leashy

I'm An Old, blog will have 18+ content.

there was a poll going around a week or two ago about whether you write linearly/out of order and with/without detailed outlines. i am firmly team non-linear but sometimes i think this is why it takes me so long to finish things. like, if i could start at the start and write to the end hoo boy, i'd be so powerful.

...maybe. SO. my question (other than like. linear writers: tell me about your process) is what do you do when you have a scene/line/exchange pop into your head for a future part?

like, as an example, with this fic, i outlined as much as i ever do (rough list of scenes) and started from basically the beginning. but then some of the dialogue for the last scene popped into my head and i didn't wanna lose it, so i wrote that down and then, oh no! flow! so i ended up with my usual thing of like...six scenes pretty much finalised and a mountain of connective tissue still to write.

or like with longer stuff, like allying, i knew from the start that at some point the glory hole scene would happen, but i wasn't 100% sure how they'd get there so i just wrote that first while the rest of the fic percolated.

how do i...not do that? should i outline differently/better/in more detail? should i have a separate doc to scribble lines i don't wanna lose and then a main one for actual writing in actual order? teach me your ways, gang!

tagged by @letsdosciencetoit, thank you love! because it's me, i have a fairly uncountable number of wips on the go, but the one i've been working on most consistently is lead me to your door so we'll go with that

no pressure tagging @ambernotember, @corporatebanana, @thecarrott, @dear-sidney, @capitalnineteen and anyone else who wants to ramble about a wip (and to tag me please i crave your thoughts)

fanfic or original? title?

lead me to your door from the beatles song the long and winding road. do you know how rare it is for me to have a title before it's done/started posting??? i'm so proud of myself lol

first two sentences of your current project

Luca's is a reliable bar when Tommy can't face cooking after a shift, and doesn't want to get yet another takeout. The beer selection leaves a little to be desired, but the burgers are just the right amount of greasy and the fries are perfect.

most recently written sentence of your current project

It flexes his arm in a way that makes Tommy's throat dry and for a moment he can't help picturing more of this — a settled domesticity that he doesn't typically let himself want for fear that the inevitable disappointment will crush him.

favourite line(s) in your current project

okay i'm being obnoxious, this is a long bit but my actual favourite lines are in here and don't make much sense out of context so

"I'm not looking for casual, T. Even when things with Gina were well and truly on the rocks, I liked sharing a life with someone, you know? I'm not asking you to be all-in. But I want someone who's ready to go all-in." Tommy wants to say I'm ready. He wants to say I want to be ready. He says, "And that's not me?" Sal shrugs. "You tell me." When Tommy was a kid, he once took a swig of soda from a half-full can his dad had been using as an ashtray. The taste in his mouth now is the same — burnt and curdlingly sweet all at the same time. He nods once. "Okay," he says. "I'm gonna head out." "You don't have to," Sal says and Tommy can't quite hold back a little scoff. "No, I definitely do."

how close is your project to the end?

Evan's squeezing Tommy's hand so hard he can feel the nails digging in, knows the little crescents will last a while. There's nothing in the world that could make Tommy change his grip.

"What," Maddie starts, and has to clear her throat before she can go on. "What are we looking at here?"

Phillip shifts in his seat and exchanges a look with Margaret. It's funny, Tommy only met them once before all this, he's really only known them post-divorce, but they look so connected. That little speaking glance reminds him painfully of his grandparents who were high school sweethearts and lived a life together that was longer than Tommy, fifteen and miserably embarrassed by everything in the world, starting from himself and working up, could ever have imagined. He tries very hard not to think about the fact that they went within three months of each other.

"Short months," Margaret says, and it's clear she's quoting someone. Some medical professional doing a job that requires depths of compassion and resilience that Tommy, soldier and pilot and first responder, cannot even begin to imagine accessing.

heyyooooo. got annoyed with the Big Conversations parts of lead me to your door and rewound to the smut. let's go! sidenote, i think i am gonna try REAL HARD to write my next shortish fic linearly because HOW? linear writers what do you do when you think of a line of dialogue for later in the fic?? how do you not just wind up writing from that point? y'all are wizards. ANYWAY.

Tommy shoves his hands under Sal's shirt, feels the warmth of his skin, the wiry hair, the solid thickness of his waist. He scratches his nails softly up Sal's sides to feel him shudder and has to fight not to grin too wide for the next kiss to really connect.

Sal has one hand on Tommy's cock through his jeans like it's held there with magnets, but his other hand is roaming and rambling. He squeezes at Tommy's pec, the heel of his hand rubbing back and forth over his nipple while he does it.

"God, you got so fuckin' big," he says, sounding delighted about it. "Think you could lift me?"

"Easy," Tommy says.

Sal's eyes glint, dark and focused and amused. "You think?"

"For sure," Tommy insists.

"Put a pin in that," Sal says and pops the fly on Tommy's jeans as he kisses him again. Tommy's only half-hard right now but the first brush of Sal's fingertips at the root of his cock is still dizzying.

"Fuck, stop, wait," he begs.

Sal groans, but his questing fingers go still.

"What, what?"

"Can I suck you off?"

"Well, shit, I'm not stopping you."

what do we think, gang? i can see so many combos but honestly the one that's tickling my brain best right now is tommy (or maybe buck) in the chakotay role and bobby in the janeway role.

the earlier parts of the episode eeeh i think would need a bit of tweaking to make them fit but godddd, a tommy coming into his own in this weird exile with this man he admires so much, starting to imagine a whole life of the two of them on this idyllic planet, not what either of them wanted, but something that they can make the most of, maybe somewhere he could actually be happy.

bobby desperate to get back to his ship and his crew, to protect them on this nightmare journey home across a hostile quadrant, reluctantly coming to realise that maybe that's not going to happen. desperate to see his people again, but getting to see a softer, more open version of tommy too.

maybe tommy makes him a kitchen garden rather than a bathtub, because captain nash likes to cook and it serves the same purpose - i made this for you. you don't need it, but you want it, and it will make you happier, and it's a thing that i can give you, even if i can't give you want you need.