Feed Me Narrative

My name is Breeze and I do the stuff with the words.

Like what I write? Support my on my Ko-Fi! I post chapters and drafts there ahead of normal publication on AO3.

**Currently both my projects are NSFW, so please 18+ only.**

Here are my current projects:

Sonic Awakening

Master Post

NSFW Plot w/ Porn. Fast Paced Action Adventure Muti-POV Sonadow (w/ other characters also getting some on occasion). Not a slow burn. Everything is foreshadowing, so please take notes.

Part 1 is Rom-Com

The War with Eggman is over. The World is recovering and building back. Sonic and Shadow finally stop circling each other and do the deed one night. Now, if only Sonic could remember what actually happened that night. While he's sorting that out, his friends are trying to unravel the Doctor's latest scheme.

Part 2 is Suspense Thriller with a markedly darker tone than part 1

The Doctor's latest scheme has begun. The team scrambles to react in Sonic's absence Are they prepared for when Sonic reappears?

Thorns

Master Post

NSFW Porn w/ Plot Modern Setting Omegaverse Shadamy with alternating Amy/Shadow POV. Romantic Drama with Suspense backdrop. Political Satire/Commentary. No Magic/Chaos Energy.

Amy is a photographer and secret Omega living with her gay childhood friend, Sonic, a Beta who helps her maintain her cover and avoid becoming bound to an Alpha and losing her independence. She meets Shadow, a billionaire CEO of a pharmaceutical company (and, of course, an Alpha) with a dark/tragic past (I give you 1 guess as to who is involved with that), at a $1,000 per plate donor dinner for Rouge's mayoral campaign, for whom Amy does photography.

As requested by @radio-b, here are some tips and techniques I've utilized to develop my writing habit.

Don't Be Perfect

Writing is inherently subjective. What one person finds as amazing will seem terrible to someone else. You can't please all the people all of the time and you shouldn't even try.

You should try to please yourself. Write for yourself. Others will recognize the authenticity in your work and be attracted to it. Writing for yourself also helps keep you motivated.

Write what you want to read. I guarantee someone out there wants to read what you want to write. This may sound conceited, but I am my own favorite author. I write what I want to read and I enjoy rereading my own work. Be your own favorite author and you will always be excited to write what comes next.

Quality does exist, however, but is a mutable trait. Hard work and practice produce results. You can improve your craft, but you cannot maximize some nebulous metric. Perfect simply does not exist.

There is no destination.

There is only journey.

Read NonFiction

I read almost no fiction except other StH fanfics. I read a lot of books on science, philosophy, corporate shenanigans, and history. I'm able to learn a lot about a bunch of topics and that knowledge allows me to flesh out my worldbuilding in realistic ways.

Reading about other people gives you access to perspectives on life and events that you will not encounter yourself, which allows you to add facets to your characters that aren't a direct reflection of yourself.

Learn how other people approach the world. Learn about what motivates people. Learn how people you don't agree with justify their actions. Learn about the breadth and width of human ingenuity and passion and the depths of human misery and depravity.

The world is an amazing place and countless people are trying to share it with you via nonfiction.

Scream Into The Void

There is an audience for everything. Popular media may seem 'right' or 'good' by virtue of appealing to a large audience, but that is an illusion. Finding your audience can be tough and it might seem small, but keep in mind that not everything was made for everyone. So make a social media account for your work. Post shamelessly promoting yourself. It's your account and you can do whatever you want with it.

Try to keep in mind that your audience are real people, not just a number. 10 Kudos may seem like a small amount, but those are 10 humans that read what you wrote and enjoyed it. You have improved the day of 10 people and thats a wonderful thing.

Write Everyday

To be a writer, you've got to write. Easy to say, hard as fuck to do. My advice is to establish a habit of writing. What you write or how much doesn't matter, but doing it everyday will result in a sizeable body of work after a few years. Once you have the habit down, making something becomes easier and you can then focus on other things, like plot development or marketing.

An Excercise

Open a document and write one hundred words. Save it. Close.

Tomorrow, open the file. If you wrote 100 words yesterday, write 101 words. Otherwise write 100 words. Save it. Close it.

The following day, if you wrote 101 words yesterday, write 102 words today. If not, write 101 words today. So on and so forth.

Each day you write, increase your target for the next day by 1. Each day you don't write, decrease your target for the next day by 1. See how high you can get your number.

Depending on your writing cadence, writing 100 can take less than ten minutes and can be done nearly anywhere. On your phone. In a notebook. While you're waiting for the bus. While you're lying in bed. While your cup noodles are spinning in the microwave. While you're waiting in the lobby for your next DoTA/LoL/FortNight or whatever the fuck game to start.

The 1% increase will feel negligible, but its more a trick than anything. You will find that you easily end up writing more than 100 words and those bonus words add up. You will find that once you get started, you don't feel like stopping and 100 words turns into 500. All of these are good things.

If ever you stop for awhile, that's okay. You can always start over at 100 again. It's fine. You are establishing a habit like brushing your teeth or doing stretches.

How high can you get your streak?

Are there any other topics you'd like to see me cover?

Does anyone want some nonfiction recommendations? If so, what topic/genre?

In general, narrative writing styles tend to fall on a spectrum between two archetypes: planning and pantsing.

Planning involves a lot of forethought. Outlines are written, character bios are fleshed out, grand plots are meticulously positioned throughout the story. Pantsing (short for 'by the seat of your pants') is where you start writing and just roll with it. The 'fuck it, we'll do it live!' of writing.

There is no correct style. I'm going to repeat myself because even if you don't think you need to hear this, I can assure you, there are people who do. There is no correct style. Style is an intensely personal thing that is developed over time and can change over time. Sorry if that sounds messy and ambiguous, but thems the breaks. With many things, reality is often a smear of catagories. A spectrum, if you will.

J.K. Rowling (think what you want, but we practice Death of the Author in these parts) is a famous Planner and G.R.R Martin is a Gardener (a more polite term for pantsing).

I am a pantser. My notes are minimum, my planning exists in my head, and I don't really know what's going to happen in a chapter until I write it. I have no idea how long events will take or how long it takes to get to them. This may seem like an absurd, almost negligent, way to write the complicated stories that I do, but I assure you, that's just the case.

Fanfic lends itself well to a panting style given that it normally released periodically. However it is also a weakness because authors can write themselves into corners or lose interest or run out of ideas. There is a reason serial stories can get a bit off track over time.

Why do I do it this way?

Writing is this manner is, first, my natural cadence. It fits how I ideate stories, it fits how I write prose, it meshes with how I write dialogue and characterizations. I do it this way because it works for me.

A secondary and by no means lesser reason is that pantsing keeps my stories fresh and interesting for me. Planning too much sucks the narrative juices out of it for me, giving me that vibes high without having actually written the story. By making shit up as I go mostly, the story is just as new each week for me as it is for you. This is, perhaps, how I have avoided burnout thus far. I want to see how the story ends, just like you.

A benefit of pantsing is that I have the room to follow my instincts. I can give characters little bits of this and that on the fly. I can add small details that could be used for plot later in retroactive foreshadowing or recontextualization.

This does take a lot of trust. I have to trust my future self to put these extra bits to good use. They make the story feel real and alive now and could be wonderful call backs later. It helps provide fodder for anouther technique I use that I'll write about more at a later date: Don't make something new whan something old will do.

My method takes an immense level of mental investment. Most of my story have a long list of payoffs, call backs, references, and character tidbits are all in my memory. I forget things. I misremember things. Still, I'm able to hold it together. I understand that this isn't a viable option for everyone, but its how I do it. And how I'll do it until it royally punches me in the teeth.

So, how about you?

Which kind of writer are you?

Why do you write that way?

As an exercise, try the other side of the spectrum for a bit. See how it feels and if you find some new way to move forward.

Shadow tries to avoid thinking about Amy. (He fails.)

Amy gets taken out for lunch.

Read it HERE!

As requested by @wildlycharmed, I'll talk a little about my approach to character dialogue in my fiction.

To me, dialogue is a key aspect of characterization. Dialogue can convey a character's inner world without having to spell it out. It can indicate their intelligence level or their history. Further, it can be used to indicate a character's relationship with who they are talking with. A character might speak freely with their friends and formally with their boss, for instance.

For example, in my fic Thorns, Shadow's general cadence leans more formal to reflect a more educated background as well as an upper class upbringing. He also curses a lot.

In contrast, Amy, with her vaguely mid-western upper-lower class blue collar upbringing, coupled with her whole Omega situation, has her speaking with less confidence, informally, and with a simpler vocabulary. And considerably less cursing.

Dialogue is more than just a means to present exposition. Its a medium for you to get goofy as well. Characters telling lame jokes or mispronouncing words can be little details that endear readers even though they don't progress the story.

Here is a non-exhaustive list of things to keep in mind when designing a character's speech patterns-

How does their speech change when they are flustered? Angry? Sad?

Do they use polysyllabic words or simple ones?

What type of filler words will they use?

Where are they from? Are there regional dialects you can pull from to indicate they are from somewhere else?

Does the character know multiple languages? How does that effect how they speak in their non-native tongue?

Everyone speaks differently. You know your dialogue is hitting well when a character can be identified by their dialogue. If all your characters speak with the same length of sentence, the same syntax, the same vocabulary, then you've got some work to do.

An Excercise

If you wish to develop your dialogue writing skills, here is an exercise that might help.

Pick 2 Videos

One video needs to be of someone speaking impromptu. This can be someone being candidly filmed or interviewed. Anything where a person is speaking naturally.

One video needs to be of someone speaking in a scripted manner. A political speech, a scene from a movie. Something where the person speaking has had a chance to rehearse what they are saying.

2. Turn the videos into prose.

For each video, write down word for word what is said and how it is said. Make sure you capture every 'uh', 'um', 'you know', 'like', or other filler word the person uses. Intersperse the dialogue with detailed descriptions of what the person is doing. How are they moving their hands? Where are they looking?

Think of this like a novelization of a movie, but your job is to capture the visual and verbal scene as closely as possible. The process is tedious and may seem stupid, but it'll give you a sense of how people actually talk and help you pay attention to the visual elements of verbal communication.

If you happen to take me up on my homework assignment, please share your results!

I hope this helps and please keep suggesting new topics!

Until next time,

One of my interests is exploring the craft of writing. How do others construct a narrative, what techniques they use, how they physically perform the task. To that end, I think of my own craft a lot and wanted to share some of it.

Part 1 : Drafting and Editing Cadence

I normally start drafting a chapter after the last one is complete, which, given that I post almost immediately, means I'm just starting to write on the same day the previous chapter posts.

My drafting cadence is about 600 words per hour and generally, on a good day, I produce about 700 to 2,200 words. If you take a chapter and divide the word count by 600, that's roughly the number of hours it took to draft. This is assuming an average amount of research time. Some chapters with more specific details or technical content will take longer because I read up on topics I'm not familiar with.

Though I write chapters one after another in sequence, I don't draft linearly. I'll often write the opening and ending paragraphs of a chapter first so I know the conditions of where I start and where I mean to end. After that it's a free for all as I write bits and pieces of main beats or bits of dialogue and then slowly connect these as the drafting continues. This means that my wpm decreases the closer to done a chapter becomes.

I edit in two passes. First is a 'fluff' pass. This involves things like adjusting pacing, tweaking dialogue tone, and adding actions to dialogue sequences. Lots of repetitive uses of words gets caught and removed in this stage and a lot of internal monologue for the chapter gets written now as well. Word count generally increases between 10% and 25% with this pass depending on the action level of a chapter.

Second path involves listening to the chapter with the god awful robotic text to speech voices available. I try to avoid having GenAI touch my work, so I'm using the tech from like the 90s. Anyway, it's not supposed to be pleasant, it's supposed to catch typos that I generally gloss over when reading as well as highlight things like homophone errors.

All in all, editing a chapter takes about half the time it took to write.

Longer chapters take more time and its not a linear relationship. A 6,000 chapter takes closer to 3x the time as a 3,000 chapter to write and edit than 2x. For this reason, I try to avoid chapters above 5,000 words and will often split a chapter into two if it's looking to be north of 7,000.

I have written a number of 10k chapters, but those are beasts to edit and I try to avoid them. So if a chapter break feels a little contrived, a splitting by be the reason.

I hope to add to this series, but let me know if there are any specific topics you'd like to hear my thoughts on.

Thorns Chapter 51 comes out on July 10th!

Can't wait? Check out my other fics!

The sword does not ask why.

Read it HERE!

Chapter 23 : Tool

And now for something completely different.

After 4,000 years...

Chapter 40 : Ozone

S91 is decanted.

Shadow prepares.

Read it HERE!

It's been awhile, but I never abandoned this fic.

What's Shadow up to?

Read it HERE!

Shoot! Please forgive me for forgetting this in my inbox for months!

Favorite part to write...gosh that's a tricky question. I'm going to cheat and give a couple answers.

For an emotional scene, Ch 22 : BlackBox is probably some of my best work, but it also nearly did me in with all the formatting I inflicted on myself. Second place would be Ch 36 : The Darkness of Eternity with all his platonic Shadamy flower slaughter.

For a romantic scene, Ch 12 : Scope Creep, though it is the first smutt scene I ever wrote, still holds a place in my heart for how nuts it was. I was very nervous posting it. Since then, I'd say I'm pretty proud of the Knuxouge reunion in Ch 33.

For action scene, its pretty hard to pick between Ch 20, 21, or 23, but 21 probably takes the prize. I am hoping to one up myself with the Part 2 Finale (WHICH IS COMING!).

Okay, okay, okay! I will pick an actual singular favorite part: any Sonic POV, but specifically Chp 27 : All These Frowns...yes, I am aware of how little Sonic is actually in this fic. I promise that will change.

Thank you for your question!

Top of my list right now would be the moment Amy and Shadow kiss in Chp 42 of Thorns with the fireworks going off overhead. It's cheesy as hell and I love it.

Second would probably be a tie between Shadow kicking Werehog Sonic's shit in while Amy watched in Chp 12 of Picky Eater or Knuckles and Rouge fighting Eclipse in the cave in Chp 32 of Awakening.

Thanks for your question!

Chapter 50 : Foxtail Milieu

Shadow has too much on his plate.

Maybe Amy'll catch a break? Who knows? Stranger things have happened.

Read it HERE!