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what’s your writing process like? (how do you plan, do you outline, etc.)
also, hope you’re feeling better soon!! :] 🫶
Hi!! Great question! Okay, I have a lot of thoughts but I’ll try to keep this short and coherent lol
So I start off with a scene or dialogue and think to myself how did this character get here and why? Everything that comes to mind I type into a doc, even if it’s just a word or two. Then that evolves into writing down what I would like to see play out like character interactions, certain settings, themes I’d like to explore, conflicts, etc. Once I have enough information down, I start piecing together a story and outlining it with bullet points of major plot points. I also make a chart with character information (their personalities, backstory, connections, etc.) Only after this is set up can I finally begin to write. (The brainstorming doc can get messy and I constantly add more things to it).
Sometimes a bullet point from the main outline can span a few chapters, so I break it up into more detailed sections and assign a chapter to it. Whenever I sit down to write a new chapter I make sure that I have at least a general outline for it and rough estimate of the word count. The next step is what takes me the most time because I tend to overthink a lot and end up rewriting scenes or deleting them altogether. However, it’s also the step I enjoy the most because even adding a sentence means I’m pushing the story forward! This is when the chapter outline comes in handy because if I ever get stuck on a scene or piece of dialogue, I can just skip ahead and come back to it later. My first drafts are always full of notes I leave as I write for future me to use as a reference for an unfinished scene.
I’d like to add that I also like listening to ambience music while I work but I always end up zoning it out or shutting it off when I get in the zone lol
Then comes the editing which I also love doing because it means I’m in the home stretch! By this point, if the chapter doesn’t already have a title, I make it a goal to come up with one as I read through it (this can be inspired by a scene or theme but it has to be important to the chapter. Oh and I also like to sneak in double meanings for them). After this is done comes the tedious part of converting everything into the format Ao3 uses, but again, doing this means I’m almost done :D and all that’s left is to copy it into the Archive and type up an author’s note (which by then it could be anywhere between 1am-3am because nothing beats late night writing!!).
Hitting the “Post” button never fails to make me nervous but it’s a feeling I look forward to!