#showyourprocess

Yoinked from woodhousejay

From planning to posting, share your process for making creative content! To continue supporting content makers, this tag game is meant to show the entire process of making creative content: this can be for any creation.

RULES — When your work is tagged, show the process of its creation from planning to posting, then tag 5 people with a specific link to one of their creative works you’d like to see the process of. Use the tag #showyourprocess so we can find yours!

Tagging: @strosmkai-rum @spacetimewraithwrites @wildswrites @tetrodotoxincs @odysseywritings @ayzrules @morganwriteblr @my-writblr @bexminx @writingingraves @dreamwishing @aalinaaaaaa @wardenoftheabyss @pleaseloathemyveryexistence @jaguarthecat @catharticallysarcastic

I know the rules say for me to choose, but I'd rather you answer for a work that you can recall your process for.

I thought I'd cover Before it Shatters with this, because I can remember very strongly what the process for this one was.

1) Inspiration

There was a prompt event on one of the discord servers I'm in. Part of the prompt was "A heart made of glass", which really resonated with me.

2) Preparation

I kept turning the idea of this fragile item over in my head, the picture of an actual anatomical heart made from glass... At some point, it gained an angry flame, and I considered what would happen if that got too hot...

Another part of the prompt was "Warm tones", and my daydream about the heart became set with red sandstone, and then a man in a white cloak passing over the stones... At which point it was time to write.

3) Art Process

I banged this 790 word story out in two days. Flush with the daydream, I managed the introductory paragraph in the late hours of a sunday; the notes I left myself before I went to bed on sunday read:

Princess with glass heart filled with fire that is cracked, she's clearly venerated, something about how it burned to hot and the glass cracked and it's slow to be mended, she is motionless a half alive and half not, like the god-emperor from 40K

The rest of the story was completed after work on the Monday. Looking back at the version changes (I write in gDocs these days), I edited as I went, so there were minimal changes to be made before posting.

4) Thoughts

This was one of those rare, special stories that was just waiting to be written. I had clear vision, the story didn't have to be forced. I'm especially proud of the veneration given by the preist:

[The Capelian] touched the tips of [his] fingers to his chest, lips, and forehead, ere raising his hand in supplication to the dais. "My breath, my words, my mind, for you, my Princess,"

This story was very popular, with a lot of people praising the worldbuilding (that I hadn't even realised was worldbuilding). However, people did seem to miss that the Princess was alive, mistaking her for some kind of statue. Maybe if I were ever to rewrite this, I would put more emphasis on that aspect.

I was surprised by its popularity, as to me it was a quick, almost throw-away story. There were requests for more, or assumptions that it was part of a larger whole. I can see where more story of this might lead, but I'm not inclined to follow its path at this time.

tagged by @jessicas-story-blog22 ty!

Rules: When your work is tagged, show the process of its creation from planning to posting, then tag 5 people. Use the tag #showyourprocess so we can find yours!

Using Syndicate

Original to Current Iteration

I'm changing the format the previous one was in and adding this category instead of Inspiration because of the process of this.

So, when I was a baby writer, I started a story I called The Light at the End of the Tunnel (I got attached to the name but it was never perfect). It was one of the first things I wrote on a computer, and the first typed story I finished. Because of that it has always been important to me.

(gets longwinded so under the cut)

Rules: When your work is tagged, show the process of its creation from planning to posting, then tag 5 people. Use the tag #showyourprocess so we can find yours!

Rules: When your work is tagged, show the process of its creation from planning to posting, then tag 5 people. Use the tag #showyourprocess so we can find yours!

I know you were already tagged @thequeenofthewinter but I'm tagging you again! c; And thank you @theartofimaginaryfriends for tagging me!! Now I have the daunting task of choosing which story to rant about because I have. Too many. All works-in-progress, some in better places than others . . . I suppose it's only right that I talk about my published story despite it undergoing heavy construction right now, Petrichor!

✑ Inspiration

Petrichor is, obviously, just my long-imagined, finally fulfilling dream of writing a more in-depth version of the Dovahkiin and Serana's journey. I love Serana. There's so much to her character--and yet, there's so much more that's left unsaid about her. After spending years daydreaming of my fanfiction-to-be, I decided that I would pour my soul into her, breathe life into my Dovahkiin and Serana, and fill in the cracks that Bethesda left out for me to fill. What started off as just fun scenes and one-shots is now being converted into the full-fledged fanfiction it deserves to be! And I hope I can continue to do it justice for as long as I'm writing it

✑ Preparation

If I do any kind of preparing at all, it's usually handwritten-in-black-gel-pen ideas in notebooks or typing small reminders regarding plot right at the top or bottom of the page--enough to remind me of what I want to achieve with a character within said chapter and, hopefully, motivate me to do so. Sometimes I'll even put character notes, descriptions of their appearance and/or personalities because taking notes is really helpful for me personally--it sticks a little better to my brain that way.

✑ Art Process

My writing process is probably every fanfiction/published writer's nightmare. I don't keep drafts. If I rewrite something, that original writing is gone for good. If I want to change it back, I write what it once was from memory. Why, why do you torment yourself this way, you ask!? Because I thoroughly believe that having multiple drafts stumps my creativity. I may refer to my original writing when rewriting something, but I do my best to not re-read it entirely. I take snippets that I like and extend them, create something new. Some of my best writing has come from deleting entire paragraphs and rewriting them from memory. Why this works, I don't know; perhaps my mind distorts and warps what was originally there and is able to bend it in ways I couldn't see when it was written there in front of me. Every writer has their weird process and this just happens to be mine. I also am very imaginative--I vividly see the scenes as they occur in my head, like a movie in real time. Sometimes I crawl into a character's skin to know their emotions and thoughts, other times I have to make them talk to me through it. And, to top it off, I write in Word 90% of the time. I'm . . . not sorry. If it's not broke, I'm not switching!

✑ Thoughts

Rules: When your work is tagged, show the process of its creation from planning to posting, then tag 5 people. Use the tag #showyourprocess so we can find yours!

Dropping this for The Curse of Broken Shadows

1) Inspiration

Basically, Brela was the inspiration.

Every time I write something new, I try to challenge myself with something new. The first book I ever wrote was to prove to myself that I could. The second was to prove I could write a sequel. The third was to test out writing in a different perspective. The fourth was to write a series and create my own world and magic system.

With TCOBS, I wanted to write adult fantasy with romance and magic but also test myself to see if I was capable of writing epic fantasy. Add in my signature flare - a FMC who is absolutely, unapologetically herself and makes all of those things above stand out on the page. Enter Brela, whose character creation alone formed the backbone of everything that happened in this book.

2) Preparation

As a chronic obsessor of having the perfect first line before I can even start writing, I spent weeks writing on a different project while I ‘brainstormed’ TCOBS. Read that as I procrastinated writing the project that was slowly consuming my every thought because I was afraid to start. I came up with so many excuses:

“The magic system isn’t perfect” - spend days altering the names of the core magics and their affinities.

“I don’t have the world set up” - create a map, name all the cities, oh but wait what if I need to add something later, I should make up a ton of other cities just in case, oh and those cities will also need history and people and maybe a story that makes it unique...

“i’m not quite sure what the ending looks like” - so why even start?

Until I just went for it. I said “screw it” and just wrote the characters to see what story they wanted to tell.

3) Art Process

Because I had the five characters (two main) already fleshed out, it was mostly about writing their adventures based on how they would react to situations. I knew the basic timeline of events until the middle of the book and a few scenes that I knew needed to happen for the plot that were scattered through the last half, so it was just about letting the characters dictate what happened in between.

The fleshed out chapters were the hardest to write because I had this idea of what needed to happen and I tried too hard to make it perfect the first time around. The other chapters were easy - just having the characters do what they do - and I found those days the most fun because it shaped what was to come in a way I didn’t expect when I started out.

I’m an “edit while you write” type of person. Usually to start the day, I read what I wrote the day before, make edits or changes or just add detail, then continue where I left off. At the end of the day, if I have thoughts about what needs to happen, I’ll write the bullet points at the end of my page so I know where I wanted to go. If I am stuck, I’ll leave it blank and let my brain daydream about it to figure out the next day.

4) Thoughts

I definitely covered some dark elements in this book, which made for a lot of challenges but also a lot of fun (that sounds morbid). It really forced me to look deeper and explore the spectrum of human emotion. Ex. I wrote a character with stockholm syndrome which gathered a few negative comments from reviewers who didn’t understand why she or her friends didn’t intervene to stop her from going back to that person. There was also other triggering moments that were explored and the consequences of those memories/thoughts/actions. In the end, it made my characters who they were in this story which might not go over well with others.

I also love this book because it really focuses on characters over other things. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a plot, but at its core we get to see characters flourish separately and together.

Plus, there’s a found family of assassins. And knife flirting. It’s the best.

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From planning to posting, share your process for making creative content!

To continue supporting content makers, this tag game is meant to show the entire process of making creative content: this can be for any creation.

RULES — When your work is tagged, show the process of its creation from planning to posting, then tag 5 people with a specific link to one of their creative works you’d like to see the process of. Use the tag #showyourprocess so we can find yours!

I was tagged by @milkcrates​, who showed her process of making this gorgeous piece with Wei Wuxian and little A-Yuan!! It was awesome to see how it came to life - and thank you for tagging me! ✨

So I got tagged to show how this Yunmeng brothers + golden core art happened! I already included the digital sketch for it in my sketch vs final compilation, but I guess I can show some more!

This is gonna be long because I like talking a lot, so putting the rest under a cut!