#writing chat

[latte-cucumber]

for anyone still following me from my muppets days, who are anxiously awaiting my return to wooter romance, i encourage you to

Save The Date

february 25, wooter wednesday. i will hopefully be dropping the first part of an epic that's been in the works for exactly three years. the fic features burnt out artist scooter and walter, a boy in a flowy white dress and roller skates, as they struggle to get the muppet show off the ground (and play cupid for a few couples along the way).

it's gonna be really good, cheesy and angsty and fluffy. also the amount of otps i managed to fit in here is unbelievable. so stay tuned!!

[scary-grace]

Do you have any writing tips? You're one of the best writer i know of so I was curious!

You're so kind, anon! I'm answering this ask on a day where I don't feel very good about my writing (yesterday's posting blitz was, let's just say, not indicative of good decision-making on my part) so this was really nice of you to send. As for writing tips, I feel like I have a lot of bad habits, but here are a couple of good(?):

Write in whatever medium is available to you when inspiration strikes. When I was just writing on my laptop I missed out on a lot of potential writing time. When I gave myself permission to use my phone, I got a lot more productive.

Inspiration can come from literally anywhere, but usually the question my inspiration springs from is "what if?" Get comfortable with asking that question, even if it feels silly. Sometimes the silliest stuff can spawn the most enjoyable fics to write. (example: my Lord of the Rings band AU, which is more than a million words, was spawned from the question "what if Thorin Oakenshield was the lead singer of a country band?")

Controversial tip: Write your stuff in order. People have different perspectives on this, and what works for you is the right thing to do, but this the only way I've ever successfully finished a fic. If I give myself permission to jump around, then I write the stuff I'm excited about and neglect the connective tissue of the story. Once again, this is my personal opinion. Do what works for you.

Don't be afraid to throw shit out. When I'm stuck on a scene, it's usually because something about it isn't working, not because my writing skill has suddenly evaporated. You don't always need to diagnose exactly what isn't working. It's enough to recognize it and opt to start from scratch. But throwing shit out of the fic doesn't necessarily mean getting rid of it! When I have to delete something longer than a few paragraphs, I save it in a scrap document in case I end up needing it later.

Don't get hung up on formatting! Fic length, fic structure, so on -- you really can write the length and style that you want. If it makes you happy, that's what you should do.

Grammar/punctuation/style is your best friend. I know it's lame, but it lowers the barrier to entry for people who want to read it. I've definitely navigated away from fics because of block paragraphs or incorrect punctuation and spelling. That being said....

Do not use Grammarly. Do not use any form of AI in your writing. Writing is an art form, and nothing AI produces will ever be as meaningful or important as what you come up with. It might be slower and it might be harder, but part of the fun with writing is the process! Don't outsource it to a machine.

I hope those were okay tips! In the meantime, anon, I hope you're having a good day <3

[200daysofwriting]

Today's post is going to be a little different

day 41 of 200 days of writing

I wanted to feel a little inspired before trying to start the writing process. So I got out my project Burn. If you have read my previous posts about it, you know that it is my baby, and I feel very crushed to not have touched it in so long. I just wanted to read what I last wrote on it.

Well I ended up reading it for nearly 30 minutes until I got to the end.

I'm literally crying.

I stopped on a cliffhanger.

I have no notes on this part of the book.

The main character just read a letter that upset him so much he freaked out.

I didn't write down what was in the letter.

I didn't write down what was in the letter.

I didn't write down what was in the letter.

I have no idea what was in the letter!

I don't even know what to do. It was so good. I can see every scene, every picture. No letter.

No letter.

Oh my god, I don't know what to do. I feel like it was so important, and now I've got nothing.

I'll either figure it out or come up with something else.

Let me recommend taking notes when you are writing, especially if you are going to abandon the project for nearly two years. smh

Here's a line that had me gasping

" His chest was heaving as if he had run across the entire city to arrive at her door."

I wrote that, omg

"...these raw vials of pain scattered around whichever hut they lived in, she would feel that familiar burn, that thrumming heavy heat in her chest."

"that thumming heavy heat"

omg

I love it.

Thanks for swinging by today. Can you tell that I actually slept last night?

I want to reread the whole story so far. I can't believe I gave it up, there is so much good inside of it.

I could write for the whole night, but then I definitely won't get enough sleep again.

[fiotrethewey]

Hi hi - thought it would be nice to write a life update. I don't use this tumblr as much as I would like, so lets try to do this more.

Life Update:

Loving Manchester and living with Georgia and now we've adopted a cat. (Hi Percy!) and I have some news that I can't share until next week but it's very exciting :)

Current Creative Projects:

I'm currently working with Georgia on Season Two of The Holmwood Foundation as the podcast is being released. We're so proud of what we've made so far (still can't believe we were featured in The Guardian!) and we hope you'll also want Season Two as well! I have all my fingers crossed.

I'm working on some pitches for something else, so watch this space, sadly I can't say too much as it's in very early stages.

I'm also thinking about trying prose writing again, scary as it is to me. I had a bit of a breakdown trying to write prose in 2020-2021 and i've not really recovered. I've done some recently, but would like to try again...I guess we'll see how that goes.

--

TLDR: life is good. Busy and tiring and strange but good. As a trans man in the UK right now I certainly feel like one of the lucky ones.

[infamous-if]

This is more of a writing question as I really admire your work and I’m trying to write my own IF but am kind of stuck. I’ve done a lot of the character drafting and plot drafting, but when it comes down to actually sitting down and WRITING the story (even just a small portion) I just get stuck.

So I guess my question is, is how did you start writing the actual story of Infamous? How do you get about moving the story along?

Thank you and OK! This is going to be long because I'll share my beat sheet for the first act of Infamous!

So I've talked about this very briefly, but I will never stop championing beat sheets. I get so many questions every day asking me how I write so much and so quickly, and it's because I already have a layout planned that's basically just holding my hand. I'm not a magical wizard with a writing wand (though I wish...)

This is a traditional novel system and my only background is writing traditional novels. Infamous is my first IF, and I did have to tweak how I approach writing because they're just not the same. IFs are different because they're essentially multiple novels in one. One route can look completely different to another route, but the basics at least helps you with narrative plotting.

Once you recognize the building blocks of a story, it'll become easier to write it. For example, here's the beat sheet for Hunger Games. It is known that Hunger Games follows a beat sheet beat by beat and does it very well.

I will give you my beat sheet for Infamous

MC has a dream of the final goal of the band. It's meant to mirror what the end goal of the story is supposed to be. Ruining it by wakening up is meant to hook the reader by making them realize it's not true yet. Set up the story conflict: the tour. I introduce the characters and their dynamics (orion getting angry at MC for sleeping, Rowan joking around with Orion, Iris and Devyn etc.) I foreshadow a few things and I set up the stakes of the tour and how much the band needs this. (They talk about their gigs and how they want to do more.)

The inciting incident for INFAMOUS is winning the audition and finally getting on tour. That's what incites the story! The first dilemma is getting into a fight at the party due to cheating allegations. Now the reader is aware that this isn't all sunshine and daisies. We're all just fucked, basically. j/

Well. This is pretty obvious. Having to make a choice on the bus. It helps that the tour hasn't started yet and both options deal with characters that have conflict with MC and the band (Seven and UWB) so now it's like: this decision will impact the rest of the tour, and makes it much bigger than just choosing to ride with a band every other week.

obviously this is all spoilery but your goal is basically: how do i make my MC suffer as much as i can? conflict is fun to read, it's what drives people to continue watching/reading/ investing. For IFs it goes beyond that, because people like making decisions on how to fix conflict or make it worse!

I love talking technical writing on my personal @amyreads I don't talk about it much here because it can get boring. But yeah! If you have more questions you can swing by there :)

That's all! I hope it helps a bit! <3

[amyreads]

Amy!! You’ve been writing for a long time and I’m curious to hear if there are any other genres/character types/tropes you’re interested in writing, whether it be for future projects or just for fun? Honestly I consider Seven to be, like, the pinnacle of a fictional character, beyond me just being attracted to them and a lover of an enemies to lovers romance (lmao) I think they’re so complex and well written and I would love to pick your brain about future things you’d like to write❤️

this is such an old ask sorry but I do want to write a vampire story one day! I love vampiresss I would want to do a very gritty, dark vampire story like just the ugliest parts of it all and very raw, it would still be super romantic but I think in a...non romantic way idk

maybe one day!

I also kinda want to stick to writing celebs. I think writing a story that involves celebrity culture gives you a lot of freedom to push them to their limits, everything feels 10x worse when you're doing it in the public eye

body double is still always in the back of my mind it's just so lore and plot heavy that Im unlocking a whole new literary skill I didnt have. its so different from infamous as well, I wonder how it'll be received?!!

anyway thank you so much thats so nice and thats all I want to hear so ahhh :,) im very proud of having created seven, they're definitely a character that I really love and feel protective of

im always open for you to pick my brain! I love talking writing and tropes :))

[polyabathtub]

Eetu and Gus score and I’m like “oh great game for my favorite strippers,” AU pilled by my own drafts