Aviyah

I’ve been working overtime through this pandemic as well, and first of all *hugs* ❤ I hope you’re getting some time to rest. 

As for what I do in situations where I want to write and have no time? I write one shots. Short fics of 1500 words or less. Sometimes they’re a single scene. Sometimes it’s a few tiny scenes strung together. 

I have one fic that 973 words and marked as complete that could easily be a 75-100K multichap with a main plot and 2 or 3 subplots. But I didn’t have time to write that big idea, so I wrote the little one instead. If I have the time and inspiration someday, I can go back and build it out but for now I’ve got enough of it written down that someone can read it and feel like it’s finished - and that I can go back and read it and pick that idea up and dust it off again. 

When I get an idea for a fic, there’s very often one or two scenes out of the whole story that draw me in more than the rest. When I don’t have time, I just write those scenes without trying or expecting to write the rest. 

I mean, I will just keep writing and writing until I reached a certain amount of words without re-read it until I'm done.

Taking time to think about why this is happening. Do you dislike your stories/discard them because you find the writing bland? Do you feel like you’re just stuck writing the parts you don’t care about and you never get to the good stuff? Does it seem like it’s never as good on paper as it was in your head? Or something else? There’s tons of tools and advice out there, so actually figuring out what the problem is can help to pick out the solution.

Like the person above me, I also write out of order and use placeholder text to fill in later.

When you’re ready to start on a story, take some time to think about why you want to write it, and jot some notes down about that. Is there a scene you envisioned that got you really excited? Is there an aspect to the ship you want to explore? And so on. These notes shouldn’t be really long, and they’re not supposed to be a generic questionnaire (that is, the stuff in your notes may look different for every story); their purpose is to give you a goal, and to help you envision what the end result will be. As you’re writing and editing, you can look back at these notes and see if what you have aligns with them. Instead of discarding a whole story, you only need to delete some parts, and update others.

Seriously, don’t sweat the beginning. Some people feel that they need to info dump all the lore/background details at the start, and some others feel pressured to make the beginning amazing (I know I was taught in school that people are supposed to work on the “hook”...). But when it comes to giving the reader enough info, there’s some techniques you can use to help with that: culling down the info you’re giving only to what’s necessary; “show don’t tell”; spreading out the exposition (ie, if the info isn’t immediately necessary, you can explain it later on); etc. And when it comes to the hook, just remember that you’re writing fanfic--people are already excited to read your story the moment they click on it, since they know it’s going to be about a source material/characters/ship/etc they already like. Personally, I don’t take as much time on the beginning myself; just have enough details to set up the first scene, and then it can immediately start flowing into the dialogue/events that I want to get into.

Gaining some degree of persistence/giving yourself more time. If I get tired or mentally overwhelmed by a piece, then it’s probably a good time to take a break from it for at least a few days. Whatever it is that seems awful about the work won’t be so bad after I’ve had a break. 

Byakuya and Izuru, uh, headcanons

Makoto wasn’t sure which one he wanted to win.

“That’s utterly ridiculous. Nobody knows my corporation as I do. You may have some facsimile of a business talent, but there’s absolutely no way you could impersonate the true Ultimate Affluent Progeny.” Byakuya Togami composed his snarl back into his usual sneer and adjusted his glasses. “As others have found before you,” he added pointedly.

“Why do you insist on phrasing things as challenges?” asked Izuru, barely bothering to raise his tone into that of a question. “You must be aware that I shall exceed your capabilities easily.”

That was how it started; with Makoto gripping the edge of his seat and swinging his legs anxiously, while two hot-- that is, two highly capable friend guys who were his friends lounged on corporate leather and taunted each other.  Byakuya had got suuuuper mad, terms had been set, a limit of four weeks had been named, and Izuru... Izuru was the head of the Togami Corporation.

Makoto had mixed feelings about this whole thing.

The first week had brought little news that Makoto, at least, had found out about. “Messing around with the small change?” remarked Byakuya, eyebrow raised to refined altitudes, dabbing his lips with a monogrammed napkin. “Human resources. Honestly. Fouling up employment contracts. Hiring a bunch of minority, misfit drains on society. I expected grander scope.”

“Whereas I expected your limited intellect to fail to grasp my strategy, and was proven correct,” said Izuru, who hadn’t touched his scone.

Makoto bit his lip, but Byakuya kept his temper this time. “You’ll lose,” he said with unshakable confidence.

“I shall win,” said Izuru.

The second week, the media got involved.

“The Togami Corporation blazes yet another trail by making both maternity and paternity leave mandatory and guaranteeing no repercussions on employees’ careers. Meanwhile, a new in-house childcare trial is reporting marked success.” Byakuya was holding the computer tablet between finger and thumb as if the news articles might smear his immaculately pressed dark suit. “How you think this will help you win on profits is inconceivable to me.”

“As, I imagine, are many things,” said Izuru, tapping away at his virtual dog game.

“Ugh. Togami Corporation invests heavily in renewable energy, set to be 100% green by next year. This is how you’re spending my money?”

“Don’t gamble if you’re too proletarian to afford the stakes.”

“I’ll show you stakes, you profligate lab-grown vampire--”

“Byakuya!” squeaked Makoto.

“...you will lose.”

“I shall win,” said Izuru gravely.

After the third week, Byakuya didn’t turn up.

“What’ve you been doing, Izuru? He won’t answer my calls.”

“I have simply been buying and restructuring a few firms.”

“What, like whole companies?”

“And making one or two overtures to politicians with regard to--oh, boring little things. Raising the minimum wage, shortening legally permissible work hours, decreasing urban air pollution, increasing public mental healthcare access. Trifles, really. Nothing that should offend him.”

“A...are you sure all this will really make you earn more profits than him? By paying people more and stuff?“

“I know what I’m doing,” said Izuru, and ruffled his hair. Makoto mussed it up again with both hands and stuck out his tongue.

After the fourth week, Byakuya sailed into the lounge, teeth gritted but eyes blazing with triumph, and Makoto realised that maybe he had been kind of hoping Izuru would win after all. It would have been nice if doing good in the world would turn out to be the best strategy.

But the truth was, under Izuru Kamukura, the company had haemhorraged money.

Izuru bowed humbly to the victor. “It seems I had much to learn about being an Ultimate Affluent Progeny after all,” he said. “I lose.”

Byakuya snatched back his company ID with a little shudder of horripilated relief. “You certainly did,” he said. “And now I have your childish utopian crayon-scribble to clean up.”

“Clean up?” echoed Izuru neutrally.

“Yes. Just untangling all your ridiculous employee alterations is going to be a nightmare. And, frankly, for letting a pack of donkey-work plebs’ toddlers dip their sticky hands in my lobby fountain alone, I should have you assassinated.”

“I do seem to have let matters get out of control,” said Izuru.

“I can’t believe those disastrous reforms are going to pass. And all these horrendous, tacky ethical business awards you’ve accumulated! I’ve never seen so many miniature brass-plated trees! Do you know how hard it’s going to be to walk back all your meddling?”

“Rather difficult, I imagine, especially once the news media catch wind,” said Izuru.

“The only silver lining in this entire cloud of socialist, forced-diversity, politically-correct kale fumes is that you didn’t win.”

“Indeed.”

“You... didn’t...” Byakuya slowly turned his head to face Izuru. Light glinted off his glasses. “...even... try? You weren’t trying to beat me, were you. This wasn’t about profits.”

“I can’t imagine why you would think that,” said Izuru blandly.

Byakuya had turned so beet red that Makoto uneasily sidled into the space between them. “You...” said Byakuya, “you...”

Makoto cautiously removed a hand from one of his ears and looked up.

To see the unthinkable.

Byakuya Togami bowed to his opponent.

“Well played, Kamukura. Now never set foot in my company offices again. Come, Makoto. I... must take stock of things.”

... yeah, about as wholesome as it gets for him. XD Well played, Izuru.

"What's the problem?" asked Makoto, with a serious frown that ended up looking adorable.

Izuru turned and pointed at the sleeping Nagito. "That is the most beautiful boy in the universe," he said.

"Haha, yeah," said Makoto. "Maybe not the whole universe, I haven't seen it all yet, but the most beautiful one I know. Is that the problem?"

"Part of." Izuru faced him again. "Now you are the most beautiful boy in the universe."

Makoto squeaked. Blood rushed to his cheeks and started holding a party there.

Izuru looked back at Nagito. "He." Back at Makoto. "Now you. He. You. You see the problem. I'd suspect some kind of quantum observer effect at work, but..."

A giggle trickled out between Makoto's fingers. "Don't you think this may be a little tiny bit... subjective?"

"No." Izuru looked expressionlessly stubborn. "You are provably, factually, mathematically the most beautiful boy. But..." He sighed and turned his head. "Somehow, so is he."

"Okay. Wait a moment. I'm gonna try something."

Makoto slipped off his heelies and clambered over Nagito, shifting cushions, then wriggled until they formed a comfortable chimera of luck twink.

"How's this?"

Izuru appeared frozen for a moment. Makoto, looking up in alarm, tried to imagine explaining to Nagito how he'd broken their boyfriend.

Then Izuru said "That is... perfect..." Further silence, then: "Multiplicative, not additive... extraordinary... requires intensive study..."

This week on : Why won’t Komaeda-senpai look me in the eyes anymore?

–

Hello, fellow Komaegi shippers! We’ve got exciting news for you: Komaegi Week 2020 is coming soon! 

You may start working on your submissions now, and we’ll accept them starting the week of 2 Feb. Your submissions may be in any format (drawing, writing, cosplay, music, etc), and hosted on any site you’d like (it doesn’t need to be tumblr). For each day of the week, you can use one of (or even both!) the prompts that correspond with it. 

Also, real quick before we reveal the prompt list–if you’re interested, we have a Discord server dedicated to komaegi! You can find the link for it at the top of this blog.

Here are the prompts: 

Sun, 2 Feb:

Cooking -or- Magic

Mon, 3 Feb:

Animals -or- Music

Tue, 4 Feb:

The Stars -or- Electricity

Wed, 5 Feb:

Makoto’s Birthday -or- First

Thu, 6 Feb:

Garden -or- Sweet

Fri, 7 Feb:

The Sea -or- Soft

Sat, 8 Feb:

Flight -or- Healing

I’m not the best writer in the world, and I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about this sort of aspect of writing, so I’ll give you my own personal answers and hope that others in the blog can give you other takes on them. 

A) When I have the time and energy to write but I don’t have inspiration, I either don’t write or I write something utterly meaningless and self-indulgent and I don’t worry about themes or directions at all. Also, these days I mostly write with a partner, so she’s often able to think of a plot when I can’t and when someone else is doing half of the work, it all just gets a lot easier. 

B) If I do have a direction that I’m headed in, it’s more likely to be an end-point for my plot than it is to be a theme. For me, themes are the colour palettes I use in a room while plot is the walls and floor and ceiling. If that makes sense? My plot points are what keeps me going and the themes are the way I go about writing those plot points - the focus I give them or the perspective I use, etc. I keep myself on target by remembering where it is that I want the story to end up. How I get there can stray away from my original plan, but the destination is (usually) going to stay the same. 

C) Again, since my direction is based on plot, the themes are something that I might tie to different characters or different plot lines. For example, if I’m exploring the theme of “stranger in a strange land” then I’ll have a character who is new to a world and is learning how to exist in it. In the end, they’ll either stay or leave, depending on the plot I’ve decided on. Your plot and theme will work together, but for me they aren’t the same thing. 

0.) Before I address points A - C, there are a few important things I’d like to make note of.

First, while many reputable authors and school will say that theme and direction is essential for a good story, I’d say that I don’t entirely buy that. Personally, I prefer stories that are more focused and have a clear direction, but there’s tons of readers and writers out there who like the more “aimless” stuff. While theme/direction tend to be very reliable tools in storytelling, I’d honestly say that if you made a thing and liked that you made it, and if your thing connected in some way with at least one other person, then your story is successful.

I feel the need to point this out because I’ve seen a lot of artists/writers get frustrated with working in their medium because they become laser-focused on doing things the “right” way, to the point where they stop enjoying it. So, anon, if you’re asking this because working around a theme/direction sounds appealing to you, or even if you’re just trying it out to see how it’s like, then that’s good. But if worrying about this stuff is causing too much stress for no payoff, then you’re better off not forcing yourself to deal with it. (And remember that you can always try this stuff again later even if it’s not working for you now!)

Now, before I move on to addressing the specific points anon laid out, I’d like to make a more technical note here: the concept of “theme” kind of has a vague meaning in writing, and I think there are a lot of different ways to interpret exactly what anon is getting at here. For the purpose of this post, though, I’m going to use the word “theme” to mean, “the general concept/idea/emotion/etc that my story is going to represent or address”. 

A.) When you have time and energy to write but not inspiration, how do you find [a theme/direction]? For me, I’m never in a situation where I have time/energy specifically for writing, but no ideas to write. During times where I have no writing ideas, I just don’t write-- there’s plenty of other things I enjoy doing. So, maybe my advice for this part won’t fit with anon very well... but my advice would be to find your inspiration first. 

For me, at least, my inspiration and theme/direction are too closely tied together for me to separate. Additionally, my inspiration/theme/direction are the backbone for anything I write; so if I’m missing that first part, a story just isn’t going to happen. XD

Luckily, there’s ways to spark some inspiration if you don’t already have some. Writing challenges (eg, “write about X in 500 words or less”), prompt lists, prompt/plot/idea random generators, asking friends for ideas, joining a community for your ship/fandom, doing a fandom/ship week thing, are all ways to find that inspiration. I’m sure there’s others I didn’t think of, too.

B.) How do you not accidentally stray away from [your story’s theme/direction]? The real trick for this part is editing. None of my first drafts keep every scene and paragraph within my theme/direction, but editing will make sure to keep everything in line. 

When I go back and review/edit my stuff, I keep in mind the core scenes, feelings, and ideas of my story (all that stuff would be my theme/direction in this case). Any part that I read which distracts, waters it down, contradicts, or just generally seems out of place, will get edited or deleted.

While I keep my theme/direction in my head the whole way through, I know a lot of other people do things to capture their theme/direction outside of their mind. The popular things I’ve seen were making playlists, mood boards, or even just writing down a few sentences/a story summary.

C.) When a story has several apparent themes in it, how do you identify the real core/direction of the story? Sadly, a full explanation to this question would be a very long post on its own. XD Here’s my short answer:

This is something you can only really achieve through practice. Just start analyzing every story you care to analyze (and it doesn’t have to be in written form-- you can analyze movies, video games, etc). Start by asking yourself what you think the core/direction of the story is-- at this point, your answer is going to be your gut feeling. Next, go back to the story itself (and learn more about the author(s) and what the world was like for them when they wrote it) and find what you can to support your answer. Also, find what you can that contradicts your answer. 

If there’s enough support for your answer, then... well, stories are subjective, so I can’t really say that you got it right. XD But if you find there’s solid evidence for your answer and no glaring contradictions, then at least you found one of the right answers! On the other hand, if there doesn’t seem to be strong support for your answer, then try thinking of a new answer and then repeating the process for it.

Izuru: …crowds… humans…

Izuru: *pulls out phone*

Phone wallpaper:

Izuru: *deep breath*

If he just sort of scraped the burnt parts off, and ignored the raw side, it was an adequate piece of toast.

Well, he wasn't hungry anyway.

Nagito glanced across the hotel restaurant to where the wonderful Hajime and Chiaki were deep in conversation--video game related, judging by Chiaki's almost animated body language--and wondered if he could get to the staircase without anyone noticing and talking to him.

The wonderful Nekomaru yelled. Something--maybe the wonderful Gundham's hamster, assuming it wasn't a bread roll--was on the back of his neck gnawing at his chain necklace. Perfect diversion. Nagito brushed burned crumbs off his lap, left his scraped but otherwise untouched toast, and began to sidle towards the--

--bush.

It was a very large bush, half again Nagito's height, generously studded with tropical flowers, and it was coming upstairs. For a split second he wondered if his brain had finally given up and cast him in some kind of equatorial Macbeth. Then the bush was put down with a thud and he realised with a little relief that someone has been carrying it. Wait, though; there'd also been someone carrying the trees in Macbeth, so his sanity wasn't assured yet.

The mysterious (but no less wonderful) Izuru Kamukura strode around the bush, fixated immediately on him, and loudly demanded "Nagito Komaeda! Accept my dibs!"

Right, so it was his brain dying. Well, that was good to know.

Izuru was motionless. Waiting. Nagito glanced aside. And of course the other wonderful Ultimates were looking.

"The fuck's he mean, dibs?" asked someone Nagito couldn't see.

"Will you accept my declaration of dibs?" Izuru asked. Nagito's attention snapped back to him. Still staring at Nagito, unblinking.

"I'm afraid I'm not very fluent in social niceties," Nagito said carefully (and honestly), "and so I must, with humble apologies, ask you what dibs are."

The wonderful Izuru snapped into a different sort of stance--was this Ultimate Teacher in action? Oh, what an honour--and began firing off sentences briskly. "When male or masculine-aligned humans find themselves among several potential romantic interests, in order to reduce the chances of fighting, they must declare their intention to begin courting a chosen person so that the other suitors will know to keep their distance. This is known as declaring dibs and is part of an unwritten social contract known as Bro Code, which also codifies when one's friends must be prioritised over one's romantic partner for reasons I have not yet grasped, but will utilise Ultimate Anthropologist to master as soon as possible so that I will be an acceptable mate for you, Nagito Komaeda. Will you accept my declaration of dibs? I have brought the requisite flowers; your eating habits to date suggest that you would not favour chocolates, but if you have a preferred type, I shall utilise Ultimate Confectioner to make many of them for you forthwith."

"Um," said Nagito.

"Freak of the week," muttered the wonderful Hiyoko.

"Bro... code..." repeated the wonderful Mahiru, who then turned and frowned at the rest of the boys.

"He... wasn't supposed..." said the wonderful, but guilty-looking, Kazuichi.

"Kazuichi," said Mahiru savagely, "what have you been telling this poor gullible--"

"Ah, Kazuichi," said Izuru, finally looking at something other than Nagito's unworthy and extremely red face. "Has the Princess accepted your dibs yet? Nagito has not yet given an answer to mine. Am I doing something wrong, do you think?"

"Izuru, uh." Nagito found the disgusting audacity to approach him more closely so that he didn't have to speak for their audience. "If this is... what I think... then you m-must have the wrong person. Nobody would ever, um... call dibs, as you put it... on a guy like me."

"Why?" asked Izuru, for a brief moment reminding Nagito of a bright, trusting, inconveniently inquisitive child.

"I'm... not dibs material."

"Incorrect. You are the best quality boy."

"No I'm... in what way could you possibly think that?"

Izuru, completely ignoring the fierce scolding taking place across the room, produced his wonderful, strong fingers and swiftly counted off his points. "You are the most intelligent. You are the prettiest. You have the most pleasant voice. You are calming to be around. The fact that nobody else has noticed these things, I must put down to my Ultimate Luck as well as their stupidity. You have a soothing laugh. You are observant. Your eyes are the best colour. Your hair seems to be the best texture. You have the most attractive button nose. Your lips form the best curves. You read the most. You... are unwell?"

"No... not unwell..." said Nagito through his hands, which were covering his face in a rather unsuccessful attempt to turn invisible.

"I am not what you desire in a romantic partner, then," said Izuru.

"No! That's wr... I mean..." Nagito peeked between his fingers at the man of his desperately inappropriate dreams. He licked the sandpaper that had appeared where he was sure he'd had lips. He tried not to look at the rest of the class.

"I just think," he said, "that dating... um... dibsing me would be bad for your status. The Ultimate of Ultimates, the one true Hope, deserves someone incredibly special, someone who won't be an embarrassment, won't make everyone else stare and laugh..."

"Am I supposed to care what other people think of my choice of dibs?" Izuru looked, well, baffled, if Nagito had to guess.

"No, Izuru, you're not," someone said firmly. Chiaki--the wonderful Chiaki, followed by the equally wonderful Hajime--edged her way around the huge tropical bush. She put her hands on Izuru's shoulders. "I may not be very good at these kinds of games either, but I know this much. Who you want to date is between you and your date. If you want to choose Nagito's route, and he wants you to, then you shouldn't let anyone else tell you what to do."

"But you're not going to pull up every plant on the island to give him, or anything, right?" said Hajime.

"Only if Nagito wishes it done," Izuru said, unnervingly convincing.

Hajime chose to sweat in silence.

"If... I accept your confess... um, your dibs..." Nagito couldn't believe he had the gall to be entertaining the idea.

"Yes?" said Izuru. Was he vibrating slightly? Certainly Nagito, in all his days of covert watching, had never seen his wonderful eyes this alive over anything.

"...what were you expecting that to, uh, involve?"

Izuru looked down and to the side. "Well, if you wanted to... cuddle? Perhaps read books together? Kazuichi did not go into detail, but I understand business negotiations are involved."

"Business negotiations?"

"He expressed his belief that he would soon 'close the deal' with Princess Sonia."

Nagito choked.

"Did he indeed," said Chiaki.

Hajime blinked in confusion, then his mouth dropped open, just as Chiaki grabbed his arm and started towing him back towards the other group.

"So," said Izuru more quietly, "would you consider accept--"

"Yes," said Nagito.

Izuru brightened subtly. "Yes?"

"For what it's worth, and though I hardly think it's necessary for you to warn off any other, haha, nonexistent potential suitors... yes, Izuru. You can consider yourself to have exclusive dibs on me."

Edit. 

Seriously, editing is your best friend. When you’re in the middle of getting something down on paper, stopping to censor yourself or to correct your spelling or to look up that word that means thing but without adjective because different adjective. All of that will distract you from getting the scene written. 

After you’ve gotten it all down, that’s when you can go back in and see what really needs to be there. Details are extraneous? Cut them. Other details need more attention drawn to them, bump them up a bit. 

At some point after I write the first draft for something, I take a break from that story for at least a few days, or however long I need to clean all the details of the story out of my mind. Then I reread it all the way, and try to maintain the perspective of the reader while I do it. When I do that part, all of the over explained bits (as well as everything else I could do better) will just pop out at me, so obvious. XD

A white ellipsis pulses across the middle of the computer screen like fingers drumming against a desk, one after the other. In Nagito’s case, more like the fingers on his original hand, because the ring and pinky fingers on his prosthetic left hand always passively follow the rest of his fingers. While he waits, sitting at his desk, he can’t hear anyone or anything beyond his cabin walls other than the purr of the ocean.

It’s peaceful.

The flashing dots on the screen vanish with a plop and a face appears in the virtual window. At first, it’s slightly pixelated, just for a few seconds, but even before it sharpens, Nagito already knows who it is he stares at.

“Good evening, Naegi-kun,” chirps Nagito.

Makoto pushes out a small smile. His bedroom provides a plain, off-white backdrop, with a collage of blurred faces on the wall some distance behind him. A line of tinsel hangs over the photos. Green.

Nagito focuses on just Makoto, though.

“Good evening,” Makoto says back, just as politely.

A wider grin spreads across Nagito’s face. He slouches forward, propping his chin on his prosthetic hand. His other hand offers a quick, friendly wave.

When I was having my most fun writing, I just felt excited all the time. Like, I’d think about the story during my commute and I’d be too full of excitement to sleep. I was basically the proverbial kid at Christmas, overflowing with anticipation. I found myself writing and posting daily, sometimes multiple times per day, and every time I did I couldn’t wait to see if my readers were having as much fun with the story as I was. My whole mind and body just lit up with energy whenever I thought about that story. It was like a constant adrenaline rush and it literally put a smile on my face. 

Considering the rest of my life was pretty shit at the time, it was an amazing experience.

In the moment, sometimes I’m full of excitement to get the words on the page, but I feel drained and numb to what I wrote. I leave it behind once it’s done. I wish I could keep up the enthusiasm for what I wrote or the motivation to edit what I’ve done, but I don’t. It’s like I just need to dump out the ideas and once they’re gone, my mind is already on the next one. 

First, I’ll talk about how writing feels like for me, and then I’ll give my advice on what worked for me.

How I Feel About Writing…

Honestly, for me… Writing feels like a chore. I wish I could change my outlook on it, but of course, it’s much easier said than done, right?

It’s an outlook that makes me feel out of place among writers/artists–and is also just kinda depressing to read about–which is why I was hesitant to say anything. I see a lot of other writers talk about the joy and inspiration they feel from writing (or at least, from certain parts of the writing process), but for me, there’s no part of the process that feels like that.

For me, I start off with an idea that makes me really happy/excited to think about. Then, at the very end, I feel happy and satisfied when I see that I’ve posted a complete piece, and when I see that other people have looked at it. But all the stuff that happens between those two points? Outlining, writing the scenes I enjoyed thinking about, filling in the scenes that aren’t as exciting but necessary for story structure, completing a rough draft, editing, exporting to AO3 and making sure it looks good, setting up the tags/info on AO3, all that stuff… It’s a chore.

Unlike what OP and the person above me said, I don’t write because I feel the need to get the ideas out of my head. Of course, I also don’t write because I get intrinsic enjoyment from it. The reason I write is… I enjoy the satisfaction of completing something difficult, of creating something out of my own ideas and tastes, of contributing to the ship/fandom… And of course, I enjoy getting likes and comments and talking to my readers.

My Advice:

To more directly address the advice that @freethemfrom1895 was asking for… I think the first step is to figure out whether you really want to complete and post your works, and what your reasons are. If you don’t find intrinsic motivation from writing itself, then you’ll need motivation from somewhere else to get you through the rough parts. (Side note: this kind of thing is even true for people who say they enjoy writing, because most writers go through rough patches in the process where they lose the intrinsic motivation for one reason or another.)

Maybe it’ll be the case that you don’t find any reason like that, and decide that it’s not worth the effort to write and post a complete story. I bring this up because I want to put it out as a valid option; there’s lots of people out there who write (whether it’s just a few notes jotted down, or a fully written and edited story, or anything in between) and never post or share their writing, and they find satisfaction just with that.

However, if you want to try and post a completed story, then my advice would be… Start with something safe and easy. If you feel motivated at all by having people read/like/comment your fic, then use an idea for a more popular ship/fandom, if you have one.

For the story itself, stick with an idea that can be written as a small one shot… Or maybe a drabble/collection of drabbles? (I’m not much of a drabble writer myself, but you might find it more enjoyable.) If you’re the type of person who gets carried away with new ideas, then try to resist the urge to keep expanding on your small story/drabble; if you absolutely have to get the new ideas out of your head, then jot them down as quick notes somewhere else, so that you can get back on track to finishing your original idea.

Try to work on your story a little bit at a time. Maybe you just write 50 words or edit a single paragraph once every other day, but going at a steady pace you can keep up with (even if it feels like a chore) is better than throwing yourself at your story all day and then getting completely burnt out, to the point that you never want to look at that story again for the rest of your life. XD

If you can’t keep up with writing regularly, or if you otherwise find yourself unable to complete your small fic, then don’t beat yourself up over it; you can always try again when you’re ready (and you can try the same story again or try a different one at that point). Being able to write and post a complete story is like training your muscles: it’ll be a struggle at first to do the basics, and you might fall off track the first few times you try… But the more you complete the process, the easier it gets.

Some readers love a big word count per chapter. Others (like me) just don’t have the attention span for it. I’ve had similar questions like this one on the blog before, and anecdotally speaking the largest group of people prefer chapters in the 3-5K range. There are lots of us who prefer chapters shorter than that and there are plenty who like chapters that are longer, that’s just the statistical mode.

So yes, long chapters will turn some readers off. But short chapters turn readers off too. Too many tags turn some people off. Not enough tags turn other people off. Some people love a song lyrics title others see a song lyrics title and decide not to click. 

Other days I’m like - 1000 word one shot is all I can handle.

I'll also add a small technological note here and say that shorter chapters are easier for readers to manage, especially if they're reading on mobile. If a reader can't do the whole chapter in one go, and their browser refreshes itself before they can get back around to it, then they must scroll around to find the specific part they left off at. (Mobile browsers refresh more often than desktop, hence why it's harder there.)

All that being said, though... I'm only one person, so I can only give one person's worth of experience. For each person like me who finds long chapters daunting, there's probably another out there who prefers long chapters that they can sink their teeth into. In other words... While I do have my own preferences, I don't want to come off as saying that there's one "best" chapter length. Not to mention, there's a lot more to a story than its chapter length... Even in stories where I thought the chapters were too long, I was still able to enjoy the story as a whole.

On top of that, I think it's also worth mentioning that chapter length can also be viewed as a writing tool. For instance, if you're writing about a long and exhausting battle, then putting the whole thing into one long and exhausting chapter can help convey that feeling.

Hey fellow creators! So, as some folks may have recently become aware, Tumblr posts with external links don’t show up in relevant tags (as detailed in this post). IE, if you post a Steven Universe picture and tag it “Steven Universe” and there’s an external link in the post, it won’t actually show up in the “Steven Universe” tag! This is very frustrating! What if I make a post and want to link to my Twitter in the description? What if I want to link people to my online store when I post a piece of art? What if I want to link to a YouTube video and still have it show up under the relevant tags I put into the post?

Hold on to your butts kids cuz here’s how we cheat the system. 

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The thing about Tumblr’s Anti-Linking nonsense works is that it only blocks external links. Internal links are fine. So if you wanted to post a link to another Tumblr post, or someone’s Tumblr blog, you’re good. But if you wanted to link to your Twitter page or something, you’re screwed. So, all we gotta do is make your external link into a Tumblr link. Sounds weird. I know. But here’s how it works. 

First, go to your Tumblr blog. Hit the “Edit Theme” tab. 

In the theme editor sidebar, scroll all the way to the bottom, the “Page” section. (Here’s what mine looks like- I already have a few of these set up)

Hit “Add a Page”, and this window will pop up. By default it’s set to be a Standard Page. Hit the dropdown and select “redirect”. 

For this example, let’s say I want to link to my Twitter page. I’ll name the page “Twitter” (this is what the redirect URL will end up being- IE yourblogname.tumblr.com/Twitter), and insert my Twitter URL under the “Redirect To” tab. Leave “Show a link to this page” turned off. (Unless you want the link to show up on your blog, in which case, turn it on. Do what you want, I’m not your mom)

Hit “Save”, and your new page should now show up on your Page list!

And done! So now, let’s say I wanted to use the new link in the text portion of a post. Simply use the Tumblr redirect link instead of the direct URL! As a test, I linked to my Twitter in a test post, using the redirect link instead of the direct link, and there it is in the tag! Success!

I recommend making a Redirect Page for any external links you’ll be using frequently. I like to post links to my webcomic/Twitter in posts fairly often, but doing that made me take a pretty big hit since my posts wouldn’t show up in tags. With this method, I can keep the external links, and have stuff show up when I tag it! Workarounds are fun! 

Hope that helps! -Star