What usually helps me with motivation is asking myself "what is making me excited about this chapter." So I'm turning that to you. What is making you excited about the chapter to Wayward Daughter you're working on? -Riley
Thank you so much for this!!! I have a lot of things that Iâm really excited for so I broke it down to a top 10 haha!
1. Kevin and Amy friendship
Kevin and Amy have been friends since the very first chapter, and Amy has always had a soft spot for Kevin for being âJoaquinâs boyâ, but a lot of their friendship has been superficial up until now, mostly because of Amyâs reluctance to ever risk being perceived as vulnerable. In this chapter though, Kevin is the first person to really notice how not okay Amy is and is the one who goes out of his way to help. It took a long detour from my chapter outline but I think it really developed their friendship, and I finally got to explore some elements that have been building behind the scenes for Amy but that no one has addressed until now! It also introduces their ship tag, which is âhe asked if I was okayâ, which comes from the scene Iâm currently writing â Amy is bitching a bit about Jughead and Toni and âtheir northsidersâ and when sheâs asked why her being friends with Kevin is different she explains that a) sheâs not dating him, b) he hasnât historically treated them like shit, and c) when she was completely falling apart, it wasnât her partners or even her brother who noticed, but Kevin
2. After several chapters of people letting Amy brush off major trauma, theyâre finally acknowledging it! Â
This actually ties in the most with her scene with Kevin â Amy says some stuff while having a panic attack and Kevin has a moment of confusion before realizing that âoh hey, sheâs actually mentioned this stuff before but she says it so casually that I assumed it wasnât a big deal but clearly it isâ. The problem with Amy is that she keeps the important stuff to herself and when sheâs forced to acknowledge it sheâs always extremely dismissive of it, so everyone else assumes that sheâs not bothered (hell, she mentions that she was raped and then just goes back to watching Glee, and everyone is like âwell I guess sheâs moved on letâs not upset her by talking about itâ), but really sheâs just internalizing it and not coping at all, but since no one ever really pushes her to talk, it also leads her to feeling like itâs not important â but finally weâre starting to lay out the groundwork for when Amy is finally forced to start talking about things and has to acknowledge that sheâs not nearly as okay as she pretends to beÂ
3. After 75k of just not really talking about it, we finally get some actual definition on the Serpentsâ relationship!
From the beginning, the narration has always used the term âpartnerâ and the phrase âride or dieâ to describe the relationship between the teen serpents, but theyâve never really talked much about what they are! In this chapter we finally get a bit of that, which starts with Amy finding out that everyone at Riverdale High thinks that she and Sweet Pea are dating. After that, Amy finally explains (one again in that scene with Kevin, that could really be a chapter in and of itself with how much goes on in it lmao) what exactly their relationship is, what Jugheadâs involvement is, and even what Joaquinâs involvement was before he left town (finally going back to chapters 1 & 3 where Amy mentions having had some sort of relationship with him but never explaining what that relationship was). Iâve wanted to start to explain this for a while, and while Iâve talked about it a bit here on tumblr and in depth with some friends, itâs never really fit into the story
4. Honestly just the actual writing!
Itâs been a while since Iâve worked on Wayward and the last couple of chapters felt (to me) very rushed and definitely not my best writing. The episodes that they followed werenât ones with a whole lot going on for Amy (Iâve plotted out all of season 2 and basically every scene I could think of adding would have thrown off bigger arcs) so they were just... short and rushed and felt very forced. This chapter on the other hand has gotten way too long just because thereâs so much going on, but itâs given me an opportunity to really delve into things again and I think that the actual writing (technically and in terms of content) is a lot better than what Iâve gotten to do in a while and Iâm really excited to share that! Also, clearly, there are a lot of scenes that Iâm really proud of and really excited to share with readers (hopefully they like it as much as I do!)Â
So Iâve definitely never been nice to Amy, but the angst in this chapter makes me really happy (and very sad). Itâs not all big showy angst, or even as extreme as other parts of the story, but it feels extremely poignant. There definitely are some bigger pieces of angst in this chapter (Amy falls asleep in tears multiple times, for example), but I think that my absolute favourite angsty pieces are actually two of the most subtle ones. What I love about them being subtle (aside from just how much I love the scenes) is that Amy is a character who we see repeatedly go headfirst into danger and go through very painful situations, but she always gets through them and maintains her illusion of being completely okay all the time (even though she is so not okay someone please get her a therapist) because she can absolutely handle physical pain and sheâs gotten used to psychological trauma, but the one thing that Amy cannot handle which is prominent in both of my favourite scenes is being rejected/feeling unwanted, and while she hasnât had a lot of that yet, we finally get to see something actually break through her wallsÂ
6. We finally start to actually acknowledge Amyâs unhealthy coping mechanisms
This sort of goes with #2 and #6. Ever since chapter one, weâve seen Amy having extremely unhealthy coping mechanisms (namely alcohol and sex and trying to ignore her problems) and in this chapter we see that she actually canât ignore her problems forever, and we finally see people actually looking at Amy and going âhey this is definitely not a good way to deal with shitâ instead of the usual âoh yeah thatâs just Amy being Amyâ, and itâs very satisfying! Archie has called her out on it once before, but heâs the only one â her partners are so used to it that most of the time they donât even realize what sheâs doing because to them itâs just part of her personality and Jughead has generally hesitated to comment on it because he worries about pushing her away. As a writer itâs been a bit frustrating to see how much no one seems to realize how self destructive Amy is, so itâs very satisfying to finally get to address it!Â
7. Amy & Fangs relationship
So much of the story so far has been very focused on Amy & Sweet Pea, Amy & Jughead, and the poly squad, with a moderate amount of Amy & Toni, but Amy & Fangs hasnât gotten a lot of exploration so far. Amy and Toni also explored a lot in this chapter but itâs very much for the worse as Toni begins to prioritize Cheryl over the other Serpents. Amy and Fangs, on the other hand, have much more positive development and we really get to see them being best friends in one-on-one situations, as well as Fangs being the one who can actually handle Amyâs extreme emotions. Iâve always had it in my head that theyâre sort of two sides of the same traumatized coin, and that Fangs understands Amy better than the others (in part due to his own trauma and in part because Amy, Toni, and Sweet Pea are all just very strong and very stubborn personalities and it tends to be a bit of a 50/50 on whether theyâll actually help each other or just set each other off) and Iâm really glad that I finally get to start putting that into the story
I stan one father-daughter duo and that is it. Granted, Amy has only called Fred her dad as a political move (usually against Hiram) and once in the immediate aftermath of being arrested and severely injured, and is just emotionally not prepared to call him âdadâ, but Fred is absolutely his father and absolutely adores his chaotic mess of a daughter! Theyâve had some good scenes throughout the fic but Amy is reluctant to spend too much time around Fred because sheâs terrified that one day heâs going to reach his limit and decide that he doesnât want her anymore, so I havenât gotten to write them nearly as often as Iâd like. But finally we get to see them interact again, and Amy finally gets the love and support that she deserves and we get a bit of backstory on Amyâs childhood post adoption! Â
9. Malachai is finally back
Look, I know that I say this about every dynamic, but Amy & Malachai is very genuinely my favourite dynamic in the entire Wayward universe! Iâm super proud of my personal Malachai in general (as @lorettastwilight and I like to put it, Wayward daughter has âMalâ and Riverdale has âMalachaiâ) but his relationship with Amy is my absolute favourite thing. Itâs really hard to work him into the story sometimes, in part because talking to Malachai would solve all of Amyâs problems in like 20 seconds, but now thereâs finally a chance to do it! I havenât actually written it yet, it comes right after the scene Iâm currently working on, but Amy is a lot more open with Malachai than she is with anyone else, and I love it! Itâs also a lot of fun to write because it combines vulnerable!Amy, who looks at Mal and sees safety and sees the man who had a completely blackout drunk teenager proposition him and not only turned her down but protected her from anyone who might have tried to take advantage of her, with Serpent Queen!Amy who is political and cutthroat and sees Malachai as as the Ghoulie King and as possibly the only person in town as calculating as she is, and it creates a dichotomy that I really love to explore! And even though only one other person actually knows their backstory, Iâm extremely proud of it and itâs really fun to explore how to build that into their dynamic without ever actually acknowledging itÂ
No offence to literally any other character, but Fifi The Giraffe is the absolute best part of the entire Wayward Universe, and I finally get to introduce her to the story! Not only does introducing Fifi make me happy because Fifi is just like, the best, but it also gives me a chance to really focus on the fact that Amy is fifteen and still a child even though she never shows it around other people, and to get to explore a bit more of nine year old Amy immediately post adoption, and her relationship with Fred and Archie! Both of those are things that Iâve wanted to explore for a long time but that have never really worked with individual chapter arcs or with the pacing of the larger season arc, so now that I can finally write that, Iâm really excited to share it with everyone!
I know this turned into a really long essay and Iâm so sorry about that, but thank you again so much for sending me this ask!!! (and youâre totally right, this got me super hyped to get back into the chapter!!)
PS: please enjoy this gif of Amy, Archie, and Fifi!
