Blizzle

clark reupload

 Azula:

I'll encourage long fic writers to add on in the notes, but as someone who tends to prefer short and medium-length fic, I'll tell you how I go about it.

Get a premise that you just absolutely love. You're going to be writing this thing for months, if not longer, so you want it to be something you're willing to spend a lot of time thinking about.

Embrace subplots. You'll have your main plotline that you want to see through from beginning to end, but you can also weave in some subplots here or there. The way I do this so that I don't get lost down a rabbit hole is that I always make sure that every chapter has at least 1 thing that moves the main plot forward and then if I want to spend 1-2K with some side characters doing something fun I can do that as well. Subplots can extend for the length of the full narrative, but they can also just last a chapter or three. If you're used to writing short fic, these might give you that familiar feeling of "completion"

A chapter is only as long as it needs to be. Don't get hung up on having a consistent chapter length. Don't get hung up on hitting some arbitrary number every time. Instead, figure out what the next part of your story needs to include and write however many words it takes to get that chunk across. Varying your chapter lengths is a normal thing to do and not something to stress about.

The next thing that I find important personally may or may not be relevant to you, but I find that I can't plot anything in much detail. If I get too into the nitty gritty with my plotting, it just feels like I've already written it. I need to keep it at the level of "And then A and B meet C and hijinks ensue." I can figure out the particular hijinks later. It's the characters meeting up that's the next important thing for me to figure out. Getting too far ahead of myself is a death knell for me in writing long fics, but there are other writers who swear by it. Test out different ways of approaching it and see what works for you.

As someone who tends to write more briefly, another feature that's common to longer fics is more extensive descriptions. People spend time painting visual pictures of the setting or the characters or the actions that are happening. Write the more bare-bones style that focuses more on dialogue (if you're like me) and then go back and read through what you've just written and see if there are opportunities to add in more detail. This can lead to some really interesting characterization choices and also help you out with worldbuilding.

When it comes to worldbuilding, you don't have to get it all on the page. You just need to share what's relevant for the reader in that moment and what is useful to lay out now so that it's already there in a future chapter. You can have an encyclopedic knowledge of how your world works in your head, but it's not actually necessary. No one is going to be quizzing you later - and if they do, you can always figure it out at that point.

Think about what kind of story you want to tell

Genres, plot, themes, narrator, perspective, characters, setting, writing style, tone etc. They're basic details, but they're important to know and they'll give you a lot of direction when you're first molding your story. Take some time to brainstorm and jot it down to reference later. These things don't have to be super detailed either, bullet points are fine, but I think it's important to figure out what you personally want out of your story. You're the one writing it after all! So think of this stage like a moodboard and your source of inspiration.

I know some writers struggle to come up with "interesting" plots, but here's the thing, they're actually the simplest part of any story. Doesn't matter how long or short your story is, or what kind of story, all plots can be summarized in a single sentence. (Protagonist saves the day, protagonist falls in love, protagonist solves the mystery...) It's the details around the plot that make a story compelling and also yours! So take the time to think about them.

Plan/Outline

Your mileage may vary on this depending on how you operate and how you prefer to work, but having a road map will prevent you from getting lost when you're in the middle of writing. Some people prefer to navigate without a lot of direction, others need to keep track of every single turn. But when you don't know what to write, if you do get lost, if you have an outline, you have something to fall back on.

I think a lot of people assume that outlines have to be mega detailed, but they just need to be detailed enough for you to work with. I treat my outline like a skeleton, it's the framework of my story but it's not really fleshed out. I have all my major plot beats outlined by chapter, but really all that means is I have a list of things that need to happen in that particular chapter to progress the story. All the other details usually get added as I'm writing.

That being said, if you are meticulously organized you can cram all the notes in.

Also, recognize you're not going to have everything figured out prior to starting your fic. And that's okay! That's normal. It's actually great. It offers you opportunities to add things or make changes as you need them. A good outline will help guide you without being restrictive.

Chapters are as short or as long as they need to be

Word count can be a useful metric, but is ultimately arbitrary. Your story will tell you what it needs and where to go.

Lean into the things you love

If you're writing a long fic, you're in it for the long haul. Write about the things that interest you, that are important to you, that you identify with, that you love. Be it characters, tropes, whatever. You'll have a much easier time staying engaged when you write stuff you're passionate about.

Pace Yourself

You're running a marathon, not a sprint. Pace yourself and give yourself the time you need to tell the story. Life has a bad habit of getting in the way of writing sometimes, which can be disappointing and frustrating, but give yourself grace when you need. If you miss a deadline, if you don't write as much as you wanted, when you're struggling to get the words on the page. Take a break and come back when you're ready. Your writing will be waiting for you.

Create habits and practices that are sustainable for you

I hate outlining fics and i write long ones (100k+) bcs it fits most naturally w how my brain works, so what i do is find an idea im really excited about, introduce a decent amount of stuff in chapter 1 and then continue doing the pose qs-answer qs in every chapter (or, otherwise, do an introspective chapter if its necessary, which doesn't progress the plot but can be still useful).

You can write without a real plan, but u have to 1) like problem solving (aka using the snippets of info you've introduced in previous chapters for plot progression, answering the Big questions that u posed etc), 2) like thinking about the fic outside of writing it so that you come up with fun answers to questions and more ideas and 3) be ready to work with messy notes comprised of ideas and possible solutions and things that came to your head randomly (and, if ur memory is as bad as mine is, reread chapters occasionally).

Writing like this does mean that you'll at times forget some pieces of info you introduced, you just want to make sure that they aren't major things (like for example i said a char of mine wore an odd necklace around their neck in chapter 1 and fully forgot abt it, but it was just an avenue of exploration i could've chosen and it was minor enough that it isnt likely to haunt readers or me, AND it isnt contradictory to anything else i introduced as part of the world later).

I am going to assume

your name is Ashley.

Everyone’s roles were entirely randomized except for Morgana (I could not work with him *anywhere*.)