison’s spreading too quickly. they can’t reach deaton in time, can’t get any more wolfsbane fast enough for an antidote, for this strain is rare and incredibly toxic.

all derek can do is lay there, struggling to breathe, clutching stiles’ hand in a sweaty, too-weak grip. he stares up at the boy, who’s gazing at him with a panicked, glassy look in his eyes, tears flooding his pretty cheeks like they don’t have a chance of stopping.

saltwater clumps his long lashes together, but there’s nothing for him to do but grip on to derek and stay with him, stay as long as he can in derek’s last moments. sure, derek’s cheated death too many times, but this one feels too real this time. there’s a weight settling over stiles’ heart, a stone choking his throat from the inside out, but he just has to keep holding on, make derek hold on.

he can’t leave derek; he won’t.

he tries to ask the same of derek, begs him to stay, not to go, not to leave him alone, but derek’s eyes mirror his own, and tears cloud them. 

the wolf struggles to breathe over the poison seeping through his veins, but he can’t look away from stiles in his last moments. if he dies now, at least he’ll glimpse pure beauty before he goes.

“don’t leave me,” stiles chokes out, but derek can hardly hear him over the rushing in his ears. he just squeezes stiles’ hand far too gently.

stiles longs to kiss him, to reassure him, find a way to comfort him in his last breaths, but they’ve never— they didn’t get a chance to— before—

so stiles settles on cupping derek’s pale, sweaty face with his free hand, stroking his cheek with a shaking thumb, telling him he’s there without words. 

“are you scared?” stiles whispers a few moments later, eyes not leaving derek’s for a second. 

derek shakes his head with the little energy he has left. “you’re here,” he says in explanation. everything’s okay with stiles here.

“but i can’t come with you,” stiles barely gets out through the sobs tearing out of his throat. 

“you don’t have to. you’ll be with me anyway.”

“stay with me,” stiles pleads again, desperately, as the light starts to fade from the wolf’s kaleidoscope eyes. “nonono, derek, don’t go, derek—“

derek can’t keep his eyes open anymore. they suddenly feel far too heavy, and he closes them with a sense of relief, after taking one more long gaze at his favorite person, the most special person in the world to him. it’s a shame he never got to tell that to stiles.

“i love you,” stiles admits now, as if his words have a chance of getting through to derek in his last moments. time is running out, now. it’s almost out completely.

derek wants to say it back. but he’s just so tired. he wishes he could see stiles’ own starlit eyes once more.

i love you too, he thinks, head feeling heavy and spinning. he might fall asleep for a long while, now. that would be nice.

as derek’s consciousness is stolen from him for what may be the last time, he receives a parting gift.

stiles’ soft lips, wet with tears, land on his, uncaring of the black poison dripping from his mouth. they’re gentle, pressing all the love he holds for derek, an impossible amount, into his body, into his very soul.

but i can’t come with you.

stiles has found a way to come with him after all.

[inadvertently-biblical]

JUDITH in Her Black Dress in RIDE OR DIE - 1.01

[scaredywolf-blog-deactivated201]

[mountainashes-deactivated201401]

#someday they’ll end up being so in sync #that Derek will wander into the kitchen still sleepy and Stiles will press a cup of coffee into his hand #and it’ll have the perfect ratio of sugar and cream #and Derek will grunt his goodmorning when Stiles kisses him on the cheek #and he’ll stand in the corner sipping his coffee until he’s awake enough #to come stand behind Stiles and curl his arms around his waist#and nuzzle the back of his neck #while Stiles makes omelettes for them both

[pafhan]

On the way to the Prom…

[wheredidhiseyebrowsgo]

Hey!!! I’m looking for a fic that I’ve searched everywhere for and can’t find, its a regency era and it starts with an injured Derek being cared for by Stiles and they fall in love and then Derek has to return to the war and doesn’t tell Stiles he’s royalty. Stiles ends up being royalty too and they meet up at Stiles’ courtship ball after and Derek is angsty.

You are the best and thank you so much!!!!

I think I found it?

An Alpha's Misunderstandings by Dexterous_Sinistrous

(8/8 I 48,520 I Mature I Sterek)

And Derek was there, as if it was a simple twist of fate.

There were so many ways Stiles wanted to forgive Derek, but then he came to his senses.

He wouldn’t risk Charlotte’s safety for that hope–never again. ~*~ Stiles and Derek are parted by war and misunderstandings, only to find each other again.

[goddess47]

Someone Made a HUGE Mistake

For @sterekdrabbles prompt March 30, 2026: govern, punish, mistake. Also on AO3.

---

"We're going to make an example of you," the thug said.

"Blah, blah, blah..." Stiles mocked. "You Hunters are all the same."

"What's it to you?" another thug demanded.

"Well, if you'd paid any attention, there're new rules to govern Hunters," Stiles said cheerfully.

"Bah! We don't follow no rules!" the first thug growled.

Stiles brought a used-to-be-tied-up hand forward, wagging a finger at him. "Someone's asking to be punished!"

"YOU..."

Howls floated in. Close. Very close.

Stiles grinned. All teeth. "That's my husband. And his uncle. And Chris Argent is just behind."

The thugs turned and fled in terror.

[shamelessficcollector]

Thanks for Thumper, But I Prefer Cheeseburgers by isthatbloodonhisshirt (wasterella)

summary:

The wolf’s head whipped around so fast, Stiles felt like he was watching The Exorcist. Stiles wondered if he could just stand still enough to make the wolf think he was a tree. A very bright red and jean-clad tree. He doubted it, but one could hope. He knew it was a lost cause when the wolf turned fully, lips pulled back from its sharp teeth—so very sharp, good fucking Lord!—and began walking towards Stiles. “I didn’t see anything!” Stiles shouted, both hands out in front of himself and sweat instantly breaking out across his skin. “I swear to you! I didn’t see anything! I didn’t see anything! I won’t tell anyone! I won’t! I’ll keep this to myself, until the day I die! I promise! I promise!”

https://archiveofourown.org/works/14996549

[daisybeats]

@iysics wanted a drabble based on the word glasses. And I had to do it to em.

~~~~~~

Stiles had faced a lot of terrifying things in his life.

Nogitsunes.

Alphas.

Hunters.

His own questionable decision making skills after three cups of coffee and no sleep.

None of those things prepared him for his alpha wearing glasses.

It was an accident that he found out, technically.

Stiles had stopped by the loft because Derek had forgotten his phone, which was honestly a very Derek thing to do. The man could remember every single detail about everyone else’s safety plans but somehow managed to leave his keys, wallet, or phone behind at least twice a week.

“Derek?” Stiles called as he stepped inside.

No answer.

He frowned and walked farther in.

Then he stopped.

Completely stopped.

Because Derek Hale was sitting on the couch, wearing a worn out shirt, reading a book, and wearing glasses.

Glasses.

Actual glasses.

Stiles’ brain immediately stopped functioning.

“Whoa.”

Derek looked up.

And somehow that made it worse.

“What?”

Stiles opened his mouth.

Closed it.

Opened it again.

“You have glasses.”

Derek blinked. “Yes.”

“You have been hiding glasses from me.”

“I haven’t been hiding them.”

“You absolutely have.”

Derek frowned. “I wear them when I read.”

“Do you understand how unfair that is?”

Derek stared at him.

Stiles pointed at him helplessly.

“You already have the whole tall, brooding, mysterious werewolf thing going on. You cannot just add glasses. There are rules.”

“What rules?”

“The rules of not making my life harder.”

Derek’s mouth twitched.

“You’re being dramatic.”

“I am being incredibly reasonable.”

At that moment, Kira and Isaac walked in carrying food.

They immediately stopped when they saw Stiles staring at Derek.

Isaac looked between them.

“What happened?”

Stiles pointed.

“Glasses.”

Isaac looked at Derek.

Then at Stiles.

Then back at Derek.

“…That’s it?”

“That’s it?” Stiles repeated, horrified. “Isaac, look at him.”

Isaac looked again.

“He looks the same.”

Kira tilted her head.

“No, I get it.”

Stiles whipped around. “Thank you.”

Kira nodded thoughtfully. “It’s the contrast.”

“Exactly.”

“The scary werewolf guy suddenly looks like he helps people with their taxes.”

Derek took off his glasses. “I’m never wearing them again.”

“No,” Stiles said immediately. “Put them back on.”

Derek paused.

Isaac smirked. “You’re enjoying this way too much.”

“I am having a revelation.”

“About glasses?”

“About the fact that Derek Hale apparently has unlimited ways to be annoyingly attractive.”

The room went silent.

Stiles froze.

Kira’s eyes widened slightly.

Isaac slowly looked at Derek.

Derek looked very pleased with himself.

Stiles immediately pointed at him.

“Don’t.”

“Don’t what?”

“Don’t look smug. You don’t get to know you’re pretty.”

Derek leaned back against the couch, glasses still in hand.

“I’m pretty?”

Stiles immediately regretted every life choice that had led him to this moment.

“Nope. Never mind. Conversation over. I’m leaving.”

“You walked in here.”

“Exactly. And now I’m walking out because I have dignity.”

“You don’t have dignity,” Isaac said.

“I have some.”

“You told a werewolf his glasses were a personal attack.”

“A valid personal attack.”

Derek put his glasses back on.

Stiles stopped mid step.

Everyone noticed.

Derek’s expression softened.

And Stiles, despite all his years of surviving impossible things, realized he had found his greatest weakness.

Not claws.

Not fangs.

Not supernatural threats.

Just Derek Hale quietly reading a book while wearing glasses.

Absolutely devastating.

[daisybeats]

@puppyloveandpredators requested a drabble based on the word bald. I literally have no idea wtf this is but I laughed writing it! Hope you enjoy!

~~~~~~

Derek Hale had been called many things in his life.

Monster.

Alpha.

Grumpy.

Emotionally constipated.

Stiles had a list that was somehow still growing.

But he had never been called bald.

Until today.

“Derek.”

"Please don't.”

Stiles blinked. “I haven’t even said anything.”

“You’re looking at me like you’re about to say something annoying.”

“That’s because I am.”

Derek sighed and continued chopping vegetables. “What is it?”

Stiles walked around the kitchen island, studying him carefully.

“You know, I never noticed before.”

Derek slowly lowered the knife.

“Noticed what?”

“That you’re basically one bad haircut away from being bald.”

The kitchen went silent.

Peter, sitting at the table drinking coffee, immediately looked interested.

“Oh, this should be good.”

Derek stared at Stiles.

“I’m sorry?”

Stiles waved his hands. “No, no, hear me out. I’m not saying you’re bald. I’m saying you have the energy of someone who could be bald.”

Peter nodded thoughtfully. “He does.”

Derek looked between them. “Why are you both like this?”

“Because,” Stiles explained, “you have the whole intimidating, brooding, emotionally unavailable thing going on. Bald men in movies always have that vibe.”

“I have hair.”

“Currently.” Stiles laughs.

Derek’s eyes narrowed.

Peter leaned forward. “I have to admit, I’m curious. What would Derek look like bald?”

“Peter.”

“I’m just asking.”

“You’re imagining it.” Derek accuses.

“I absolutely am.”

Stiles grinned. “I think he’d still look terrifying.”

“Thank you,” Derek said.

“Like a villain who owns a very expensive car and tells everyone he doesn’t care about anyone.”

Derek stared.

“That’s literally just me now.”

“Exactly. You’d just have less hair.”

Peter laughed so hard he nearly choked on his coffee.

Derek looked betrayed. “You’re enjoying this.”

“Immensely.”

Stiles walked over and wrapped his arms around Derek from behind, resting his chin on his shoulder.

“For the record,” he said, suddenly softer, “I would still love you if you were bald.”

Derek relaxed slightly.

Then Stiles added, “I’d just buy you a bunch of tiny hats.”

The relaxation disappeared.

“Stiles.”

“Little ones. Ones that make your head look huge.”

“I’m leaving.”

“You live here.”

“Then I’m emotionally checking the fuck out.”

Peter smiled into his coffee.

After years of knowing Derek, after watching him lose everything and rebuild himself piece by piece, Peter never thought he’d see the day someone could make Derek look genuinely defeated.

Not by claws.

Not by hunters.

Not by enemies.

By the terrifying power of Stiles Stilinski and a hypothetical lack of hair.

“Honestly,” Peter said, shaking his head, “I think the bald jokes might be the most dangerous thing you’ve ever survived.”

Derek looked at him.

“Whose side are you on?”

Peter considered.

“Stiles’.”

“Traitor.” Derek mumbled.

And Derek, despite everything, smiled.

[grimoireapologist]

hmmm Stiles who is just so undeniably prey-like. Derek notices first, ofc, his big brown eyes, long neck, lithe and lean body made for running. He's like a deer and Derek can't deny the pull to hunt. He's a born werewolf, it's an instinct he can't help.

He knows that Peter felt it too, but the man always liked to play with his food. Scott, being bitten and also friend with Stiles since they were in footie pajamas, has a harder time consolidating his newer instincts with their history. He has no idea why Stiles is setting his teeth on edge when he's sprawled out on the couch, belly up, exposed. Its not arousal, but he feels like he has to do something. He goes for a run and then meets up with Allison. He doesn't mention it to anyone.

Erica sees it too, but she can get over it for the most part. Boyd too, can mostly ignore it. Isaac has a harder time, but tells Derek and gets some breathing exercises. He tells him the desire to hunt will eventually turn into a desire to protect, the longer him and Stiles are pack. And for the most part it does, but every once and while during practice, Stiles will take off running and he has to tamper his urge to chase.

Derek's instinct to hunt does turn into a desire to protect, as he knew it would. But a wolf protecting a deer is still a wolf in the end and sometimes he just wants to sink his teeth in.

Stiles notices something, he's not stupid, the small flash of eyes when he runs at practice. Scott tensing up when he relaxes, Erica and Boyd giving him small hungry glances. Derek's possessive hold, watching the others watch him, almost like he's protecting him from the pack. He's sure one day he'll figure it out

[spitzonthefritz]

this is going around twitter rn but im also super curious: please tell me your top four comfort movies that you’re always down to watch bc my friend thinks mine are ridiculous and now we’ve realised everyone’s version of “comfort” is hilariously different

[alphacrone]

i don't really want to weight in on the "using big words in your writing is ableist" discourse happening on tiktok because i'm like 90% certain it's an anti-intellectual psyop to stir up drama in online circles to promote the use of ai to summarize literally everything and thus feeding the LLMs and lowering the populace's mistrust of such tools but i also have to say: dictionaries and thesauruses are the most accessible they've ever been. if you use an e-reader of any kind you can look up a word without leaving the page. there's a plethora of online dictionaries and if you just type a word + "meaning" into google it'll usually give you a definition. we used to have pocket dictionaries we used when reading in class. i have two on my shelf right now that i used in high school. stop letting the fascists purposefully misuse anti-ableism rhetoric to trick you into never thinking again.

[daisybeats]

https://archiveofourown.org/works/88692401

Ashes to New

Complete one shot - 2,616 words

Derek is haunted by the weight of every mistake he made as an unprepared Alpha. Through the presence of his pack, especially Stiles, he begins to realize that he is more than his failures (Just another of my stories showing Derek's internal struggles)

[daisybeats]

https://archiveofourown.org/works/88513236

Pieces

Complete one shot - 3,210 words

Stiles hasn't come to the loft for three days and Derek notices his absence.

[secretzofdarkness]

Dirty talking, love speaking

Stiles has a dirty talk kink, it's not a secret, so of course, once he and Derek got together, Stiles espected a whole of dirty talking. Don't take him wrong, he's seen and heard Derek sweet talking people in multiple occasions (usually to get info or create a distraction) so Stiles knew, he had prove, that Derek excelled in the bed talking area.

However, for some strange reason that Stiles couldn't understand, Derek didn't dirty talk him. Flirting? Sure, arguing? Obviously, bickering? Of course. They did it all, but dirty talk. And Stiles didn't know what else to do to get Derek into the game. He tried loudly listing his kinks, he "forgot" his research history on fully display in the loft, he made suggestive comments. Until one night when Stiles snapped and took the direct approach.

That same night Derek promised to dirty talk Stiles in the bedroom. But once they started it felt...awkward. Derek struggled with his words and made faces as if disgusted with himself. After some minutes Derek stopped and told Stiles that he couldn't do it.

"What do you mean you can't? I've seen you flirt and spill dirty comments many times to many many creatures." It's was just saying out loud what you wanted to do with your partner, wasn't it?

Derek sat against the bedhead, hands covering his face while he worked on his answer. A growl raising in his throat.

"It's just... it feels wrong Stiles. Bad, fake, like bad porn type of fake."

Stiles felt his heart break a bit (ok a lot), he knew that he didn't have the best looks in a pack of hot people, damn even among humans he was barely a 5. But knowing it and listening to Derek say that he couldn't feel horny at Stiles were very different things. Of course Derek found dirty talking difficult in the bedroom, you can't really say much when you can't feel much.

"Oh, it's ok. Fine, yeah. It felt kind of fake, right?" Stiles left a dry laugh, before turning around, back facing Derek, and setting the alarm for 7am.

"Stiles?"

"We should sleep. I gotta get up early to have breakfast with my dad" he covered himself under the sheets, a cloths barrier between him and Derek.

Derek felt his blood run cold, in the last minutes something had gone terribly wrong. Stiles' scent turned sour, his heartbeat jumped and the smell of salt filled the room

"Stiles"

"Good night, Der"

Derek was lost, was Stiles sad because Derek couldn't dirty talk? But Stiles did not smell exactly like sadness. Was he disappointed at Derek for his pathetic attempt? No, Stiles would never blame him for something related to bed activities. He has a very strong view of consent and sex. Then what?

Derek growled before turning to his own side of the bed. He should be able to understand Stiles, he should know what to say to fix it. He should know what affected Stiles so much. He should, he should be a better mate, just as Stiles is for him.

Derek sat again and landed on top of Stiles in one smooth movement. Ignoring his partner's complaint Derek grabbed the sheet wall and pulled, he was going to do this right.

"We have to talk Stiles" his voice was serious, purposeful.

"Nhg, Derek let it go, it's nothing"

"Oh but it IS something. You're the one whose always talking about healthy communication and expressing our feelings. So talk"

Stiles met unblinking werewolf eyes, and a worry puppy face. Pouting and all. God, Stiles loved this man.

Stiles sighed, time to pretend to be a functional adult.

"It's ok Der, Don't look me like that, I'm talking, it's just that, well, listening that you find it difficult to say dirty things to me kind of kicked my self-esteem, you know?"

"No I don't, what does one thing have to do with the other?"

Stiles groaned, eyes looking everywhere except Derek.

"It hurts, ok? Knowing that you can't get in the mood or that it's difficult for you to want to do dirty things with me. And it's not your fault, I know you can't control that but still I-

A soft kiss interrupted his monologue. When they separated Derek rolled his eyes before diving in to kiss each mole on his face.

"You're an idiot. Of course you're hot, I may be failing if you can't understand how bad you got me. It's not that, I can't dirty talk because I don't know how to"

"But I've seen you do it, saying dirty things to strangers to get information. It's the same"

Derek kissed him on the cheek

"It is not the same. All those times it wasn't real. You are not a stranger and I don't want information. We are together, we are...one. And when I'm with you Stiles I don't want to just fuck with you, I want to make love. And I know it sounds cheesy but, I love you Stiles. And I cannot separate that from my stream of thoughts"

They were loosely cuddling facing on another. Both their heartbeats raising and cheeks blushing to the sudden feelings communication

"I love you and I know that if I start to talk in the bed I will end up saying something cliche. Because I love you, and I love the way you move under me, I love the way you pant when you get out of breath, I love how you close your eyes as if to hide form all sensations, I love how you blush when I slip my hands down down into your pants, I love how you shake and tremble when you get close and the way you arch as if presenting yourself to me, I love your whines and moans when I bite your neck, and I love how you slowly loose your words as you get drowned in pleasure, I love how your eyes shine and sparkle and how you laugh when, somehow, you find your words to break a joke in the middle of a thrust. I love you Stiles, and you deserve to be pampered in love and pleasure, to be adored, to be admired. If I could hide you from the world and get you in a life full of love, pleasure and safetiness, I'll do it. And I know that sounds toxic as fuck"

Stiles laughed wetly, eyes filled with unfallen tears. He moved his hand to softly care for Derek's cheek, and Derek finally seemed to relax a bit. Shoulders loosing tension as he closed his eyes and allowed himself to enjoy Stiles' touch.

"So, what, you final fantasy is role playing beauty and the beast? I'm not againts"

"You're hot Stiles, you're hot, beautiful, strong, funny, brave. The most incredible creature in the universe-"

"More incredible than unicorns?"

"More incredible than unicorns and dinosaurs. And I can't dirty talk because it is not just your body, it's also your personality, and your mind and your soul. And when I try to focus just on your body it feels inadequate, as if something is missing"

By this moment Stiles was a sobbing mess and Derek had to get up to get him some tissues. When he came back he softly pushed Stiles' hands away and move to wipe his nose. Once he was done he threw it on the nightstand and moved to completely cover Stiles with cuddles

"I love you Der"

"I love you. Please, don't ever doubt for my love and attraction for you"

Stiles smiled and moved to kiss Derek's neck

"I won't"

_____^______^_______^____________^

The next morning Stiles sat on the kitchen table watching Derek move from side to side preparing breakfast. If there was a pro of having a werewolf boyfriend it was their unnatural high temperature and their tendency to disregard shirts. Little presents from the universe.

"Amen"

"What are you talking?"

Stiles opened his eyes and looked at Derek who was to bussy fighting with the pancakes to even glance at Stiles.

"Nothing, just counting the minutes before you love talk me again"

"That's not gonna happen"

In his hurry to protest Stiles fell from the table

"What, why not?" It was outrageous

"Because you cried" at least Derek spared him a glance over his shoulder before destroying Stiles' life.

"you're so mean sometimes. Anyways, we both know I'll eventually convince you. You said something about adoring me afterall."

Derek moved fast and hugged Stiles from behind.

"You are the mean one" and since Stiles is a good boyfriend who wants to help validate Derek's point, he turned his head and bit the wolf's cheek.

"Yeah, but I'm your menace"

[concerningwolves]

favourite things about first drafts:

square brackets with notes to self mid-line like [does this make sense with worldbuilding?]

ah yes, Main Character and their closest friends, Unnamed Character A and Unnamed Character B.

bullshitting your way through something that you probably definitely need to research later

also square brackets to link up scenes. [scene transition idk] my beloved

the total freedom of word vomits

"I'll fix that later"

the moment when the world and characters start to gain a life of their own

pieces falling into place as you write that you were uncertain about before you started

the accomplishment of Made A Thing

[concerningwolves]

Not only is this allowed but it's something i encourage all writers of any kind to play with! :D

The idea that all writers know what to say all the time and just splash fully-formed drafts out one word after the other is false. There are some who can do it, but i think most of us... can't. Which is why we need tricks like square bracket notes! They're not cheats or lazy writing or some other flavour of Not Allowed, but instead really really important tools that we should use as much as we need to.

Some of the most helpful tricks I've collected over the years are:

make some notes in square brackets – e.g., I had to write a scene on a sailboat, but I know nothing about sailing so i literally just had notes like [boat part] and [how to do X thing?]. If you use square brackets as punctuation anyway, use something else like [[double square brackets]] or a unique letter combination like XY at the start of the note; the point is to pick something you can search for easily later on.

(You can also style inline comments in a different font/colour. Scrivener has an inline annotation feature; if you use Word, you can make a specific Style to make notes stand out at a glance, etc.)

bullet-point your way through any tricky parts – this can be pure stream-of-consciousness vague ideas. it only needs to make sense to me later. much more helpful than just leaving big blank gaps that Future Me has to work out how to fill, but also better than dwelling on a piece of writing forever.

use comment tools – mostly do this if I have ideas for alternate events and/or phrasing, or if I want to check something for continuity purposes.

write out of order – Best advice i ever got for academic writing is to know or even write your conclusion first and your introduction last, which your main argument in between. Similar principles apply in fiction, or any kind of creative writing. If there's a part of the essay that I can visualise clearly or a part of the story that is particularly exciting or important, I might write that first, then figure out how it fits/how everything fits around it.

keep a loose scenes and/or "outtakes" folder – anything that i write out of order goes here, along with any notes for how I think I want to incorporate it into the full text. In the same vein, if I delete something but don't know for sure it will never be relevent ever again, it gets cut and pasted into an outtakes folder.

Basic rule though is that you do not have to get your writing perfect on the first try. This is where drafts come in. The way I see it is to treat each draft as a fresh start – I create/open a new document (well, new Scrivener file) and start over as if from scratch. Each draft gets a narrower focus than the last. This is my process, as an example:

first draft is the word vomit. You do whatever you need to do to get it onto the page, and it can be terrible. In fact, it probably should be terrible. You can fix everything later. it's fine.

The second draft is a half-hearted cleanup attempt. I'll re-type everything because everything is subject to change, from the characters' personalities to the pacing to the order of events. It's all primordial goop, basically. i'm just poking and prodding and making a few adjustments, but mostly trying to create a more stable version of the first draft. All shortcut tricks continue to be my best friend.

By draft three I'll let myself copy-paste between documents if I'm particularly happy with a passage, but try not to get hung up on anything specific. I'll still make liberal use of square brackets etc. as I need to, but try to address as many from the previous draft as I can. This is where I get more brutal with making decisions and trying to fix parts of the story in place.

Draft four is usually my final draft, but there's literally no rules about how many drafts you're allowed to write. It's at this point that I try to keep square brackets etc. to a minimum (unless i've diverged significantly from the plot of a previous draft and having to rewrite large chunks), and make sure to address all the notes and problems encountered in previous drafts.

This is when I move on to revisions. Revisions are the "final do-overs", for me. I start them when I'm satisfied with all the large-scale aspects: plot and chronology; characters' personalities, motivations and arcs; large-scale pacing (so the over-arcing pace, rather than the pacing in individual scenes); backstories; and worldbuilding. I'll copy the last draft's document instead of starting with a blank one. First I run through those large scale things one more time and tweak until I'm happy, not just satisfied. Then I shrink my focus to in-scene pacing, dialogue, and the quality of the writing itself.

I'll also rewrite my plot outline between each draft, too. The act of actually re-writing stuff is very helpful for making your brain think about it.

Drafting like this isn't for everyone, but realising that you can just bullshit your way through chunks of text was a massive game-changer for me. Some people will do a draft, then work on something else, then come back and do another draft, work on something else, etc. Some people's drafting process will look more like what I consider to be revisions. Do whatever works for you. Just remember that from the moment you first decide you Want to Write a Thing to the moment you hit "post" or "publish" or give your manuscript over to a publisher, you can keep making as many changes as you like in any way you like. (And if you go the querying to traditional publishing route, you'll probably get suggestions for, and have space/time to make, changes to the manuscript quite far into the process).

[laurenkmoody]

Yes!!

I don't believe I've ever met two writers who have exactly the same process. Every writer I've spoken to about the craft of writing has their own process, usually developed over years and years of practice and trying things out.

For example, I don't rewrite at all, that sounds horrendous, I just save-as to create a new draft. I also get the big structure stuff done in outlining, but I'm a weirdo who writes 20k word outlines. As mentioned above, I am one of those people who needs space between drafts--or at least, between rough draft and first revision. And I do my first revision on paper, always. The human brain processes screens and hardcopy differently! I write all over my printed rough draft, and then go back to the doc and apply those edits and anything else that occurs to me at the time, so my draft 2 is more sort of draft 2.5??

There's a lot more, obviously, and it's different between novels and short stories (I don't print short stories unless I'm really struggling). But I'm always experimenting with different ways to write, and sometimes they work and sometimes I get stranded and have to go back to the drawing board. Some people have a lot more hand writing in the prep stages, in notebooks or on index cards--I visited someone once whose dining room walls were covered in butcher paper and index cards with pushpins!

So if you're a newbie writer, experiment! Read about a bunch of different ways to get those words down! Try new things! Put notes and placeholders and such in your drafts, write by the seat of your pants, try out the whole in-depth outline thing, revise every paragraph before moving on to the next one, whatever works!!

Also please feel free to come talk to me about it! I love hearing about how people write.