What themes would you like to write about that you feel don’t get explored very often?

What are some common elements of stories you are tired of seeing? What would you avoid writing about?

What loves do you tend to write about? Agape (unconditional, spiritual love), Eros (romantic, passionate love), Philia (affectionate, platonic love), Philautia (self-love), Storge (familial love), Pragma (enduring love like between long-married couples), Ludus (playful love, infatuation you feel during the “honeymoon period”), and Mania (obsessive love that leads to madness and jealousy)

In your works, is blood thicker than water or is the blood of the covenant thicker than the water of the womb? (Are familial ties or friendship ties more important?)

Would you rather write a happy ending that soothes the soul or a tragic ending that hurts the heart?

What point of view do you tend to write in? Do all of your pieces use the same POV? Do you have strong opinions on the POV used in novels?

Favorite description in your wip? (If asked more than once, respond with a new piece each time)

Favorite dialogue in your wip? (If asked more than once, respond with a new piece each time)

What scene was the hardest to write for you and why?

What scene was the most fun to write for you and why?

Set the scene for us. What are your settings like and do you have any pictures saved that represent them? Do your characters travel and see more than one? What are their names?

What is the fashion like in your wip? Do you have any pictures saved of outfits your characters would wear?

What traits do you share with your original characters or what traits do you wish you shared with them?

If you’ve written more than one story, what traits do your protagonists tend to share?

Why physical quirks do your characters tend to have? Eyebrow raising, picking nails, biting lips, pacing, crossing arms, etc.

What motives do you give your original characters? What drives them? How much tragedy did you subject them to?

Are your protagonists always the “good guys” and your antagonists always the “bad guys” or do you like to do anti-heroes and grey morality?

What writers have inspired you with their use of language? What are some of your favorite quotes?

“For fans of ______!” What works would you say are similar to yours?

If you were published and had complete control over your covers, what would it look like? Do you have any specific artists that you’d like to illustrate it? Do you like when characters are pictured on covers or do you prefer inanimate objects?

How do you come up with titles? Do you use placeholders or tend to change your titles while writing the first draft?

How do you come up with character names? Do the names have a special meaning? If so, what are they?

Do your prefer reading series or standalone novels and does that reflect on how you write?

Do you let your story evolve as you write or do you meticulously plan everything prior to writing the first draft?

Do you start your novels with dialogue or description? Do you end your novels with dialogue or description?

What do you feel like you need to work on as a growing writer? How can you improve?

Do you have playlists for your wip? What are some of the songs in it?

Do you need background noise to write? If so, what do you listen to?

How do you share your writing? Do you use any writing websites and, if so, share your profiles!

Common Faux-Archaic Word Swaps

Pronouns & Address

you → thou / thee (singular, informal)

your → thy / thine

yours → thine

yourself → thyself

my → mine (before vowels: mine eyes)

sir / ma’am → my lord / my lady

friend → good sir / good woman

Tip: Overusing thou can feel forced. Many modern fantasy stories skip it entirely.

Verbs & Actions

are → art

is → be

have → hast / hath

do → dost

did → didst

will → shall

can → may

must → must needs

go → depart

come → approach

leave → take one’s leave

stay → remain

die → perish

kill → slay

help → aid

stop → cease

begin → commence

Common Descriptors

before → ere

after → henceforth

now → presently

soon → anon

always → ever

never → ne’er

maybe → mayhap

nothing → naught

anything → aught

angry → wroth

afraid → afeard

tired → weary

quiet → hushed

dark → gloomed / shadowed

Faux-Archaic Phrases (Very Usable)

“I would have words with you.”

“So it shall be.”

“You speak boldly.”

“This matter is settled.”

“I will hear no more of this.”

“Mark my words.”

“Gods be good.”

“By my honor.”

“It is not my place.”

“Let it be known.”

“You overstep.”

“Enough of this.”

“On my life.”

“Say it plain.”

Dialogue Tone Shifts (Modern → Faux-Archaic)

“What do you want?” → “Speak your purpose.”

“I don’t trust you.” → “I place no faith in you.”

“You lied to me.” → “You spoke false.”

“We’re out of time.” → “Time runs thin.”

“This is dangerous.” → “This path is perilous.”

“I’ll handle it.” → “I shall see to it.”

Syntax Tricks (This Is the Secret Sauce)

Instead of archaic words, shift sentence structure:

Put emphasis first → “Never have I seen such folly.”

Drop contractions → “I will not” instead of I won’t

Slightly formal word order → “Gone are the days of mercy.”

Replace casual filler → “Well…” → “So…” / “Then…”

Writing Tip:

Good faux-archaic prose is about restraint, not accuracy.

Behavioral Quirks

always wants to sit facing the door

bites lip when thinking or trying to remember something

chain smokes

chews gum all the time

clears throat frequently

eating all of one type of food before moving on to the next item on the plate

flipping hair back over one’s shoulders

grasping a fork or spoon with one’s full fist to eat

jingles keys

laughs very loud

licks lips frequently

makes humming noises

makes very intense eye contact with people

moves around a lot when talking to a group

paces when thinking

points at people when talking to them

prefers to sit on the end of a row rather than between people

sniffs frequently

snorts when laughing

taps chin or nose when thinking

taps fingernails on surfaces

tends to giggle

uses air quotes when talking

very distinctive laugh noises

whistles the tune to songs

Communication Style Quirks

Logic: Characters, just like real people, are mallable. There is typically very little that's so truly, heinously out of character that you absolutely cannot make it work under any circumstance. In addition, most fans are also willing to accept characterization stretches if it makes the fic work. Yeah, we all know the villain and the hero wouldn't cuddle for warmth in canon. But if they did do that, how would they do it?

What counts is often not so much 'would the character do this?' and more 'if the character did do this, how would they do it?' If you get 'how' part right, your readers will probably be willing to buy the rest, because it will still feel like their favourite character. But if it doesn't feel like the character anymore, why are they even reading the fic?

I think though that specifically with fanfiction, we sometimes forget that when we read a book or watch a movie, dozens of people have looked at it and given feedback and made changes and done quality control before the final product reaches our shelves or screens, and that's not counting the original writer's learning process and past experience. A published book is not anyone's first crochet project, even if it is their debut novel. But with fanfiction, the barrier to entry is so low (on purpose! this is a good thing!) that we do get to see a lot of wonky granny squares, and on sites like AO3 they're sitting on the same shelf as the hand-made silk lace wedding dress and you can't always tell just by looking at it which is which. The consequence of this is that we encounter fic that we think is unpolished, has bad punctuation, is out of character, and we are tempted to think "well, this is awful! how dare this person put this wonky granny square on the same shelf as the lace wedding dress!" But that's not how fandom is supposed to work! That wonky granny square is somebody who is really excited about this TV show they just watched and they are reaching out into the void to share their excitement with you. To scoff at them for not making a lace wedding dress is really, really rude. Even if they did make a lace wedding dress, maybe it's just really not your style, or you think they should have used a different pattern, and it's still their wedding dress. You don't have to wear the dress and you don't have to read the fic.

a couple of years ago I spent nine months working on a 22k AU fic. I put so much thought and care and attention to detail into it. I crafted every aspect of the AU around the canonical traits and abilities of the characters. I poured my heart and soul into this fic.

about a month ago, I got a notification that someone had posted a work inspired by that one. it took the basic premise and transplanted it into a fandom with none of the original details — someone had just read my fic, gotten excited about it, and swapped in their preferred blorbos just because. and it was delightful.

if that had happened a few years earlier, I might have been upset by it. how dare someone steal this idea I worked so hard on, and ignore all the care I put into it? but now, I just think it's great. I spent nine months building this gorgeous, elaborate dollhouse, and somebody liked it so much they wanted to play barbies in it. and now they get to have fun with it too! and so do all the people who read their fic! and that's awesome!

1.) Don't actually delete content from your WIP unless it is minor editing - instead cut it and put it in a secondary document. If you're omitting paragraphs of content, dialog, a whole scene you might find a better place for it later and having it readily available can really save time. Sometimes your idea was fantastic, but it just wasn't in the right spot.

2.) Stuck with wording the action? Just write the dialog then revisit it later.

3.) Stuck on the whole scene? Skip it and write the next one.

4.) Write on literally any other color than a white background. It just works. (I use black)

5.) If you have a beta, while they are beta-ing have them read your fic out loud. Yes, I know a lot of betas/writers do not have the luxury of face-timing or have the opportunity to do this due to time constraints etc but reading your fic out loud can catch some very awkward phrasing that otherwise might be missed. If you don't have a beta, you read it out loud to yourself. Throw some passion into your dialog, you might find a better way to word it if it sounds stuffy or weird.

6.) The moment you have an idea, write it down. If you don't have paper or a pen, EMAIL it to yourself or put it in a draft etc etc. I have sent myself dozens of ideas while laying down before sleep that I 10/10 forgot the next morning but had emailed them to myself and got to implement them.

7.) Remember - hits/likes/kudos/comments are not reflective of the quality of your fic or your ability to write. Most people just don't comment - even if they say they do, they don't, even if they preach all day about commenting, they don't, even if they are a very popular blog that passionately reminds people to comment - they don't comment (I know this personally). Even if your fic brought tears to their eyes and it haunted them for weeks and they printed it out and sent it to their friends they just don't comment. You just have to accept it. That being said - comment on the fic you're reading now, just do it, if you're 'shy' and that's why you don't comment the more you comment the better you'll get at it. Just do it.

8.) Remove unrealistic daily word count goals from your routine. I've seen people stress 1500 - 2000 words a day and if they don't reach that they feel like a failure and they get discouraged. This is ridiculous. Write when you can, but remove absurd goals. My average is 500 words a day in combination with a 40 hour a week job and I have written over 200k words from 2022-2023.

9.) There are dozens of ways to do an outline from precise analytical deconstruction that goes scene by scene to the minimalist bullet point list - it doesn't matter which one you use just have some sort of direction. A partial outline is better than no outline.

there are fics out there I'm subscribed to that have gone double digit months without updating.

rest assured the moment those babies catapult an AO3 email my way i'm dropping from the face of the earth to sink my teeth into them

it doesn't matter if the concept has been done before, you are still allowed to write your coffee shop/flower shop/college/western AU. you should write that fic that is wildly self-indulgent. you should process something dark and hideous through your fic. you should share something beautiful through your fic. those two things are not mutually exclusive, either. you don't have to be dealing with something traumatic to write something considered taboo. and yeah, even if that might be a little out of character for that old man, you're still allowed to write it.

and if someone gets so upset about it they're in your inbox being an asshole, you have my permission to delete that message and move on with your day. you also have my permission to tell them to go fuck themselves. you do not owe an explanation to anyone.