How do I even do this writing thing?

[malenkayacherepakha]

I've got a couple of long fic ideas rattling around in my brain - one Drarry and one Hinny. They've been lurking in the background for months now, and now that I'm free of fest deadlines, they're getting noisier and it feels like the right time to start exploring them further.

I'm excited about them, and they feel like they could turn into long fics, but as a result, I have absolutely no idea where to begin with planning them or writing them. I don't really have an established writing/planning process, and I've never written a fic like these ones before or written a longish fic without a fest deadline to make me get on with it as quickly as possible, so I'm way out of my depth.

So, I thought I'd turn to the experts and ask you all, how do you go about starting a big fic idea? Do you have any top tips? I love hearing about people's writing processes and all the different tricks we use to get the words out, so feel free to tell me as much or as little as you want!

Comments

[gracerene]

I'm definitely a big outliner! I outline even my PWPs (usually just a line or a paragraph with how I see the scene going) but it's especially key for me in long!fic, though not everybody works that way! Things often do change/rearrange once I start actually writing, but before I do that, I write out a brief synopsis of every scene in the fic so that I have an idea of where things are going, the beats I need to hit in each scene, and a framework to follow along.

[malenkayacherepakha]

I like an outline, including for little ficlets, but I've not really ever gone so far as to detail each scene. I did that to a certain extent with my Erised, and it did really help keep me on track (particularly important as I was working with such a tight time frame) but I think I'll have a go at doing an expanded version of that outlining process for these fics.

Do you write in order or jump around, seeing as you have an idea of all the scenes in your fic?

[gracerene]

It depends. For the most part, I write chronologically, but if there is a particular scene that is standing out in my mind, I might just write that one first! In fact, for the second long!fic I ever wrote, the first chapter I wrote was actually the epilogue. Sometimes I'll also skip scenes or parts of scenes if I'm feeling blocked on them and it's holding up the writing. But I do generally prefer to write chronologically so that I have a good grasp of the way feelings etc. are evolving. Because I do end up adding things I'd not planned in the outline, if I skip around too much I find it's harder for me to ~feel~ where the characters are at, because I've not yet written their development, if that makes sense? But everybody is different!

[malenkayacherepakha]

I normally write in chronological order for exactly the reasons you mention - I need to do that to know how the characters are developing over the course of the fic. I do often leave gaps though if I'm getting stuck on a sentence or paragraph. In several of my fics I've written 'banter goes here' and then come back to it later when I'm feeling more able to channel my inner snarky Draco!

I might try initially writing these fics slightly out of order, as there are a few scenes that I already have in mind and getting those written might help me unlock the rest of the fic and its universe in my mind. I'm open to trying everything at this point haha, and at some point hopefully I'll land on a system that works for me.

[sdk]

I haven't written a TON of long fic, though I'd like to do more in the future. But what I've done with my longest ones is something along these lines. I write in Scrivener, and it helps to have access to multiple documents in one program window. So I create a folder for the fic idea, and then I usually have three documents for it. The first one I just write the general idea down, and pretty much in a stream of consciousness way, just write anything and everything I can think of. As I write about the idea, usually more ideas come to me for it, and I pretty much just ramble until I'm out of steam.

Then I start a second document for a more streamlined outline. It's still pretty rough -- my outlines never look like a formal outline or anything, but it's basically organizing my first document into something more coherent. Making sure I have an arc for the story and figuring out how to get to where I want to end up. It's usually broken up into scenes and I will stick bits of dialogue into the outline or any little details that come to me that I don't want to forget while I'm actually writing.

The third document is for the first/rough draft. I start writing, and refer back to the outline and general notes when I need to. Usually once I start writing, things in the outline will change. I'll get new ideas and I'll have to go rework the arc or add in scenes or move them around, etc. But I like having the separate docs to do that in. If I get a random idea while writing but I don't know where it will go, I'll stick it in the first messy doc. Any research or stuff I need to look up in canon, etc., goes in that first doc too.

I tend to write chronologically unless I know I'm going to be writing something that skips around in time. Usually I end up writing in the order that the scenes are laid out in the fic though in that case. So it's always from beginning to end.

Even for shorter fics, I usually have at least two docs. One for the messy ideas and random thoughts and snippets of dialogue etc. And then one for the actual draft. I think the only time I haven't done something like that is for drabbles and really short ficlets. But otherwise, I always use at least two docs.

I'm curious to see how you decide to approach your long fics! I do find people's writing processes fascinating and am always looking for things to try myself too.

[malenkayacherepakha]

Scrivener seems really useful for longer fics, the ability to have those multiple documents sounds really helpful. I guess there's nothing stopping me recreating similar documents in gdocs though.

For my erised I ended up creating a spreadsheet with each scene numbered, a bit of info about the vague events of that scene, and a guesstimated word count. I'd never outlined that way before but because I didn't have much time I needed to know exactly where I was going so when I had time to write I could just sit down and write, rather than faff around thinking about what the next scene would be. I might try mixing that approach with yours, I like the idea of the multiple docs. I especially think that first stream of consciousness doc might help me right now, when I just need to get started.

[pauraque]

I only write short stuff (usually under 5k), so I have no idea. :) How long do you consider long? What is it about these ideas that make them feel like they need to be longer to do them justice?

[malenkayacherepakha]

Anything over 20k is long to me, I'm envisaging these ones as being somewhere between 20 and 50k, but I find it really hard to judge fic length before I start writing. I'm certainly not planning a 100k+ epic!

One of them doesn't need to be super long - I guess the actual plot will take place over a couple of months, 6 months max, and a lot of that time doesn't need to be fully written out. The other fic feels like it could go longer, even though it has less of a formed plot in my head, just because it has the potential for some in depth character exploration and world building, which I haven't yet had the chance to do much of so I'd like to try and do it properly.

[ravenclawsquill]

How exciting! If you want any support / cheerleading / commiserating while you write, hit me up!

I'm a mid-length fic writer (my longest is just shy of 50k) but I find anything longer than 5k needs a good outline. I tend to plan the order of all scenes and put the scene titles as headers in my gdoc, then tick them off as I write. Also, a separate planning doc with worldbuilding, character bios, etc, is a godsend when you're writing a longer fic, as upwards of 50 pages tends to crash gdocs.

Oh! And keep reminding yourself that there's nothing wrong with the odd short scene to describe passage of time". I got so stuck when writing The Full Four Seasons and almost abandoned it, until one of my betas said "you don't have to make every scene meaningful - fillers are fine". It was the best piece of writing advice I've ever received.

As for incentive to write without a deadline ... I have no idea, as I'm terrible at it. My long WIP is collecting dust without a deadline. I'm hoping posting a weekly word count update on DW will help to push it along. XD

[malenkayacherepakha]

I would LOVE support/cheerleading/commiserating, and of course am always happy to do the same for you! I'm going to try and get at least a vague outline/ramble written over the next few days and then might drop you a message once I actually have something tangible! Feel free to do the same whenever.

Definitely agree that anything more than 5k needs an outline - to be honest most of my fics, even short ficlets, have some form of outline, even if that's just a 'this is where the fic starts, this is where I want it to get to'. The worldbuilding/character doc is a great idea, it's details like that which I want to get in these fics more than I have in my previous ones. I guess really I'm a mid-length writer too - these fics will be like max 50k too, which seems long to me but isn't really in fandom!

That's so true, that was a very wise beta. One of my discord servers regularly talks about writing 'glue' which refers to those kind of scenes, the transition scenes etc which aren't the most exciting but need to be written, even if they are short.

I find chatting to people about my fics can help with the no deadline thing, as then you've kind of committed to doing it in a way, and I'm also thinking of just randomly setting myself one, to at least give me something to aim for. I'm sure weekly word counts here will help, and it gives people a chance to cheer you along which is really helpful.

[magpie_fngrl]

My process is very different to most commenters or most writers really: I outline nothing. Outlines have been detrimental to me in the past, and it was through writing fanfic that I learned what my process was.

So, as a pantser or discovery writer as we're called, I have an idea, a mood, a visual, sometimes a sentence and... I start writing with no idea (or only a vague idea) of where it's all going. The crucial thing for me is to get the beginning right. I'll revise and often completely rewrite the first chapter/scene until I feel I've got it right, and once I do, I have my plot. It's all in there.

In Hush Darling, for instance, the first part gave me the character goal, the obstacles, the stakes, the antagonist and a ticking clock. All I needed to do was just keep writing. But I'd rewritten a couple of versions of that first scene until I got to the right one.

In dirtynumbangelboy, I wrote a calendar on paper, which I do with longer works to see whether it's been three days or three weeks since something happened, and I'd written a list of date ideas but not in order, I just wanted to have a pool of suggestions to draw from. In that case I had a song as inspiration and a mood and the whole fake dating trope, and I needed no other planning for 39k.

In the Miseducation, I basically wrote all 37k with no planning at all. I got the first chapter and the voice right, I came up with community service in Muggle London (that wasn't an idea I had before I started writing), and then the rest came to me as I wrote and researched more about London in that time period.

It might sound easy (it's definitely intuitive), but it does require a helluva lot of rewriting and revisions. I usually loop back every a few thousand words and reread what I've written and edit it as I go along. What always happens is that I've got half a fic written/edited/polished to death, and then the rest of it isn't even drafted lol. It used to be scary, but now I know it's part of my process, and I tell myself to trust my brain. It means that when I finish the draft, it's the final draft in terms of big changes. I then reread a million times and edit prose, flesh things out if necessary, cut redundancies (I'm a bit cutter), and check pacing.

As for plotting, when I get to the end of a scene, I ask simply: what happens next? How does the character feel now about this? What's their reaction? How can I make things worse for her?

Idk if this was at all helpful as it's a very idiosyncratic way of writing but I'd say that a final bit of advice is to spend some time before writing researching stuff. Like, for Hush Darling I researched incubus lore, I looked at paintings of Mora and Incubi, I skimmed through poems about it, I looked at kintsugi ceramics bc it was part of the fic, I read passages from fave books with the same mood I was going for (this helps a great deal!!), I listened to songs trying to find one to fit that mood etc. It sounds like a waste of time, but I've come to the realisation that it isn't (unless, of course, you use the research time to avoid writing, in which case it is procrastination).

[malenkayacherepakha]

This is SO interesting, it's so different to the processes I've heard other writers describe. It's interesting too that it's so important for that first chapter/scene to be right - it makes total sense but I'd never thought of it.

So far I've been much more of an outliner, but I'm tempted to try this technique on one of my fic ideas. One of the ideas doesn't really have a plot yet, it's more of an idea, a mood like you describe, so maybe it lends itself more to just writing and seeing where the story takes me. I still haven't yet figured out how to even get Draco into it haha so I've got stuck while outlining it! So maybe I just need to skip the outline entirely and see where he naturally pops up.