TIMSHEL;

Do you outline your fics before writing them?

im also curious about if you would be willing to share the outline of a fic (rivers and roads is a personal favorite) i would love to see the behind the scenes of your writing process! as much or as little as you'd be willing to share!

always happy to answer questions!!!

i am not a consistent outliner, as much as i might wish to be! usually with fic writing, at least, i usually have some kernel of an idea - whether it's dialogue or a specific scene - that serves as my jumping off point, and it helps me to get that down on paper and then tease out the narrative that way. a lot of the time, i have a vague sense of where i want the fic to go, and once i start writing, the idea morphs! that's part of the fun for me.

i wish i still had my r&r outline because it is one of the few fics that i did do this for! but i literally did it in my notes app like a crazy person, lol. mostly, i used the notes app as a space to jot down random snippets of prose/dialogue that i thought of when i was away from my computer ("you're not his wife, mel. i am." "then act like it." or whatever that exchange is was something that was in my brain from the very beginning, so it lived in that note until i could tease out where it should go, for example!)

from there, i did use it to give myself a sense of timeline and the major plot points which then i moved around to structure the chapters. so i had a section that literally just listed out the years, their ages/years in school, and their physical locations during those times; and then there was another section where i loosely listed out the scenes i wanted in each chapter.

but to give a sense of how i generally let my writing influence the process: when i started r&r, i had no idea what povs i was going to do or in what order, and i initially had a different plan for how ch 3 and 4 were going to play out. but after doing some writing (and talking with some wonderful people, and thinking about what i generally wanted the reader to see/experience) i decided to have alternating povs & switched a few things around to make the scenes work better for me. my even less formal version of this is to do brief sentences/narratives of what i want to come next after finishing a section so i don't forget what i was planning hahaha - like with city baby, i remember typing out specific things like "next scene will be this, next scene will be this" without anything written around it, just so i knew what my thought process was when finishing/starting!

i hope this helps or is interesting! @miracle-and-wonder has a really great process that seems to work well for her, so tagging her in in case she wants to share!

ETA found an outline of mine that i’ll throw under the cut!

Hannah is the sweetest person alive for thinking my process is impressive because to me, I feel like the Charlie Day meme whenever I am getting my thoughts in order. I do this for any fic I think is going to be longer than about 10k where the idea of starting with a blank page makes me feel like I'm going to scratch my skin off because I am so overwhelmed.

And also as Hannah eloquently said in a previous post, this is just MY process and I'm not an expert! I am a person with an email job who does this for fun, and what works for me might not work for you and that's totally fine, but if you are curious what it all looks like for me, under the cut we go:

James + the leg

He took her stargazing on their third date.

More accurately, he took her camping. They had both, miraculously, had the same two-day period off. So they drove about two hours outside of Pittsburgh and spent their “weekend” together, just the two of them. Just Mel and Frank.

She found somewhere for them to sit at night, somewhere they could see the sky unimpeded, and told him that her dad always used to stargaze with her on summer nights in their backyard, pointing out comets and planets and galaxies. She asked him if he knew any constellations, and he pretended to point out Ursa Minor to impress her. She called him on his bullshit immediately with a giggle, and then took his hand, using his finger to trace the pattern of the real Ursa Minor in the air.

It was the first time he knew, unequivocally, that he was in love with her.

He guesses that’s why it’s one of the last memories to go.

When Shen first suggested the procedure to him, he had outright refused to even consider it. It was an experimental procedure, first of all, and the last thing he needed was to screw up his brain and not be able to remember his kids, or something.

Plus, he didn’t want to forget her. He wanted it to stop hurting, but he didn’t want to forget her.

Did he?

“I’m just saying, dude,” Shen said, taking a long sip of his iced coffee. “You’ve been moping around here like a kicked puppy for months. I know some researchers at the Cleveland Clinic who specialize in it, and they say it works fucking wonders.”

It only takes seeing one picture of Mel, with someone else’s arm around her shoulders, on Becca’s Instagram for him to tell Shen to schedule a consultation.

The doctors in Cleveland describe something that seems too good to be true. Completely safe, ninety-seven percent effective. It’s an outpatient procedure, they tell him, with minimal recovery time.

The best part? He wouldn’t even realize it was happening. He wouldn’t miss the memories, because he wouldn’t even know they were gone in the first place.

In the end, it’s different than they describe it.

He doesn’t miss her, per se. And in a few weeks, he doesn’t even know who he’s supposed to be forgetting. She’s like a dying flame, flickering less and less brightly with each passing day.

He just knows that, suddenly, he can’t get the color of her eyes right. Or the sound of her laugh.

It’s around the time he can’t remember her name that he thinks he might’ve made a mistake.

So, when he startles awake one night, trying to decipher if the feeling of her hand around his pointing out constellations was real at one point, or was always just a dream, he does something he hasn’t done in a very long time.

He prays.

There are glow-in-the-dark stars stuck all over the ceiling of Mel’s apartment. Not just in her bedroom like you’d expect, but everywhere. Above the couch in the living room, in the hallways, pressed to corners of kitchen cabinets, over the front door. Little green constellations scattered across crackling off-white paint. 

Frank wouldn’t normally think much of it. They’re just another oddity; another loving, uniqueness of the King sisters. Something he can marvel at when Mel’s head nestles against his shoulder as a movie flickers on the television.

Except the stars don’t breach Becca’s room. They graze the doorframe, but don’t pepper her ceiling the same way they dot her sister's. Instead, they’re uniquely Mel's and they spill across the entire apartment, unabashed in their presence.

She never does tell him why they’re there.

That’s the thing about Mel. 

She has this funny habit of offering bits and pieces of herself, but never fully elaborating on them. She just unfurls her fist, showing off a shiny little pearl of who she really is, and deposits in your palm, walking away before any questions can be asked. 

It’s not because she’s secretive or private, he knows more than anyone that she’s an open book. Such unintentional flippance is only born out of people breezing past everything she’s ever offered before, and each time it happens, he slots himself right into the empty space, asking why or when or simply saying tell me more.

In a way, she’s kind of a constellation herself. A brilliant collection of light pinpricks, freckled and picturesque, imploring interpretation. There’s something beneath the straight lines, something that can’t be seen simply from stargazing, only learned through stories.

He’s grateful for each new star she shows him, even more grateful for what he finds in the negative space between. 

finally finished my hardcover bind of rivers and roads by the amazing @cvldbones i did it in the style of penguin classics clothbound bc it's a classic and kingdon cathedral. thank you so much for permission to bind this beautiful fic I'm so happy to have it on my shelf forever <3 it's not perfect but I love it