Hi Tori, 😂 I saw your post on twitter and I just wanted to ask as a younger aspiring caitvi writer how do you do it? And by it, I mean turn the words into a story? I really look up to your works and how you’re able to do them. I’ve only ever written like oneshots, not typically longish series fics but I’m trying!
I have good plot ideas but that’s all they ever amount to 😔 and I never get it done because I’m too busy overplotting. Anything would help :) I love your works! Can’t wait to create my own alongside yall!!
Hi!! Thank you for the ask, and thank you so much for reading my fics, I’m so happy you enjoy them🥰 this is such a good question and I’m absolutely going to ramble in response, but first off all you gotta remember to take everything I say with a grain of salt because everyone is different and there’s no right or wrong way to write a story, especially when it comes to fanworks!
Just for some context about me—I started writing and publishing fanfiction when I was 13, but I’ve actually been writing long form fiction since I was probably about 11. I’ve always been an avid reader and I have a very vivid imagination, so creating my own stories came naturally to me, I guess. And for me personally, the ideas are the hardest part. There are a lot of people who express the same sentiment you’ve just described—you have lots of plot ideas but can’t turn it into a story. And actually as I’m typing this… I’m wondering if maybe we actually have the same struggle, only worded differently…
Maybe it’s not all that hard to come up with or find a new fic idea. There are prompts everywhere, tons of other media to inspire us, folks who don’t want to write who share their ideas and make suggestions. But it isn’t just an idea that makes a story, right?
In my experience, the idea we’re talking about is either the main conflict of the story, or some setting or character traits/circumstances that directly inform the conflict of the story. And of course, building out the arc of that conflict, from the inciting incident through the climax and all the way to the resolution, is a very necessary part of building a story. You need the main plot, the romance plot if it’s separate, and probably at least one B plot if you’re wanting to write a longer story.
For me, I like to do as little planning of the plot as possible while still having enough that I feel fairly confident the idea will stick. I’ll give some examples and then I’ll explain why I do it this way.
You’re The Risk (I’m Gonna Take It) - very little prior plotting was done lol. Basically I had: Cait is a stripper and Vi is a criminal. Vi needs to pull off a heist against Caitlyn’s parents. They team up to pull off the heist.
The City of Dreams - this is a case where I planned a lot more than usual. I determined exactly what had happened to Mayor Heimerdinger and planned the major points of the gig, as well as where in the gig storyline Caitvi’s big moments would happen.
The Queen’s Woman - Caitlyn is Vi’s concubine because she was sent in lieu of gold as tribute from Piltover. Caitlyn is going to struggle with her autonomy due to her trauma, she understands being useful is being safe. Vi is going to fall in love with her and nurture her through her healing. Probably some kind of war will break out with Piltover.
Is It Business Casual Now? - Vi is Caitlyn’s mentor at her internship, and Caitlyn is going to crush so hard on her and they’re probably gonna end up in a secret relationship that gets exposed or something - also oh how about if Jinx is Cait’s peer!
Critical Success - Vi is joining Powder’s D&D group because she “has no friends and needs a hobby.” Caitlyn is the DM. Vi is going to have to learn D&D from her, and since she doesn’t know much, she’s probably going to make a character based on what she knows, and she will unknowingly work through some of her own trauma with that character.
There’s a lot of unknown in those summaries, and of course I usually have a handful of scenes I’m looking ahead at writing. In TQW it was Caitlyn and Vi’s confrontation after Powder’s wedding feast—except I didn’t have the wedding even in my mind at all when I imagined that conversation. In IIBCN, I didn’t know for sure when CaitVi would get together, when they would tell people, who would out them.
So… why don’t I plan those things ahead of time? Because I love to read, and I write the stories I’d want to read, and I think for me, I like to write the same way I would read something brand new to me. With a vague idea of how it goes, how it’ll end, but with so much to discover along the way.
And here’s the thing. Most writers have seen and heard the memes about how writers love to do everything BUT write. Everyone dreads sitting down and looking at the blank page.
Not me. I love to write. There’s a reason everyone’s always making fun of me for saying every other chapter is my favorite lol! I have so much fun putting the words on the page. I see the action and hear the dialogue in my mind and it spills out onto the page and in that moment I am so thrilled! It’s the story unfolding as if I were reading it, except I’m writing it!
There’s a quote from Michelangelo that, very loosely summarized, is about how he didn’t carve marble into people, he freed the people from the marble. Like he could see that they were there, and he just chipped away the excess. That’s how it feels when I’m writing a story—pieces fall into place unexpectedly.
Realistically, I think this has come from practice, because I didn’t always think that way about my writing. There are definitely times that I think something just feels right, but if I think a bit harder, I can figure out why.
That is how I personally turn those ideas into a full story, by sitting down and writing almost by the seat of my pants.
Obviously, that’s not how it is for everyone. But I think it does lend itself to one piece of advice: when you’re writing your story, look for a way to do it that you love. If it’s fun for you to write all the big scenes and then figure out how to connect them, do that. If you’re like me and almost always have to write chronologically through the story, because it thrills you as if you’re your own reader, do that! Write it as flowery as you want or don’t, focus on dialogue or internal monologue or whatever makes your heart sing when you’re putting words on the page.
And honestly, just try. It doesn’t have to be perfect right away—there’s no such thing, anyway. And the beauty of fanfic is that it doesn’t have to be flawless grammatically or even story-wise for you to share it. The more you write, the more you’ll start to learn what makes sense and how the pieces fit together. You can know it in theory but experiencing it in practice is what really makes you know it.
So, my main tip here for turning your ideas into long fics is to write them in a way that brings YOU joy and to just go for it, but my additional tips are:
Reread, reread, reread! (I could do a whole post about the benefits of constantly rereading your own writing honestly)
Pace your stories by adding not “filler” scenes but secondary and tertiary plots and storylines, and do this by fleshing out your side characters and using their experiences to also impact and expand on your main characters and their personal growth etc.
Cliche as it is, always ask the who, what, when, where, why, and how about the things happening in your plot, and determine which of those need to see the page.
Okay I’m really done now lmao! Thank you again so much for the ask, I loved working through my thoughts on this tonight and I hope it’s any amount helpful or at least encouraging haha!
wow that was a lot… you should see my drafted rambles that didn’t make the cut of this post lmfao!💀 if you made it to the end of this behemoth, know that I adore you💜
