#fic extra

Overall Fic Outlining Process:

Whenever I start a fic, I have a base idea and (usually) a list of scenes in my head that I want to happen (which is only a fraction of the final scenes, I'll give examples in Tab 2). Outlining the entire fic (mentally or in writing) is rare. Usually when I do write down an outline for a whole chapter/fic, it's for one of two reasons: 1) I'm trying to figure out the path to get the story/characters where I plan to go, or 2) I need to figure out the arrangement of scenes leading up to a scene I have in my head so I land on the correct POV for it (since I use alternating POV).

If I don't have a need for either of those, I don't outline the chapter, so I don't use outlines for every fic and I might not outline every chapter even within fics where I am using outlines.

For individual scenes, I will outline them as I think of them sometimes, but that's still only half of the time! The other half it stays in my head until I'm writing the final version on the page. I'll talk about this further down.

I do all my written outlining in Scrivener (or my phone to paste into Scrivener later if I'm on the go). I have a single Scrivener project I outline all my fics in. Each fic has a folder and inside it will have stub files for: 1) the title document where I brainstorm (Title = "Patchwork [Soulmarks AU]", 2) the fic notes (separate fic extra posts are nested underneath this file), 3) the backstory (if it's significant enough to have in writing instead of just my head AND separate from the title doc), 4) the overall (chapter-by-chapter) outline (if needed), 5) the timeline (if needed), 6) individual files for any scenes I've done a significant amount of outlining for, 7) a folder for any cut scenes (more on this in the Ellipsus doc!)

I have two stages of outlining:

Outlining/Planning Stage 1) Scattered notes for specific scenes and ideas

Every fic starts here and only expands into full outlining if needed. This is better described as brainstorming, but it does include outlining some scenes. It happens in the title file named after the fic - and in my head.

I start the title file with a rough summary of the fic universe/the base idea for the fic I had.

I throw all my ideas that I want to note down as they occur to me, using whitespace (3-5 blank lines) to separate each idea or chunk of scene outlines. I don't write down everything I've come up with, just things I want to remember.

I arrange the ideas roughly chronologically (it might change).

I delete each idea/outline after I have put it in the fic. Anything unused gets left in the file until I've decided I'm not going to use it. Sometimes I move ideas to other fics if I like them and think they could be applicable.

Examples: Patchwork

I don't have any of these saved anymore for anything I've posted, so here's some rough recreations from memory

Example rough summary:

Catra doesn't have a soulmark and she's fiercely jealous of anyone who could be Adora's soulmate, when glimmer first meets her she's like "who's this angry bitch" because catra is aggressive with her and then catra relaxes as soon as she sees her soulmark and glimmer's like oh the clowns are on parade alright I'll watch this show. Adora's mark is gold. colored soulmarks are really rare so it's supposed to mean she has a really special love with her soulmate. she doesn't understand how catra couldn't be hers but shes jealous of all of catra's girlfriends.

This is recreated to the best of my memory and I'm omitting two big spoiler sentences. I mostly remember the clown thing and (now non-canon) colored soulmarks stuff from my original fic summary.

Example story idea:

oh catra has a heat in this AU and fucks her way through the school during it trying to avoid her feelings

There's usually scene outlines scattered throughout this document, but specific examples of those are shown in Part 2 on Ellipsus. You can see how this file is mostly brainstorming. When I do outline a significant amount for a single scene, I'll give that scene its own stub document.

All my fics start with this kind of planning even when there's barely anything written down. Most of them stay here for the most part (except for adding more scene stubs). Any more in-depth outline is usually just in my head (which I'll cover later). Some fics do get a written chapter-by-chapter outline and move onto stage two, though.

Outlining Stage 2) Written Chapter-by-Chapter Outline

This is where that outline file actually gets used. I'll have chapter headings and write down a general outline for each, using one or both of these components (color-coded for clarity): 1) a rough list of the scenes and POVs with a few words/sentences describing each (purple below), or 2) a few sentence summary of the chapter's narative focus (blue below).

Example 1:

Chapter 8: [catra’s heat coming] [adora something] [brushies] [fuck]*

*this scene actually had its own outline, so I just wrote one word here as a placeholder and knew to switch to that scene's stub document when I reached it. The rest I mostly wrote off the cuff.

Example 2:

Chapter 3: exploring more about soulmates and ways they can blow up relationships with seamista. [catra reflecting on the difference for magicats in the past and going to cuddle adora for comfort] [adora waking up with catra in her arms] [catra hanging out with mermista and showing soulmates who had a bad first meeting and somehow still got together despite other dating people. An active example of soulmates pulling apart two more couples in front of her and shes crashing out about it. Catra asks if she ever would have gotten with sea hawk otherwise and mermista pauses and says yes. Catra is surprised and aodra looks even moreso. Yeah its shocking] [adora pov hanging out with mermista alone, asking why she lied. Mermista scoffs and plays it off but admits she knew catra needed her to say it. Adora feels so bad and thinks catra needs some who can just be there for her, sowing the seeds of their relationship later] [catra overhears]

Yes I'm preserving my typos for all of these.

Most fics that reach Stage 2 use just the first style. As I go through the outlined scenes/chapters, I'll strike out the parts I used and leave the ones I didn't so I know they're still available for use or need to be covered. How thorough the scene descriptions are ranges a lot. I start each scene's description with either the name of the POV character or their initial ("[C: adora has been acting weirdly]").

This is how 99% of my fics that get chapter-by-chapter outlines (which isn't all of them) are done, and usually I'll stop doing it at a certain point in the fic because I don't need to pace things out or am writing entirely off the cuff as I go. Sometimes, however, I'm handling a more complicated story, and I need to tackle it a different way. This where I use a third method:

3) Arc Coordination

I almost never use this style and it's extremely difficult to convey since it's situational, so I'll be brief with it. This is where I have to thoroughly break down ideas. Individual story arcs will get their own file, I'll think through what I need to get where I'm going and approach each problem individually, and then mentally work back and find how they connect.

This is the style I used for In The Great Beyond. I had a file breaking down the Crucible arc, the Primavera arc, etc, and I don't think I even compiled it into one overarching outline, but I knew how they interconnected. I had to break down CotC too, but that was far enough back I only remember I had multiple files for outlining. The focus for this is not scene-by-scene outlining, though, it's for the entire story arc. My understanding is that this is, uh, what people usually consider outlining to actually be? And I almost never use it, lol. I mean I almost never utilize a written outline beyond individual scenes, but this my general outlining process.

Okay, that's it for big overview outlines. Let get to the map in my head and specific scenes!

Going From Mental Outline to Written Fic:

My mental outline for a fic, whether or not I have a written one, consists of a list of scene ideas and a loose order for them. I'm calling each of these scenes waypoints to make describing this easier.

For Patchwork, I think I had like… 4-5 prior to writing Ch1 (in the final fic, these were placed spanning from Ch3 to Ch11). Yeah, there's a reason I always underestimate the length of my fics. The amount of scene ideas I have vary a lot by the fic, but they're usually sparse and more fill in as I write.

As I reach each chapter, I mentally map out a general flow of the things that need to happen to get to the next waypoint on my outline. That might not mean mapping specific scenes, but rather figuring out how much time needs to pass and what character realizations need to happen to get to that waypoint, and then I'll write those one scene at a time.

Waypoints:

Waypoints are scene ideas that I'm working towards. They're ideas I've known I wanted to do for at least a few chapters in advance. A lot of the time, I don't actually write these down. The scene comes to me in a maladaptive daydream and I watch it, like the idea, and either build a fic around it or add it to the existing mental outline (depending what stage it's at).

While plotting/daydreaming, I might come up with multiple waypoints at the same point in a fic that conflict - a scene results in them not talking for weeks in one waypoint, and it results in them getting together in the other. Usually I pick the version that leads to plot progression and character growth lol. It's not unusual for me to picture a waypoint multiple times, each one a bit different, but it's all a refinement process, and a way for me to get dead-end story ideas out of my system by the time I'm actually writing it.

For people who have followed me a loooooong time, you might remember I used to talk about the concept of The Scene™️. The Scene™️ is a waypoint, specifically the most intriguing one(s) to me that made me go, "I want to write that fic", and that kept me excited and motivated as I worked.

I use written chapter-by-chapter outlines to figure out what scene arrangements I need to reach my mental waypoints, so you usually wouldn't even know the waypoint existed from looking at my notes until I'm ironing out its chapter in prepartion for writing it.

While waypoints may not be on the chapter-by-chapter outline until the last minute, sometimes I do have the waypoints outlined (usually just partially) on a scene level, though this will vary a lot (for Patchwork I had only two outlined as an individual scene), and sometimes the outlining I have written down does nothing to convey the waypoint's plot beat because it's just a snippet of its dialogue.

Individual Scene Outlines:

When I outline a scene, 99% of the time I don't outline it start-to-finish. Usually I'm writing a middle chunk of the scene, or just the start of it, and I flesh out the rest of it when I get to actually writing it in the fic.

For scenes I outline ahead of time, they're usually skeleton outlines, just containing the dialogue, a few "action tags", and occasional sentences from the internal monologue (examples later). I write these on my computer and on my phone. I pictured the whole scene in my head, but I know there will be changes by the time I write it, so I don't try to fully write a scene outside of chronological order. I'll do this

Since I don't write ahead, usually fleshed-out outlines only happen for the very next/current scene I'm writing. These are almost exclusively written on my phone when I'm supposed to have stopped writing (usually to sleep) but the ideas wouldn't stop. They might have 20-70% of the text in the written version of the scene before editing.

Regardless of how fleshed out the outline is, it's pretty common for me to keep mentally writing - and thus outlining some on my phone - scenes after I finish writing for the night, and I'll flesh them out into full scenes in the morning.

But this was entirely her own doing. Shen Yuan had known what she was asking for when she had invited Luo Binghe over again. It had felt almost presumptuous, reaching out to a woman so utterly beautiful and so incomprehensibly willing to see Shen Yuan again, despite the pathetic and nervous picture that she had presented during their first time.

Shen Yuan was an utter noob to all of this girl stuff! She’d never kissed a girl before, let alone one as effortlessly gorgeous as Luo Binghe! What is she supposed to do, when she shows up on Shen Yuan’s doorstep with a pink oversized sweater and a little pleated skirt, socks hugging her thighs and a pretty cherry smile, food in hand as if ready to become Shen Yuan’s personal chef? Shen Yuan had almost expired on the spot! Leave some charm to the rest of the mortals please, Binghe!

Shen Yuan is thankful that the date is in her own apartment; it prevents her from making a fool of herself in public every time Luo Binghe says something even a little bit flirtatious.

And—as much as she can barely even admit it in her own head—maybe she had been hoping for something like what had happened that first meeting. She had been flustered and tense the whole afternoon, flushing each time Luo Binghe had walked over to flirt with her or let her taste the sauces as she cooked, each time thinking—would this be when Luo Binghe kissed her?

In the end, the kiss had come entirely out of the blue, taking her off guard and flustering her beyond her capacity to take it. How could Luo Binghe be so pretty and sweet and utterly brazen, to lean in and kiss her like that? It was unfair! No one should be able to take her off guard so utterly!

But Luo Binghe doesn’t seem to care about what is fair, because she kisses Shen Yuan slow and deep and leaves her breathless, and when Shen Yuan throws away what’s left of her dignity and suggests that they move somewhere more comfortable—she’s ready plenty of erotica, she knows that much—Luo Binghe leaps at the occasion.

Which leads her to where Shen Yuan is now, pressed down into the couch cushions by Luo Binghe straddling her waist, stretched out so her ample chest squeezes against Shen Yuan’s much more modest one, warm pillows that Shen Yuan’s brain snags on like velcro, unable to stop thinking about them. She still remembers the feel of them in her hands, what it had been like to cradle and press her fingers into the plush softness, and her fingers are landing on Luo Binghe’s thighs and squeezing over the elastic of her socks before she can catch herself. 

Luo Binghe kisses her again and again, making a noise of delight and pleasure when Shen Yuan squeezes her thighs, making her jolt—and then do it again, just to make Luo Binghe make that sound once more.

How can one woman be so captivating? Shen Yuan doesn’t know.

She tastes like strawberry chapstick and kisses like she’s ready to devour Shen Yuan whole.

It’s all Shen Yuan can do to kiss back; she barely notices when Luo Binghe’s fingers inch under the hem of her shirt. They play across the waistband of her pants before pushing up further, caressing her sides and belly, and her head goes fuzzy at the warm trails that Luo Binghe’s fingertips leave. It isn’t until her hands drift up even further, starting to push her blouse up a telling amount, that Shen Yuan realizes what is happening, and she immediately tenses.

Luo Binghe pauses, lifting her head to look Shen Yuan in the eyes, hands curling around her ribcage. Her fingers are so long.

“Yuan-jie?” she asks.

Shen Yuan wonders how humiliating this will be when Luo Binghe realizes her presumptuousness. 

Unwilling to look her in the face, Shen Yuan tilts her head back. “You’ve done it before,” she says, voice affecting casualness as if there’s any way to be casual about a beautiful woman straddling her lap and trying to take off her shirt. “What are you waiting for?”

Luo Binghe’s face fills with excitement as she leans in—instead of kissing her on the lips, she ducks her head down to mouth around Shen Yuan’s collarbone, then ducks her head even further down to stretch the fabric of her top, mouthing against the top of one of her breasts. She’s much less filled-out than Luo Binghe is, to the point that she wants to push Luo Binghe’s head away and grouse at her to get on with it already!

She tenses as hands push her blouse up even further and Luo Binghe’s fingertips brush against her bra; Luo Binghe exhales against her skin, moving back to look as she rucks the fabric up the rest of the way, pushing it up far enough to bunch under her arms.

Luo Binghe’s eyes go wide, and Shen Yuan feels a little bit like she might die.

“Yuan-jie…” Luo Binghe trails off breathlessly, and Shen Yuan jolts when Luo Binghe runs her thumb over the curve of her breast, right over the lacy fabric of the lingerie that she’d purchased in that Victoria’s Secret, the same set that Luo Binghe had first ravished her in.

It was just—when she’d been getting ready, the words that Luo Binghe had said back then kept echoing in her mind! She’d wanted to see Shen Yuan in them again—and when Shen Yuan had been getting ready earlier, her mind overthinking everything, she’d caught on the set bunched in the back of her closet and been unable not to think about it.

She didn’t have any other cute underwear; that was her first time in a store like that! And if nothing happened between them and it was just an innocent first date, Luo Binghe would never know!

She didn’t properly consider the reverse; the situation where Luo Binghe realized that Shen Yuan had put on pretty lingerie just in anticipation of this very thing, like she’d planned on it, utterly shamelessly. Her face burns with embarrassment as she squirms under Luo Binghe’s touch, realizing just how presumptuous she’d been. 

He didn't know what caused it, whether it was the merciless draft or the light snowfall outside, but Joonghyuk sat shivering on his bed, one of the Facility's paper-thin blankets wrapped tightly around his thin body.

Joonghyuk would have loved to wait it out, bear the agonizing and minute trembles that shot through his body. He would have been content with it, if not for Dokja's annoyed glare aimed at him from across their room.

"W-what?" Joonghyuk asked, annoyed, his teeth chattering uncontrollably.

"You're loud. And it's literally midnight." He replied with a roll of his eyes.

"N-ot my f-fault."

Dokja just sighed, almost dramatically, before shoving over his own blankets and moving towards Joonghyuk.

Joonghyuk barely suppressed an indignant sound when Dokja yanked his hands out from the safe warmth between his knees and stared at them dryly. Then, he cupped his hands in his warmer ones.

"Sitting like that isn't helping you."

"It i-is."

"You're fingernails are blue, Joonghyuk."

Joonghyuk was going to punch him. But the undeniable comfort from Dokja's heated palms, soothing over his icy fingers and sending a slow warmth down his arms, kept his mouth shut.

He didn’t stop Dokja from sitting beside him, from pressing their bodies subtly together, letting Dokja's warmth bleed into Joonghyuk's frozen frame.

The warmth was nice.

It felt like home.

Full fic:

rose

The weather finally starts getting warm enough for Nursey to move some of his plants back outside.

He stands on the porch, mentally mapping where he wants to put them, when Dex comes sprinting around the corner like his ass is on fire. 

“What the—” 

Dex grabs Nursey’s wrist as he’s running by and tugs him inside, up the stairs, and into his room. He bends down, hands on his knees as he catches his breath.

“What the fuck was that about?” Nursey says.

“These…” Dex huffs between breaths. “These are… for you.” He holds up a bundle of roses. Nursey can see where the thorns have been carefully removed.

“Where did you get these? I thought you said you weren’t picking flowers anymore.”

Dex straightens up. “Would you believe me if I told you I bought them?”

“Absolutely not.”

***

“Yes, yes, YES,” Jaskier cried and Geralt didn’t even look up from where he was oiling his sword. Literally. He had both the steel and silver blades out and was checking them for damage.

“Don’t you want to hear it?” Jaskier asked, a high, whining note in the back of his voice.

“Hear what?” Geralt asked, looking down the edge of his blade and deeming it sharp enough.

“My climax.” Jaskier sounded very pleased with himself. “It’s tasteful, yet graphic."

I bet, Geralt thought, trying to imagine anything Jaskier did as tasteful. “Fine,” Geralt said. He didn’t have anything better to do.

“...and so passed the scourge of the land, driven out by fair Geralt’s hand.”

The strings of Jaskier’s lute rang out before fading into silence.

“Not bad,” Geralt admitted.

Jaskier was incensed, glaring at Geralt. “Not bad? This is my magnum opus! This song will outlast our children, and our children’s children. ‘Sing us Jaskier’s song!’ will be the cry heard around the land.”

Geralt threw his hands in the air. “It was very good, all right?”

“Well, why didn’t you just say that?” Jaskier was panting, tongue darting out to moisten the corners of his lips and he was still shirtless, and it occurred to Geralt that this evening might still go according to plan.

“I was...overcome,” Geralt said, and edged closer to Jaskier. His sounded unconvincing, but Jaskier seemed to eat it up, his eyes going hooded and dark.

“By which part?” Jaskier was swaying towards Geralt.

“The way you rhymed ‘lord’ with ‘fjord’ was really special.”

Jaskier purred, reaching for the laces on Geralt’s shirt. “That was clever of me.”

“So clever,” Geralt agreed, helping Jaskier by shrugging himself out of his clothing.

“Tell me again.”

“I liked it.”

Jaskier swooned and Geralt slid his hand between Jaskier’s shoulder blades to steady him, bringing their bodies closer together. Geralt could feel the heat radiating off of Jaskier and his own skin was cold everywhere they weren’t touching.

“Again.”

“It was good.”

Jaskier moaned, a long drawn out noise that Geralt wanted to last forever. Geralt bit Jaskier’s jaw, sucking on the skin, driving Jaskier wild as he pulled out a pleasing melody from Jaskier.

“This is wonderful,” Jaskier said, and then threw cold water all over Geralt by climbing off of him. “I must perform this immediately.” Jaskier took two steps away from the bed and Geralt bit back a scream.