#brynlin

@salzrand​ - Okay, belatedly posting this update on Tumblr (the chapter was posted on AO3 a couple weeks ago) because the illustration is now up as well!! 

So @youcancallme-ray recently reached out to ask for my advice on writing fluff, specifically family fluff, and I mentioned that I've been wanting to write a proper post on this subject for a while, since this isn’t the first time I’ve been asked and sometimes it's useful to have another writer describe their perspective/process. First thing's first, always remember the #1 rule of writing - throw out all the rules and advice and write whatever you want to write. Seriously. Not everything that works for me will work for everyone. There’s no wrong way to write fluff or angst or anything. You do you.  But for me... I personally love stories with families. I just do. I love multiple generations interacting, I like big families, I like small families, broken families, powerful families, loving families, complicated families, babies, toddlers, small kids, teenage kids, parents, grandparents, fallings out, reconciliations, separations, reunions, birth scenes, deathbed scenes, and all the kitchen table scenes in between, love, love, love. All of it. Family, in all its wonderful, messy glory.  So this is all to say that I always tend to gravitate towards creative works that have a family vibe, whether natural or found family. Game of Thrones was almost unusual for me except...oh wait, everyone's related 😂 (plus they had zombies too, but that’s beyond the scope of fluff. Vlad’s not coming to any baby showers, I don’t care how many times he asks 🤣🙈) Anyway, I'm a proud daughter of House Mormont with a major House Tully streak (which is fitting, considering my two main fanfic projects right now focus on Jorah/Daenerys and Brynden/Roslin 😍). I'm a Huffleclaw or Ravenpuff, or whatever we're called 😂, from way back and you can hear it the name, give me all the fluff, fluff, FLUFF ❤ But what even is fluff, right? Romance, hurt/comfort, warm feelings? Webster's Dictionary defines fluff as "something fluffy" - I'm not making this up, I just googled it 😂 Stellar job with the wordsmithing, Merriam-Webster 😂 (it’s like that Jim Gaffigan skit where he’s like “have you ever looked up potato in the dictionary?” Noun: “potato, you know...potato”). Okay, I’m scrolling down...hmm, all right, I found this under "kids definition" (ummm, we have different dictionaries for different age groups now? who knew?): Fluff - to make or become fuller, lighter or softer. Oh yes. THIS. THERE WILL BE ACTUAL ADVICE HERE SOMEWHERE I PROMISE 😂🙈 Maybe I should make a list? Yes, a list would be good. Let's consider this Lady M's Semi-Official (And Certainly Non-Exhaustive) List of Creative Choices To Consider While Writing Family Fluff: 1. Know your characters. This goes for all writing adventures. But in fanfic, it's honestly make or break with the characters. Most readers are searching via character or relationship tags. They really don’t care about the rest of it (at least not at first). You’ve got to know the characters inside and out. And use canon/source material, of course, but what I really mean by this is you should try to stay true to your specific characterization. For instance, not everyone is going to write Jorah Mormont the same way. His character (like all characters) falls on a spectrum, one that contains a lovely array of personality traits - stubbornness, strength of will, survival instincts, romanticism, deep regret, etc. Some writers will draw on book lore, others will stick to show canon, some mix it up, all with similar but slightly different characterizations. And that’s awesome! Imo, all interpretations are VALID. Even the OOC interpretations of a character are valid, if that's what you want to do with it (it doesn’t mean all readers will be on board or that I’ll agree with it 😂🤷‍♀️, but that’s okay too). But whatever the characterization, within each one of my fics, I pay a lot of attention to consistency of character. Like, a lot. If I’m forcing an action or reaction on one character and it just doesn't feel right, I’m likely giving the action/reaction/dialogue to the wrong character. In that case, I will choose a different POV or rewrite the scene to see if having someone else say the line works better.

2. Remember kids aren't just props. This is a HUGE one, friends. Kids aren't made in a mold. They have distinct personalities and quirks of manner that show up crazy early in development, in my experience (and I believe @salzrand agrees with me - and she has the credentials to back it up 😘❤). If you're going to have kids in a story, I suggest thinking about how that kid will be like as an adult. Not their whole life story or anything (unless you get lost in your daydreaming 🤷‍♀️😂) but I try to think about what their future life might be like. Sometimes I'll just scribble for a while and maybe have the child narrate a short future scene, even a paragraph, to discover more about them before I continue with the chapter. I did this recently with Kitty Tully for my Brynlin fic, which may in fact lead to yet another fic because oops that’s what happens to me sometimes (ahem, or ALL THE TIME 😂). "Winter's Child" was my very first Jorah/Dany fic way back when, and that was narrated by Jeorgianna 🐻🌻, so yeah, I've been using this trick for a while.  Some fanfic writers don't like to lean too far into developing OCs and I totally get that (the ghost of Mary Sue will haunt fanfic realms forever 😂) but I always make an exception for the kids of my main pairings/OTPs because it's so interesting to explore how much of the father or mother (or other family members - see Daenielle/Grandpa Jeor for further details ❤) shows up (physically, personality-wise) in the child. This is also why I use the same children across fics. It gives legitimacy to their existence and leads to some exciting and fluffy cross-universe call-backs.  3. But also remember that babies can be the BEST props. This doesn’t work for older kids. But not gonna lie. Just from a scene-building perspective, if someone is holding a baby/toddler, so much can happen. The child can be picked up, handed off, tickled, lifted into the air, set down on the floor, crawling, cooing, crying, you get the idea. And that sort of action breaks up the “X" he said. "Y" she replied. really well sometimes :) 4. The magic of ordinary moments.