The past two years Iâve been writing a lot of fics, and come a long way in understanding what makes work really punchy. I donât know if this would be helpful to anyone else, but these are the (sometimes painfully obvious) things Iâve been trying to keep in mind as I write Witch Hat fics.
Mention the seasons/weather. Because environments are already visually depicted in the manga, I have a tendency to not describe settings in-depth, and this extends to the weather/temperature/time of day. The atelier is in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by the outdoors, so it feels like a missed opportunity not to embrace this element of the narrative, and I often go back and intentionally include these details.
Relatedly, include sensory input from things other than vision. Whatâs the fabric feel like? How does the market smell? What do brushbugs sound like when theyâre eating ink? Does your stomach drop when you descend with sylphshoes?
Try not to head hop. Changing perspectives between characters is fun and I do it all the time from chapter to chapter, but there was a time when I would shift back and forth between paragraphs, and looking back it creates confusion and friction for the reader. When in doubt, stick to only one character.
Vary the length of sentences and the way they begin. Try not to start everything with âshe went to the windowâ, or âQifrey bent to gather the broken cupâ. This kind of sentence structure feels more akin to stage direction, describing movements instead of the interiority of the character. What are characters thinking and feeling as they move through the world? âWhen he took a pull from the bottle, the wine spread over his tongue, tart and jarring, but it was a definite improvement over the taste of his own blood.â 'Filter words' that describe action are necessary and good, but Iâm trying to get better at breaking up their use up a bit. It's worth a minute to read up on filter words; guaranteed it will make your prose stronger.
Keeping in-character is more important than anything else (for me!). Mannerisms, patterns of speech, moods â if itâs not in the original, you can definitely extrapolate based on whatâs known about the character, but donât stretch it too far or your risk snapping immersion. Unless you want to snap immersion, and then go buck wild.
If a character isnât shown cursing be very thoughtful when you do make them swear. Nothing says you canât, but be strategic. I work back of house in a kitchen and BOH swears constantly - itâs sick actually - but I rarely like to include it in fics because it might feel needlessly harsh depending on the context or character.
Go back at the end and do a pass for pet words. These are words you find yourself repeating and falling back on too often, and my work is full of them. (Iâm sorry, itâs bad.) You can only cull so many, but do a search if you suspect thereâs a word thatâs showing up too often.
All of this is what I think about, but if you look at one of these points and think itâs bullshit, thatâs cool, man, write whatever works. Thank you for writing, I love all of it. xoxox Forgive me if I get self-conscious and delete this in half an hour.
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