#drgrlfriend

I'm so excited to be posting this book! Super grateful @drgrlfriend was so down to let me bind Windows for Fan Fiction Writer Appreciation Day. This is one of my all-time favs, and I was thrilled to give it the treatment it deserves! @maichan808 & @andavs-main were also incredibly kind to allow me to include their stunning art pieces in the book <3 And thank you @renegadepublishing for putting this event together!

I wanted the typeset to be visually interesting and move around the page, without making it difficult to read. I created unique headers for each of the 28 chapters with royalty free art, and varied placement on the page in six different configurations. I also played with the text warp to make the text work as part of the image - one of my favorites is chapter 26, "Banshee", pictured above!

I used Brick duo for this bind, as part of the vision for the front cover, which was done in silver permanent vinyl. I think the rich rust color is perfect for how I would imagine Stiles & Derek's apartment building, and the silver is incredibly reflective - my favorite part is how the vinyl catches the light on the spine, and can reflect "Windows" on whatever surface it's on (pictured above). That's not an added effect, it's just doing that!

I did @tankbredgrunt's faux double-core headband with some Sulky Gutermann I bought at a secondhand store for $0.25, and it's so pretty! A bit thin to work with, but totally worth it for the multi-color effect it gives off.

And I finally got a proper crisp hinge! I think it really brings the whole book together, thank you knitting needles (even though you were a pain in the ass).

This project also marks my 100th book! I'm rapidly approaching the two year mark of my fanbinding career with no sign of stopping; thank you to this entire community, and all of the fandoms I've been able to bring this hobby to. I love how cross-fandom it is; and for an old floater like me, it's wonderful to bring all of my interests together and have something that transcends those lines.

It’s weird, but since they’ve been chasing the world’s greatest assassination double act around, Bucky and Steve have wandered into some of the worst recesses and cesspools humanity has to offer: People trafficking in Barcelona, arms dealers in Alexandria, the cult leader and his brainwashing victims in Ottawa. Well, maybe that’s not the weird part. When you follow criminals, you’ve got to expect them to associate with criminals. The weird thing is that Hawkeye and Black Widow are taking half of these people down.

Bucky supposes that there’s no love lost between members of the criminal fraternity, but it feels different somehow. Even the marks that seem squeaky clean on the surface (the civil rights lawyer) turn out to be in the middle of some hideous act or three, and the evidence is always right there, like the pair of them plan their kills for the most incriminating times. All of which means that Bucky and Steve are getting a reputation for uncovering massive crimes and they’re doing very little of the legwork.

Not that they’re not doing any legwork. SHIELD hasn’t given them a jet yet, but the expenses they’re racking up on international flights have got to be raising some flags.

Take this one, for example. They’ve just been to Kuala Lumpur and now they’re following a lead to Rio de Janeiro. Coulson’s probably going to raise an eyebrow at that, but they’re pretty sure it’s a good tip. With the more they know about the pair, it’s got easier to tell what’s true and what’s not. It feels sort of like they’re getting to know them.

It’s been almost 6 months now. From what Coulson says, no one’s ever lasted this long before. Bucky knows that Hawkeye and the Widow must know about him and Steve, but he has no idea what they think of it. The small moments of communication they’ve had with them – the napkin, the tool dropped off at the hotel – indicate that they’re not angry about it. It seems more like a game to them and it’s starting to feel a bit like that to Bucky as well. He’s lost the anger at being led around, and he… maybe, slightly, is enjoying the challenge of it.

He shakes his head. This is one of the many reasons he hates long haul flights, even if this is one of the double decker planes that feels like something out of science fiction. Nothing to do but think, or watch whatever terrible TV or film is available.

Dog Cops, for crying out loud. Who watches Dog Cops?

The guy next to him, apparently. He’s been laughing for the past hour or so at what the animals on the screen are doing. Bucky doesn’t know what they’re saying, but he can’t imagine that it’s as funny as the guy seems to think it is.

It should be annoying, the constant chuckles and gasps, but it’s not. It’s not like Bucky’s going to sleep any time soon - sleeping sitting up is a surefire way to have nightmares since Afghanistan – and the guy’s got a nice laugh. Bucky’s the only one who thinks so, it seems, because the lady across the aisle is glaring every time the man opens his mouth. Not that it does any good. The guy in C62 is oblivious to everything but the antics of the four-legged detectives on the screen.

“Officer Wagsalot, no!” he says at what must be a crucial dramatic moment. It just looks like a dog licking another dog to Bucky.

“Shhh,” the woman across the way hisses. Bucky just looks at her. He’s got a very effective look. The only people it doesn’t work on are Steve, Hill, Coulson, and his family.

She shuts up.

The guy laughs again. At least someone’s having fun.

Steve’s got the window seat and Bucky’s trapped between him and the Dog Cops fan, which isn’t ideal, but he can endure it.

An hour later and Bucky’s given up on his book for the second time. He doesn’t know why he thought a thriller would be a good idea, given his day job, but it had been a choice between the latest adventures of Jack Montgomery, super spy, or one of those romantic novels with the soft pastel cover and the wishy-washy title. ’13 Minutes to Death’ had seemed more Bucky’s style.

Steve’s snoring isn’t helping matters either. Apparently the disapproving woman has run out of disapproval, though, because she doesn’t spare one of her judgemental looks for Steve, even though he sounds like a chainsaw. That’s the one thing the super soldier serum made worse, if anything. His old lungs couldn’t have held enough air to make this much noise.

Bucky takes a video just so he can guilt trip Steve later, and maybe to prove a point because Steve always complains that Bucky’s snoring keeps him up all night when they share a room – which is often because SHIELD are cheapskates.

“Friend of yours?”

It seems Dog Cops has finished because the guy has the headphones off and is looking right at Bucky. He’s got a weird beard that doesn’t suit his face at all, and wire rimmed glasses.

“Yeah,” Bucky says. “Not that I need more blackmail material, but why not?” C62 chuckles.

“He does sound like a machine gun.” Bucky laughs.

“So you ran out of dogs to watch, huh?” he asks. He wouldn’t normally start a conversation with a stranger these days, but what the hell else is there to do at 30,000 feet? And the guy’s attractive in an academic sort of way.

“I’m all caught up,” the guy says. “I’m away on business a lot, so I miss it half the time. Had to catch up on what’s going on with Officer Wagsalot and Mongrel Malone.” He looks at Bucky expectantly, as though he thinks that what he just says makes sense.

“Sorry, I don’t watch it,” Bucky admits. He feels a little guilty when the man’s face drops.

“What?! It’s a seminal work of American television!”

“I’m sure it is,” Bucky assures him. “But I travel a lot too. Not sure I’d be able to keep up.”

“You should try it. Only philistines don’t appreciate the greatness that is Dog Cops.” Bucky grins and nods past the guy at Ms Judgemental on the other side of the aisle.

“Some of our fellow passengers wouldn’t agree with you.” 63C follows the line of his gaze to give the woman a quick once over. She notices them looking and gives a very dismissive sniff as Bucky waves at her.

“She was probably worried about spoilers,” the guy tells him. At Bucky’s huff of disbelieve he holds up a hand. “That, my friend, is a true Dog Cops fan. We can tell our own. It’s like a secret society.”

“Right,” Bucky says. “Not sure she looked like a fan when she was shushing you.”

“She shushed me?” the guy asks. His face falls again. “I wasn’t really being that loud, was I? I’m terrible at judging volumes. My best friend’s always telling me to keep it down.”

“It was fine,” Bucky says. “I didn’t mind.”

“Yeah, well,” the man scrabs a hand across the back of his neck, then brings it round to scratch at his beard. “Sorry if I kept you awake or something.”

“Not like I was going to get any sleep anyway,” Bucky tells him with a shrug. “I can’t really sleep on airplanes.”

“Tell me about it.”

They both glance over at Steve, who is way too big to fit comfortably in airplane seating these days and looks a lot like human spaghetti. But he’s still fast asleep.

“He can sleep anywhere,” Bucky says. “Always, since we were kids.” Bucky doesn’t mention that it had been out of necessity for all the trips to hospital and all the pills he was on that made him drowsy.

“Tell you what I like to do,” the guy says, distracting Bucky from his weird thoughts. “People watch.”

“Yeah.” Bucky looks around. “Hate to break it to ya, but no one’s really doing a whole lot.” The guy shakes his head.

“Nah, not like that. I mean, everyone’s just sitting down, that’s dull. But like, there’s a word – sonder, it means that moment when you remember that everyone’s got their own lives, even if they’re just extras in yours.”

Bucky frowns, looking around.

“So I like to try to work out what those lives are. I mean, the woman we were talking about before, clearly she’s an archaeologist on her way to uncover a mythical lost city.” Bucky looks at her and tries to imagine it.

“I think she’s more likely a drugs mule,” he says. That startles a laugh from the other man.

“Dark. I like it,” he says. He looks over at the woman again and nods sagely. “You know, I think you might be right,” he says. “What about the skinny guy over there, with the headphones?” Bucky turns to look and considers the man for a second. His first instinct is student, but that’s obviously not the aim of this game.

“Alien,” he says finally. “He’s just here to observe us.”

They make up progressively weirder stories for each of the passengers. The old man two rows ahead is a retired dinosaur wrestler and the young girl behind them’s a time-travelling student from the future. Bucky almost chokes when the guy declares that a red-haired flight attendant is an international assassin.

“She’s a flight attendant,” Bucky points out.

“That’s what she wants you to think. Perfect cover. You get to travel all over the world and no one really notices you.”

Bucky considers the woman for a moment. She’s pretty in the polished way all flight attendants are pretty and she smiles her plastic smile as she serves the drunk man at the front another drink. She’s just another flight attendant.

“Nah… I don’t think you’re right about that one.” 62C smiles enigmatically. “So what did you think about me?” Bucky asks and the guy freezes.

“I… uh… I didn’t,” he says and Bucky smirks at the look on his face because he definitely did.

“Fine, then. What about now?”

“That would be cheating.”

“I didn’t know there were rules.”

“I already spoke to you. It’s supposed to be based entirely on looking at the person,” the guy says quickly. This is clearly going to be good.

“Well, I won’t say anything if you don’t.”

The man shifts uncomfortably and scratches his beard again.

“Go ahead. I swear I won’t get mad if you call me a lizard person.” Bucky sits back and gestures for the man to continue. It’s amusing watching him trip over his own tongue. 62C looks conflicted for a minute before shifting in his seat to face Bucky properly. He looks him up and down and it’s not a flirtatious glance or a joking one. Bucky tenses a little as he notices the sudden switch to serious.

“You’re American, New York from your accent,” the guy starts slowly. “I’d say ex-military – the way you sit and the way you look around a room. You prefer not to be noticed most of the time. You and your friend are very close, practically brothers.” He pauses, words hesitating on his tongue and Bucky takes a moment to draw in a quick, settling breath. The man looks him in the eye and shrugs. “And you’ve seen some shit.”

Bucky’s laugh is a little broken.

“I’ve seen some shit,” he agrees. His left hand curls into a fist. He sees the man look at it. It’s not a stare, not a question, just a glance and Bucky sort of wants to tell him, about the cave and HYDRA and the first arm, the one that was half rust and sent jolts of pain through him. He wants to talk about being strapped into the chair and knocked out with not enough anaesthetic. About coming to with someone drilling into his shoulder. His hand is shaking.

“Sorry,” 62C says quickly, holding up his hands in the universal non-threatening gesture. “I didn’t mean to…”

“No,” Bucky says. “It was a while ago. I… You were right about the army. I lost my arm in combat.” The truth fades into the civilian-friendly lie. “They didn’t have a lot of medical facilities where I was so…”

“But at least you got a cool cyborg arm,” the guy counters. It’s not the sympathy or pity Bucky was expecting and it makes him laugh again. 62C takes that as permission to continue. “I mean, that thing’s snazzy. Bet it comes in really useful when you need to punch through walls.”

“Which is something I do a lot,” Bucky concedes. It hasn’t come up, but he supposes it might. “So what do you do? Psychic?”

“Nah. Can’t you tell? I’m in a Mariachi band.”

The red-headed flight attendant comes over to offer them another drink and the conversation ends naturally. It’s only a few minutes before the pilot announces that they’re arriving in Dubai for their overnight layover.

As the man, and Bucky hadn’t even got his name, stands up to grab his bag from the overhead locker their eyes meet and they both chuckle.

“Thanks for the company,” 62C offers, holding out his hand. Bucky shakes it gratefully, feeling warm calluses.

“I should be thanking you,” Bucky tells him. “Otherwise I would have just been stuck with this one and his snoring.” To his left, Steve is blinking awake. “Don’t suppose you’re heading to Rio?”

“Nah. Dubai’s my home for the next few days,” 62C replies.

“Strange that we just spent seven hours together and now we’ll never meet again,” Bucky says. He tries not to be sad at the prospect.

“Maybe not,” the guy shrugs. “Maybe we already did and we just don’t remember it – in a bar, or at a café. Or maybe you drove right past me in the street. Who knows? The world is full of weird coincidences.”

The doors are opened and everyone starts shuffling off. Bucky loses sight of 62C in the crowd.

“Make a friend.” Steve asks, grinning like the little shit that he is. Bucky elbows him.

“Yeah, we bonded over your terrible snoring!”

“I don’t snore,” Steve protests, and Bucky just pulls out his phone and presses play. Steve listens for a few seconds before cringing.

“Separate rooms tonight?”

“You read my mind.”

*

When Clint gets to the rendezvous point in the back corridors of the airport, Nat is waiting for him, peeling off her flight attendant gear to get into her new outfit, and wrapping the head scarf over her hair. A change in her make-up and she’ll be a completely new person.

Clint can’t get the stupid beard off his face quick enough.

“This stuff itches,” he tells her. He’s sure he spent half his conversation with Bucky scratching at it. The man must have thought he had some sort of skin disease. “And I think it’s given me a rash. Next time I want the old glue again.”

“I don’t complain about the wigs,” she points out.

“You’re not allergic to the wigs!”

She hasn’t mentioned his conversation with Barnes, and she probably won’t. He knows she doesn’t approve. She thinks he’s getting too involved and he is. When she’d seen that he’d deliberately arranged it so that his seat on the flight was next to Barnes and Rogers she’d given him her most piercing look, and she does keep glancing at him like she’s worried. It had been a risk, a huge stupid risk, but he hadn’t quite been able to resist. And it had been worth it. The flight had been ten times more interesting with Barnes to talk to, even with Rogers’ ridiculous snoring.

She huffs and grasps his face to examine it.

“You’re not allergic. It’s only red because you’ve been scratching at it. Now get changed. We’ve got a job to do and a time limit.”

Clint glares at her, but takes the duffle bag she holds out and starts stripping. He’s going from travelling academic to wealthy business man. It’s an easier change than Nat’s.

It is disturbingly easy to get out of the airport without going through security when you know what you’re doing.

“I still can’t believe you got us a job on the way to another job.” He hops into the new trousers. They are apparently very expensive, going by the label, which Clint’s actually heard of, but they don’t look it. “This is not what overnight layovers are for, Nat. They are for sleeping. I need to sleep!”

“If you hadn’t been busy flirting with Barnes then you could have been asleep on the flight,” Nat points out. Clint doesn’t really have a witty comeback for that, so he just pouts until she throws his shirt into his face.

When I first started writing fanfiction, I stuck to a pretty standard three act structure. The characters meet, they form a relationship, and then together they confront and defeat a Big Bad.

Over time, the Big Bad got more perfunctory and started to feel almost tacked-on, and then I realized that ultimately a lot of times I wasn’t interested in including one at all. But what, then, creates a satisfying story and conclusion?

For me, I realized that the key to the story I wanted to write was character development, and the “Big Bad” is something within the character that they need to either come to terms with or overcome.

This is not to say that you can’t write a good fic with an external obstacle (pandemic keeps them apart, they have a mystery to solve, they don’t know they are soulmates, they are from rival crime families, a misunderstanding makes one of them think the other is in a relationship already, etc.), but most of the time, in my recent fics at least, it is something within the character that is preventing the relationship from progressing. Until the character overcomes that obstacle within themselves, the relationship cannot progress.

So, when you’re developing your characters, what can this be? Pretty much anything that prevents people from moving forward successfully in a relationship. Some examples might be:

Depression

Fear of intimacy

Trauma

Insecurity

Self-sabotaging behaviors

Negative patterns learned in childhood

The character can overcome their obstacle individually, or with the help of the other character, or they could each be overcoming their own issues in a parallel way.

Another thing I’ve found to be helpful is to think about how your character’s greatest strength is also their greatest weakness. Do you love a character because of their loyalty? Maybe they give their loyalty to the wrong person, or are blind to someone else’s faults. Maybe they are so loyal that they become downright uncomfortably ruthless when their “person” is threatened. Do you love a character because of their strength? Maybe in order to be strong they have repressed parts of themselves. Maybe their definition of strength means not relying on other people or even trusting other people. Marvel actually does a pretty good job of this in canon — Steve Rogers’ stubbornness is his defining trait, for better or worse. Tony’s futurism saved his life but he doesn’t know when to put on the brakes. Thinking about what appeals to you about the character, but then how the extreme of that trait may play out negatively in the character’s environment or close relationships, can be a good start.

For recent fics, I’ve found it helpful to put the character arc right at the top, as a kind of “touchstone” for where I want the story to go.

For example, this was at the top of Freedom’s Reach:

Clint’s character arc — he learns to ask for what he wants not just what he thinks he can get, knows his worth

Bucky’s character arc — he opens himself up to someone, lets himself need someone, realizes he has a lot to offer

E.g.: Bucky: “People have intrinsic value!”

Clint: “Sounds fake but okay.”

Clint: “I would choose you even if I had infinite choices!”

Bucky: “Sounds fake but okay.”

If you have this character arc in mind you have already “built in” an emotionally satisfying ending! All you have to do is have the characters start in one place, defined by the obstacle, and end in a completely different place (hopefully together), defined by the success of overcoming the obstacle.

Freedom’s Reach starts with Clint desperate and alone — betrayed by his brother and the circus folk. It ends with Clint feeling secure and happy, confident in Bucky’s love. Similarly, the fic starts with Bucky alone in his empty house, isolated from his friends and leading a joyless existence. It ends with him happy and affectionate, socializing not just with Clint but with the wider world.

So, now you have your point A and your point Z, but what about all the points in between? First, ask yourself this question:

Maybe time alone is all the characters need to decide to be together now, but in a story like I’m describing usually there’s something else — they have to make their way further along the path of character progression to be at a point where they can have a successful relationship.

To be fanciful, I think of the path from A to Z as being paved with brick and mortar. First, let’s talk about the bricks.

Once you have the character arc, you have to translate it into actual events. You can’t just say in narration, “Clint used to be insecure, but now he realizes his worth — hooray!” To use the old cliche of “show, don’t tell” — you have to demonstrate through events what overcoming the obstacle will actually look like. Here are my character arcs again, this time with specific events I brainstormed that would represent points along the journey:

Clint’s character arc — he learns to ask for what he wants not just what he thinks he can get, knows his worth

forming friendships (Widow, etc.)

realizing he has value beyond his usefulness to others

standing up to Barney

culminating in asking Bucky to keep him

Bucky’s character arc — he opens himself up to someone, lets himself need someone, realizes he has a lot to offer

lets Clint see him in a vulnerable state (in pain after nightmare)

pushes himself out of his comfort zone in order to make Clint happy (using his words, going to the dance)

talks about Andersonville, which early in the fic it is made clear he never does

culminating in asking Clint to stay and saying he’ll follow him if he doesn’t

Next, to construct your Character Arc Pathway, you need to set these bricks in place with the “mortar,” which is the character’s state of mind. You first have to establish their beginning state of mind to make it clear what their obstacle is, and then over time you need to show that their state of mind is changing.

Let’s use some examples in Freedom’s Reach. First, there are Clint’s thoughts that show how desperate and alone he is:

He lies down on the rickety cot, suddenly exhausted. He’s used to scraping by, but it’s always been him and Barney, scraping by together. Even before the circus, when they were kids catching and eating rats to fill their bellies, they were in it together. Clint squeezes his eyes shut but the tears are already welling up.

He’s been trying not to think about it, trying to focus on just surviving, but at times like this, when he’s too tired to keep the thoughts at bay, they overwhelm him.

Bucky starts out as a less reliable narrator. He’s in a “I’m fine, everything’s fine, I am happy here behind the walls I’ve constructed from my own trauma” state of mind. For him, it requires an outside character to point out that his life is not as peachy as he is trying to pretend it is:

“It shouldn’t have happened this way,” Steve agrees. “But Bucky, I just wanted to show you that there’s more out there than you’re considering. I don’t like to see you like this.”

“Like what?”

Steve sighs. “Bitter. Withdrawn. Like you’ve given up on anything good ever happening to you.”

“I like my life, Stevie,” Bucky says wearily. He’s said it hundreds of times, but Steve can’t seem to get it through his thick skull.

Steve pushes up on one elbow. “What you’re doing here — it isn’t living. It’s just waitin’ to die.”

As the fic plays out, you want to see the characters slowly adopting a new mindset, through both thoughts and actions.

Clint starts the fic basically not familiar with the concept of intrinsic worth. Because it’s what he’s experienced so far, he feels that people only want him around because of what he can provide to them, and that the moment he stops being useful he’ll be abandoned. So, how do you make that kind of mindset clear?

First, Clint’s train of thought — in every situation he immediately tries to think how he can make himself useful:

And Clint is young, and healthy. He’s a hard worker. It must be difficult, having only one arm. Maybe the man just wants someone to do for him, help out with simple things he can no longer do on his own.

He covers up his hearing loss because he perceives it as a weakness that will lead to rejection:

“Do you think I should mention my poor hearing?”

“Perhaps — perhaps that’s something you could save for when you meet in person. Just in case,” she finally decides.

“Oh. Yeah, of course.” Just in case it makes him not want you, is what she means, and she’s probably right.

He panics once he realizes that he does not have skills that are useful in the situation he ends up in:

This all seemed so possible when Miss Lewis was helping him, but now she is all the way in Philadelphia, and he is here, and James is — James is not at all what he expected. James is not even James, he’s Bucky. In Clint’s imagination James was homely and poor and kind and desperate for companionship, but Bucky is handsome and rich and brusque and he doesn’t want Clint at all.

When Bucky points out the Clint has low expectations, Clint doesn’t even seem to understand what the alternative is:

“How come you don’t think about what you actually want, just what you think you can get?”

Clint doesn’t understand. What point is there in thinking about things you want? Nobody gets what they want.

And ultimately, when pushed to the breaking point, he comes right out and expresses this philosophy:

Clint’s expression flattens, a muscle clenching in his jaw. He looks away, flushing, his hands balling into fists before he shoves them into his pockets, rocking back on his heels. “What do you think anyone is, except for whatever use other people make of them?” he finally says, his voice sharp.

Even when Bucky flat-out tells Clint that his worth doesn’t depend on his usefulness, Clint can’t come to terms with it. He interprets it through the lens of his mindset, which is that he has to be even MORE useful.

You shouldn’t put your value in what other people want from you, Bucky had said. The words just don’t make any sense to Clint. What value does he have, if it’s not his skill with a bow, or his strong back, or his ability to bring someone pleasure in bed? It’s like Bucky is speaking a foreign language, setting some standard that Clint can’t even comprehend, let alone reach.

He clenches his jaw, firming his resolve. He’s got no one to rely on but himself anymore, and it means he’s just got to be better, is all. He knows for sure now that Bucky is attracted to him — no one can fake that. He just needs to find something to offer Bucky beyond his body, something that makes him worth having around long-term.

He just needs to be good enough to keep.

So how does Clint’s mindset change? First, he realizes he has more to offer people. He develops friendships outside of the relationship (e.g. with Natasha and Wyatt Wingfoot) that aren’t given in exchange for any skills or usefulness.

Next, he realizes that Bucky wants him around even when it is inconvenient. Even when he fails at household chores, or brings on the extra burden of Lucky, or Barney shows up to bring chaos, Bucky stands by Clint.

With a little bit of security at his back, Clint starts to realize that he is worth more than he’s been told. He has made true friends in the town, and he realizes that Barney is no good for him. Ultimately, despite misunderstandings, he asks for what he truly wants, and he gets it. He’s not with Bucky because he has no other options. He recognizes many other options he has, but he chooses to ask Bucky for his love, and receives it in return.

In the meantime, Bucky is progressing along his own path. When the fic starts he is disconnected from his friends, taking solace only in his work. He’s cut himself off from a lot of the little things that used to bring him joy. He has trouble expressing himself, and that slows things down considerably because he is not good about conveying how he feels. He tries to communicate with Clint through actions — accommodating his hearing loss, reading to him, buying him a bow. Clint reintroduces him to some of the things in life he didn’t realize he was missing, but for the romance to be satisfying they both have to convey that they are choosing the other person specifically, and not just out of convenience. So, Bucky finally finds his words and can tell Clint what he loves about him — a level of explicit explanation Clint, in his insecurity, requires. All the things he starts the fic saying are good enough to make him happy in his life — his house, his job — are things he’s willing to leave behind for Clint.

A final note about “satisfying” endings. It may be tempting to think that solving all a character’s problems results in a happy ending. Someone wins the lottery, and all their financial concerns disappear! They have a wedding and a baby and live happily ever after! There’s a few reasons that these endings are not really as satisfying as they may seem on the surface.

First, to be truly satisfying, an ending needs to be earned. You need to see how the character’s actions directly resolved the problem and led to their changed circumstance.

Second, endings are often most satisfying when they allow the characters to live on in your head in the way you got to know and love them. If you end a fic with everything completely different, it can also feel unsatisfying. You want to leave the characters at the next logical step, better than they were, but not completely changed or untethered from their prior circumstances.

Recommendations for fics with central themes of character development:

Clint Barton’s Super Secret Sniper’s Club by @captn-sara-holmes​

Like Real People Do by @kangofu-cb​

Starving for the Light by @thepartyresponsible​

Superior by @teeelsie-posts​

Choose Every Single Day by @noxnthea​

Symbiotic by @lissadiane​