Hi there! I was wondering, and if you feel all right with it, telling how it is that you plan your fics? Do you plan out the entire plot and each chapter before hand or do you kind of just make it up as you go? How is it that you get your amazingness down and written so beautifully and coherent? Thank you for reading this ask! I hope your day is spectacular! ❤️
Thank you for your lovely words, I’m so glad things come out coherent :)
With planning, for me, it depends on the story. With each new idea I write it down when an idea pops in my head, then I go back to it when I think up random scene ideas or dialogue until I have the time to sit down and plan it. Ideas are normally either a pairing I want to tackle or a trope and then I work out the characters later.
The first part of planning is usually a really rough bullet point outline that covers the whole fic. Then I come back to it, making decisions about who’s points of view I want to use and how I want to structure the story, breaking it up into chapters. Once I have the chapters outlined, roughly, I break it into sections and expand on the outline, adding in bits and pieces until it’s ready for drafting.
There is a George R R Martin interview where he talks about writing types, he explains that some people are architects and others are gardeners. As in some plan everything, sketching out a blueprint before they begin to ‘build’ and others plant some things and watch how they grow.
I think I am somewhere in the middle. I plan things to a certain extent, creating a frame, but also giving writing enough room to breath (sorry, terribly wanky phrase), what I mean is giving yourself room to change things around a little, focus in on characters that you didn’t know you would fall in love with.
All of my fics start and end where I want, but some people move around a little in transit!
That said, I also quite like, in some instances, with shorter stories where you kind of have a very limited frame and then you just write what come up. This kind of writing is more dependent on emotional reaction, and I think some of my best stuff (or at least the stuff I react to the most) has been written this way. Though it isn’t the easiest way (at least for me) to start if you are working on something with a convoluted plot.
I hope that helps… and makes sense!
> I hope you have a fab day too! 💙