spring has been returned to me

Auber_Gine_Dreams: twitter, ao3 /// (NCT, SEVENTEEN, GOT7, +others)

babyvillanelle: twitter, ao3 /// (Stray Kids, SEVENTEEN, +others)

misspamela: twitter, ao3 /// (Critical Role, The Boyz, BTS, +others)

pixiepower: twitter, ao3 /// (SEVENTEEN, TWICE, Pentagon)

poppyseedheart: twitter, ao3 /// (Stray Kids, SEVENTEEN, Critical Role, +others)

sinchun: twitter, ao3 /// (NCT, The Boyz, SEVENTEEN)

trestle: twitter, ao3 /// (TXT, SEVENTEEN, The Untamed)

Auber_Gine_Dreams: So, White Noise and the direct sequel Smoke, yes. This entire AU is based on the Anita Blake series (which at the time of typing this has 28 books) so I always knew that these fics would be long. The writing process for these is normally me taking an idea/fun plot point from one of the books and making that the plot of my fic! I always try to look at longer works one chapter at a time, maybe even one scene at a time, otherwise it feels really overwhelming.

For other fics that have ended up on the longer side….I had no idea how long they would end up. I’ll use Junfest (Some Time No Matter Where) as the example here. This was written from a prompt, so even when plotting the fic I didn’t really know how long it would end up. I remember when I started it going into a friend’s DMs and almost crying because I felt like there was too much to do! This one I definitely took one Mingyu at a time with the idea that if I got too close to the deadline I might have to scrap one of them. Thankfully I managed to fit all the things I wanted to in here!!

Even in shorter fics, I try to keep my focus on whatever bit I’m working on. Just get through this scene, just get to this fun bit of dialogue, etc. Over the years I’ve gotten a bit better at guestimating how long my fics will end up, but they almost always end up a bit longer ;;;;; I’m also very prone to bouncing around if I get hung up on something even in long fic! I notoriously leave all spicy scenes for the end which makes me miserable every time yet I continue to do it.

babyvillanelle: I’ve published four longer fics (over 20k), two of which are still in the wip stage, and I feel like my process for each of them has been a little different!! I also feel like I am still learning how I personally write and how to write in general, so I’ve sort of refined my writing process over the past few years.

I usually figure out pretty early in the writing process if something is going to be a long fic. If there’s ONE central problem/scenario in the idea that I have, then it’s probably going to be a one-shot/drabble. If I feel like the idea is more complex or if the idea really grabs me and it turns into something that I want to think about for a long time, then it’s probably going to be a longfic.

For my first longfic, “where it’s headed”, I knew from the very beginning that I wanted it to be long, so I spent a lot of time in the planning process (making pinterest boards, character sheets, and a detailed outline). Once I had those done, I went through and wrote drafts of all my chapters, and then submitted those to beta readers and edited them, then posted them. By the time I posted the first chapter of “where it’s headed”, I already had a draft for the last chapter. I never wanted to be an author that started a fic and didn’t ever give my readers an ending so I wanted to make sure I knew where the story was going before I started it!! Also I like to have my story feel coherent and I was worried about posting my first chapter too soon and having it contain plot points that I would want to change later, so having a whole draft done before posting any of it was my way to avoid that.

Now that I’ve said all of that, I do have to admit that none of the above is true for my second longfic, “coming up lavender”, which is still in progress. For the first two segments of that fic, there was no outline, just a google doc, a pinterest board, and vibes. I’m working on the third and final part now and it has a long google doc that is just filled with thoughts and words. The difference for this fic I think is that it’s my most personal work! This google doc is where I go to work out my own brain stuff - it’s where I turn my trauma into a story, something that can be whole and held and understood by other people.

My third longfic, “sing it back to me” had a detailed outline, a pinterest board and a playlist before I ever started writing drafts. That was my first time writing a poly ship so I wanted to do it justice and make sure all of my characters had cohesive storylines and intentional character development. This was also the first fic where I used Notion to help plot! This is what my outline looked like for that fic. I made sure I knew what each of the three boys were thinking in every scene so that none of them got left out of important plot points!!


A screenshot of babyvillanelle's outline for the fic "sing it back to me." This is a table with six rows: setting, external plot, internal: jisung, internal: christopher, internal: changbin, and johnyumarkten and hyunjin.

My most recent longfic, “have you noticed?” first existed as a drabble that I wrote when I was feeling self-indulgent. I wanted to write a fic that had tags that I seek out as a reader. But then I couldn’t stop thinking about the characters so I kept writing and then I realized it was going to be long so I had to make an outline. For this fic, I finished my outline, and now I am working on drafts. Once I finish the draft for each chapter, I print it out and edit it by hand with a colored pen. Then I send it to beta readers, make final edits, and post. This fic also has spotify playlists, a Notion, and a pinterest board.

misspamela: Most of the longer fics I've written, I knew they were going to be somewhat long. For most of the time I’ve been writing fic (about 15 years) I’ve written things that were around or under 5k. It's only been in the last 5 years that I’ve been able to write anything longer. I’m not sure what changed! But now I have the confidence to move forward with ideas that are more involved.

The first intentionally long fic I wrote was Don’t Play No Game That I Can’t Win.

I actually started this fic with the goal of writing something over 20k, whether it was good or not, just to see if I could do it. I had an idea of writing a fake dating story, and I knew I couldn’t do it justice in less than 10k, which was my usual writing length. After writing each chapter, I went back to add details and flesh out descriptions, because I knew those are my weak points. And it ended up being 52k and one of the more popular fics I wrote! I now have some quibbles with my own characterization, but I’m still proud of how much work I put into it.

pixiepower: To date I only have five works posted exceeding 20k, and three exceeding 30k. To me that constitutes “longfic,” I think because that’s my personal threshold for reading chaptered fic. I admire anyone who can keep up with an idea for longer—I’d love to have the forethought necessary to carry a story over many tens of thousands of words!

All my longer fics have been completely by accident.

As with any of my fics, I start with an image, or a scene idea, and then I write around that. Most of the time I just get carried away, thinking about how they got to that point or how they’ll get to where I want them to be by the end! That was the case with who i am when i’m not around, where I was trying to “earn” the resolution scene, which was the first I wrote. With i’ll be your castle and the night is short and you’re not a given, I fell into the wordcount simply trying to incorporate and link all my separate scene ideas into something that makes sense!

poppyseedheart: I haven’t actually posted that many long fics in kpop (longest completed is just under 40k, longest WIP is currently just under 60k), but I have completed some in the past! Other fandom fic lengths include 97k, 55k, 50k. So I do feel somewhat experienced in writing longer works, but my process has changed a ton.

Usually I start with a big idea that I assume is going to be around 20-30k. I assume every long thing I write will be 20-30k because I’m a fool. Once I start either outlining or just writing, I usually realize 30k is not enough and have to start making more realistic predictions.

I’ve talked about this before but I am maybe the #1 fan that I know of orienting fics and stories in general around their midpoints. That really helps with coming up with a better idea of how long something is going to be. The midpoint of Emma AU sits at around 45k. Haha. So I know that one’s gonna end up being a beast, and I knew that as soon as I realized how much I needed to write before I could get to the midpoint.

In terms of ideas, I think a lot about what I’m trying to accomplish. If I want to focus on character study and vibes, I really try to cap at 10k, because I don’t think my style of writing can support something mostly plotless that gets much longer than that. Otherwise I aim for a strong premise up to maybe 40k. Doesn’t need to be a dense plot, but the premise needs to hold water without depending on only character work, if that makes sense. Past 40k… yeah, we need a plot. Not that I haven’t written things with plot that are much shorter, but this is how it tends to separate when I look at my writing on average. And I find plot difficult! So I only commit to longer ideas that I’m totally in love with and believe I have the chops to pull off. It needs to be interesting, too, with consistent new developments and engaging subplots. If I get bored partway through I won’t finish the story!

sinchun: My longest standalone fic is just shy of 20k words and spread across three chapters, but I also wrote a 16-part non-chronological ensemble series to came to over 80k words.

I always knew the series was going to be long; in fact, I left the door open for myself to return to it to write more in that AU if I want to in the future, so it might get longer still. The starting idea for it was really just: a/b/o polyamorous pack with some pre-decided endgame ships. I had an idea of some of the relationships I wanted to develop, but also wanted to allow myself some wiggle room to explore characters and ships that hadn’t originally occurred to me. One reason why I did it this way was that I was curious to see who/what ships the readers were rooting for as pieces of plot/character development were revealed. (For example, Yuta ended up becoming a much more major character in the series than I originally anticipated.) This was sort of a unique type of long-form story because I wanted a lot of the fics to be able to be read as standalones but also not be boring with regurgitating plot/AU info for people who were reading the entire series. Ensemble stories (especially ones with an ensemble as large as NCT) are tricky just because there’s so many moving parts; having notes to keep track of everyone was huge.

The 20k fic was for a fest, and I definitely didn’t originally plan on it being that long. I didn’t conceive of it as a chaptered fic, but as I wrote down my ideas for it, I realized that the themes I wanted to cover in the story required a little more time/attention and that spreading it across three chapters would help divide the main character’s internal conflict into definite sections – i.e. by the end of chapter two, I want him to be at this point in his emotional journey. I definitely utilized the beginning-middle-end format for that fic.

trestle: Including work I’ve done for other fandoms, and judging by the metric of more than 20k, I’ve completed around 3 big projects, although I’ve written some shorter that felt a lot longer considering the worldbuilding and the details - I’ll toss them in here as well. I’ve had a handful of works that I didn’t end up finishing that were likewise intended to be long, but for some reason or another have ended up abandoned.

The general bulk of what I’ve written is Soonwoo, and two of the three longfics were written for that pair - a 52k professional tennis AU and a 25k blogger/journalist AU. The other longfic I’ve written outside of SVT fic is a 46k BJYX fake dating but not really AU (Xiao Zhan/Wang Yibo from C-Ent) fic. I’ll also include the magical school Soonwoo (18.7k) and the phone sex operator Soonwoo (19.7k) since they were both treated through the same lenses!

So for the ideas, it really depends! Sometimes I get a scene in my head and I suddenly want to write a whole fic around that, and how complex the scene is dictates the length. Sometimes I have a longtime dream of an AU, and then I finally find or get inspired by a pairing that fits. And sometimes, I get an idea that starts out short but grows bigger when I realize that I want to give the story time to flow and breathe. I don’t usually start off by sitting down and saying — I definitely want this fic to be long. Honestly, I think that starting out that way kind of makes the project more intimidating than it is and it ends up not getting off the ground at all.

The BJYX fic was a result of a prompt asking for fake dating, but whenever I get prompts like these I try to look at it from a different perspective. In this case, instead of fake dating outright, I took the concept of two people fake dating but included a third person who would be creative directing their output, and that resulted in a much longer story - although this story really started because I got this scene of one of them teaching the other to slow dance to prepare for a wedding he’d be attending later on and everything just spun out from there.

Meanwhile, the tennis AU has been a longtime dream of mine, and the outline for it has existed since at least early 2017. I finally sat down to write it for a fest a few years later, but the bulk of the work had to do with just making sure the story didn’t feel too choppy, that it flowed naturally over the course of several years. As tennis was something I knew a lot about, it wasn’t difficult to fill in the spaces in the story to make it feel more full, and it ended up being my longest fic even if I still think it could have done with a scene or two more. This one, by the nature of the story I wanted to tell, necessitated the length, although I didn’t expect it to reach this much.

As for the writing process… it depends! All the longfics I’ve written were for fests, so I look forward one day to writing something that doesn’t have a deadline because maybe something better will result from it. On the other hand, I do appreciate the deadlines because they push me to actually schedule times where I have to write, rather than just put it off constantly. I do love when stories you’re writing are fully planned out and yet turn in such a way that end up surprising you. It’s part of the reason why I still like doing it so much!

Auber_Gine_Dreams: Just google docs! I have always made outlines that are more like me excitedly typing out the fic idea to a friend. From there, I’ll either make a slightly more “formal” outline or I’ll just cut that into sections or chapters! While this does work for me, it can also be frustrating!! I’ll add an example from the long fic I’m currently working on
>>They can really vaguely sense each other over their bond and maybe they talk about it a little bit.

Leesa what does this mean?? Literally no planned dialogue not a single clue what this will end up being it’s all about the vibes! Part of this is because when I first started writing again, it felt like anything I typed HAD to be included, so I think a more rigid outline felt less like a plan and more like law. I’m a lot more easygoing about this now, but my plotting style has yet to reflect that!!

babyvillanelle: YES. I use all of the above to plot!!! I use pinterest, notion, spotify, google docs and my little notebook that I bring with me everywhere. I feel like each of these things has a different purpose.

My outlines usually have this structure:

A screenshot of babyvillanelle's outline for the fic "have you noticed?", which includes lines in the table for external plot, as well as two lines for internal conflict from two characters.

The inclusion of the “Internal” columns for BOTH the POV character and the romantic interest have been crucial for my writing process. During dialogue, in order to honestly represent both sides of a conversation I have to know what both characters are thinking, not just the POV character. It also informs their behavior in the scene. It also means that I can slowly reveal aspects of their character that I know but the readers don’t.

I like Pinterest because I can create a visual representation of the fic, and it’s often where I decide what the mood/tone of the fic will be. If it’s a fic with a lot of characters, I use it as a makeshift character sheet as well. The images serve as visual reminders of character traits or aspects of their story/personality!!!

Notion is fun because it’s super customizable - it can be as in-depth or as vague as you want it to be! I am still figuring out how best to use Notion when it comes to my personal writing style, but as of now I just like that it can be a combination of a moodboard and an overview of the fic. It’s especially fun to use in early planning stages because it can help me get my thoughts down and organize them in an aesthetically pleasing way.

These are some screenshots from the Notion for my current project:


Screenshots of babyvillanelle's notion board for the fic "have you noticed?". The first one includes summary, aesthetic pictures, and links to other parts of the notion. The second includes playlists for two characters, as well as picture boards of them both.

misspamela: I don’t, actually! I sometimes brainstorm in a blank doc but that’s about it! I do my best plotting when I talk things out with my friends.

pixiepower: My process begins and ends in my Google Doc, mostly because I feel that I don’t have much “plot” to start with—it’s actually a goal of mine to write something more plot-focused someday. I have a few WIPs that I can feel will end up longer just based on the scene count, which I think ties into the next question!

poppyseedheart: I did not used to outline very much, and if I did it was just in a google doc! I have no idea how I wrote a 90k+ fic in 2014 on a hope and a prayer, but I somehow made it happen. Lately I’ve really been liking notion. I start with a single note dump, usually on my personal Discord server (I have fic channels where I like to toss quotes, playlists, and lots and lots of talking to myself) and then I turn that into a notion page that has setting/location info, character info, and a plot map. And always a misc notes section because I am nothing if not full of misc notes.

I’ve really been liking a 4-act structure lately, which makes sense considering how much I plan around the midpoint of a story. Don’t ask me why I can’t explain it I just love using the midpoint (and every 1/4-point honestly from arc to arc) as a turn in the story that’s often related to a subplot or contributor to the climax, or both. So I’ll use cards on a plot map board on notion to sketch that out.

This all said, I almost never get past the 75% point of planning! I plan maybe 60% and the other 15% comes as I go. The rest… I just don’t need it, I guess. I can carry a story on less than that much planning if I need to anyway, but it does help to have an incomplete outline that I can go back and add to once I have a better sense of the characters and where the story needs to go.

sinchun: I love note-taking apps and have tried out a BUNCH. My long ~80k series was planned in Apple’s Numbers (the Mac version of Excel), with a LOT of tables to keep track of timelines (here’s a screenshot of a portion of one table I posted last year) with other plot/character notes jotted down in text boxes.

My ~20k fic with three chapters was planned in a single OneNote note page, with a few plot/character concepts jotted down, but mostly just some written dialogue exchanges to capture the mood of the fic. Most of these original snippets were not ultimately included in the fic, though some were. This is actually one of my favorite ways to start developing a fic, especially a longer one: just start with some snippets (usually dialogue for me because that’s often the emphasis in my fics) that help set the tone or theme of the story.

More recently, I’ve been using Notion and loving it. I just used it to track a non-chronological medium-length fic (~12k words) and found it very helpful for planning and tracking my progress there, just because of the non-chronological aspect of it. Each scene alternated POV character, and being able to put each scene in a table that could be moved around made it very clear for me to visualize the order in which scenes needed to go to a) tell the story, b) keep the POVs alternating, and c) not having many “past” or “future” scenes bunched together. (For the curious, here’s a screenshot of what that table looked like).

Auber_Gine_Dreams: For longer fics I think you do have to plan a little more!! For the White Noise AU, I have a google doc where I picked character traits for everyone, the book characters I wanted them to favor more, the things I wanted Wonwoo especially to grow into, etc. Now that I’m on the third installment I have a timeline/sequence of events doc because I keep forgetting what happened;;;;; But for non-series fics I almost always go in with vague plot ideas and the characters just shape themselves from there! So, to answer the question I think I’m more a pantser <3 Like I said above sometimes really rigid plans make me feel boxed in! I prefer to kind of let the fic take me where it wants to go.

babyvillanelle: Naturally I would say I am probably a pantser, but I have sort of forced myself to be a planner so that my works turn out exactly the way I want them to! That being said, when I first put pen to paper (or my gay little fingers to my gay little keyboard), I usually just have a pairing and a vibe. The planning process usually starts after I have something written down.

misspamela: Pantser for sure; I will very vaguely plot out the chapters of a fic so I can get a rough idea of how long it’s going to be, with the major locations/emotional beats and then I promptly ignore it as I write, lol

pixiepower: Pantser for sure. I will write out snippets of dialogue and scene ideas, a general one-line concept of what I want the scene to accomplish (i.e. “vern at the tattoo shop, sees johnshua and realizes” from the night is short…) or take note of an image I want to convey (i.e. “that’s the best part/the outside is new/but now it reflects what’s already in you” from legally blonde: the musical, used for i’ll be your castle). I usually start in the middle and write to the end, then go back and figure out what the most satisfying start and filler would be.

poppyseedheart: See above! Whoops, got ahead of myself.

What I absolutely need to know: the main character’s central flaws, why the love interest is good for the mc, what the setting is and why I chose it, and 2 of the following 4 things: the opening scene, the midpoint, the climax, the ending scene. If I have that much I can get a good head start!

sinchun: I think I tend to start with theme. What’s the mood of the story? How do I want readers to feel? From there, I’ll write a few lines or dialogue exchanges to match the tone I’m trying to convey. That shapes the character and plot decisions.

Sometimes I hear authors talk about characters deciding plot for themselves (e.g. “I wanted to make this character become queen, but she said ‘no thank you, that’s not for me.’”) and I think that can be true with longer fics. As I mentioned, I had some endgame ships set from the start for my long a/b/o series, but the specific dynamics between characters definitely deviated a bit from my original plan as the characters came to life in the story. So I think it’s good to leave yourself some wiggle room; sometimes different arcs just make more sense once you start writing.

trestle: I love outlining. Unless I’m writing something that’s just two or three scenes strung together, I generally will pull out an outline for most anything. Usually I just use Google Docs, and I stick all the notes and character beats and information in a section below the main outline for reference. Lately though, I’ve started using my own Discord server for new fics I’m planning out in conjunction with Google Docs.

When I outline, I start out with the barebones - it’ll have the beginning, middle and potential end, as at this point things are still open as to how it will all play out. Then when I’m ready, I have to sit down and take a good few hours to flesh out the outline. This is the most important part of my ‘process’, such as it is, as this is the time I figure out what I want to happen in the story. My outline becomes less an outline and more of a rough draft, because I start separating the story flow per scene, with each bullet describing the action and putting in dialogue beats that I want to be hit. I’ll also include notes, in paragraphs, where I indicate that something needs to be foreshadowed or established so that when it gets brought up earlier, there’s already groundwork for it.

My fleshed out outlines usually run to about 2k to 6-8k, depending on how much detail I want to be included and sometimes when I’m writing a scene, I just copy the bullet point pertaining to that scene and copy it into the separate story document so I remember what needs to be done in this scene.

However, as much as I plan, like I mentioned earlier, most of the time things get out of hand and the story moves wherever it wants and you have to follow it instead of sticking strictly to the outline. There have been so many moments where I did just that and it’s definitely rewarding to end up somewhere much more meaningful that way. So basically, outlining is fun and it’s very important for me so that I can have a handle on what I want I want to do with this story, but it’s not something I rigidly adhere to, if that makes sense.

Other than the outline, I have a separate section devoted solely to squirreling away tidbits and pieces of information about the person IRL that would inform the fictional version of him, or just bits and pieces about the character itself, and the world he inhabits. The most complex worldbuilding I ever did was making a whole new magical school system that existed in the same world as Harry Potter but was based in Korea, so the document for that was very long and full of notes and thoughts and research. I had to look a lot into Korean folklore and topography and various historical belief systems, which was definitely fun but also a lot of work. Still, that resulted in such a fun writing process for me, and I wouldn’t change it at all!

So I guess I’m definitely a planner.

Auber_Gine_Dreams: I think the thing that keeps me motivated is just wanting to see the story play out! For Junfest, I needed to read the ending so badly! Even on days where it felt like I was banging my head against the keyboard I just tried to take it slow! White Noise is her own separate terror if I’m being honest! As of typing this I have started chapter 7 and have 10k of the next installment written. THE THING ABOUT LONG FIC IS THAT IT IS REALLY LONG. You’re typing out a scene that isn’t exciting and nothing is ~really happening~ but you need the scene because it’s laying down the foundation for things that will happen later!! I am an Aries Mercury and I think that reflects a lot in the way I write things. I like to go fast and I like to get right to the point and sometimes long fic feels like I’m wasting time! This is when I’ll take the fic chapter by chapter, or even say okay Leesa let’s get through this part of the scene and we can take a little break. Wanting people to read the things you’re writing, and also wanting to read your own writing!! I think that’s what keeps me going even when it’s tough!!

babyvillanelle: I am always afraid that I am going to lose motivation when working on longer fics but to be honest the fic itself usually keeps me motivated. Every time I reopen a google doc I get those brainworms again and my brain picks up where I left off. That’s why I try to write everything down so that I don’t lose my inspiration or any thoughts I have about characters.

The other thing that keeps me motivated is that I usually genuinely have a lot of love for the people that I’m writing about. I love Han Jisung so much and I’m usually out there thinking about him so I just channel that love and those thoughts into my writing. My favorite compliment I get on my writing is when people say that they can tell how much I love a certain idol by the way I write them. My writing is very love motivated and I’m always pleased when that comes through.

misspamela: Posting in chapters/not wanting to abandon fic once it’s posted. I’d never finish anything otherwise.

pixiepower: I’ve posted two longfics to date as WIPs uploaded by chapter rather than as a completed work, and feedback is super motivating to me. Sometimes I’ll worry that if I get too much feedback early on, my brain will be satisfied that the idea got a positive response and I’ll stop caring about the work as a whole, but having trusted friends to share it with makes it easier! Especially in the fandom(s) I write for, it’s nice to know I’m writing for other writers as well as friends and outside readers. Knowing that I can follow my heart and chase my bliss and they’ll be excited for me helps me make it to the end.

poppyseedheart: Motivation is rarely the issue for me! More often it’s feeling like I’ve gotten lost in my own sauce in the middle of the story that stresses me out—I’m always very excited about anything I’m writing, but I do struggle at times with the wobbly center. I don’t plan granularly because that just doesn’t work for my brain, so having to carry myself between plot points at the 50k point? Rough!

I’m an external process, so having someone to talk at is super helpful. Grabbing a friend in voice chat or dumping into a DM of someone whose opinions I trust makes a huge difference for me. I’m like a software engineer, haha. Gotta have a rubber duck.

Otherwise I love writing sprints and use them religiously. I do multiple sprints every week, so my writing output tends to be pretty high, which keeps the motivation train rolling because I constantly am coming up against new challenges and new parts of the story that excite me.

Also like, I’m my own biggest hype man. I absolutely believe in my own ability to tell engaging interesting stories. As long as I know that what I’m writing down is worth saying and eventually sharing, I’m in it to win it. Maybe because I started posting writing at age like 13, I’ve never been all that self-conscious about it? I thought I was a massive legend back then writing the best stuff ever. I have a much clearer sense of my own style and relative quality of writing these days, but I didn’t lose the ego. It’s serving me well, anyway, so I don’t plan to get rid of it anytime soon (lol).

sinchun: I don’t write chronologically. If I’m excited about a scene that comes later in the story, I’ll write it now, then come back later to bridge the space between. Usually the scenes you, the author, are most excited about will be the ones that the readers end up the most excited about too. I also work on multiple WIPs at a time, so I can jump to wherever I’m feeling creativity/passion at any given moment.

trestle: I said earlier, but deadlines really motivate me to finish something. I don’t know if I’ve really experienced writing something long for fun or without any external factors influencing me, like not wanting to disappoint a recipient! On a more esoteric level, the thought of giving the characters the ending they deserve also motivates me in some way.

Auber_Gine_Dreams: Oh boy here we go!!! If I’m feeling really stuck, I’ll go ahead and do a read through/edit of what I’ve written so far. I’ll usually feel a bit more motivated to continue after that! So here’s a fun auberginedreams fact. Out of the 74 posted works I have right now, three (3) of them were unfinished at the time of posting. I’m not counting fics that I spontaneously added on to later either. I mean fics that were planned as chaptered but I posted before they were done. Three of them. And this is on purpose!! People who post a fic chapter by chapter and have no idea how things will end up are superheroes!! I’m always afraid I’ll have tone inconsistencies or re-use a bit of exposition or something!!

I usually edit a long fic all at once, and then divide up posting afterward. It’s probably a two to three time edit. On the first go round, I’m looking to see if things need to be expanded on etc etc. The second time I’m checking more for spelling/grammar/tense. The third time is usually just to make sure everything flows together the way I want it to. Sorry that I am like this but clearly I will never change or improve!! When I first started writing I literally could not post anything until my friend read it, but now I’m better about “being my own beta” I guess.

babyvillanelle: Right now I am trying out the process of physically printing my draft and editing it by hand. This means I get to look at the fic from a different perspective and I get to do it with minimal distractions. I also find that writing by hand uses different parts of my brain so it helps to get that perspective too! Once I’ve done that, I send it to a few people that I trust to tell me if I’ve made a silly mistake or I’ve left plot holes, and then I post it!

misspamela: I write chapter by chapter and get beta notes/edit on each chapter. I think of the story in parts, not as a whole, or else I get overwhelmed.

pixiepower: I hope it’s not obvious that I don’t edit, LOL. I’ll upload to AO3 and give it a full, start-to-finish reread to catch any half-finished sentences or awkward phrasing, but I virtually never change the content of my writing once a draft is finished.

poppyseedheart: God. Okay, yes. Having beta readers is essential to my process and if certain people that I trust to tell me the truth about my work and offer insight on how to improve it haven’t looked at a longer story, I will simply wait until they can.

One thing I think about a lot is message and internal consistency. Does this make sense? Is it saying what I wanted it to say? That’s the biggest thing. In editing I look a lot at themes and how emotional moments link to each other. A scene that felt great as I was writing it might contradict a different one that I really need to serve the story, so it becomes a negotiation. If anything about the story pings as off, I trust that instinct, even if I can’t pin down what feels wrong yet. I know that part needs extra attention and I pay it.

Line editing comes pretty easily to me, though I like to read things out loud every now and again in shorter bits that feel awkward. For more structural edits… I do struggle sometimes with overhauling words, but I’ve gotten less precious about that as time goes on. My first drafts tend to be pretty tight. I do edit as I go a little. I don’t like to feel too off the rails for too long, so I try to course correct whenever necessary. But I’ve improved when it comes to knowing when to cut my losses vs trying to save a chunk of text that isn’t working.

In my story golden (33k, svt mingyu/jeonghan), I literally cut and rewrote the last 5k of the story the night before it was due to the idolverse fest. What a bonkers choice. My beta tried to talk me off the ledge but I had this moment of like… I know what this story needs to be, and that thing is entirely new. It was scary! But I think it really paid off and I’m proud of the new ending, so it was worth it.

sinchun: Specific to series or chaptered works: my habit is to wait until the next installment is written (or mostly written) before posting to help with continuity, in case I decide to change something in the next chapter/fic. This was huge for keeping everything accurate across my 16-part series.

Beta readers are wonderful and definitely what you want to make of them. I tend to use them mostly for checking for typos or things like, Does the arc of the story make sense? Does the pacing feel right? (I rewrote the ending of the second chapter of that ~20k fic after feedback from a beta reader who said that the emotional development felt a little rushed.) Otherwise, I am a terrible non-editor; if I catch a typo when rereading my work after posting (yes, I love to reread my own fic – after all, I’m writing for me before anyone else), I’ll go back and fix it, but I don’t write fanfic to be A Serious Writer™. It’s just for fun for me.

trestle: Oh, I usually edit as I go - unless I’m super concerned about how something is turning out, I don’t usually ask someone to beta for me, though I’ve tried both ways and having a beta is truly invaluable and so helpful! So whenever I’m done with a section for the day, the following day I tend to go over what I wrote previously before moving on - it usually gets me in the right mood to continue writing anyway!

After all that, I go over the fic again several times. Definitely more than whenever I post shorter stuff, anyway! This is when I figure out if anything needs to be added, if transitions work, if anything is repetitive. One of my biggest pitfalls as a writer is sometimes I repeat distinctive words too close to each other, which is something I consciously try to fix especially in the initial editing steps. It’s a little more difficult to do for longfic but it’s something I focus on a lot.

Auber_Gine_Dreams: I’m very guilty of getting tripped up by my stats or interactions from readers. Sometimes, especially with the way I tend to work on and post long fic, it feels really lonely. I’m working on this huge thing and no one will even know until it’s done!! I really try to take a step back and remind myself that I’m writing the things I want to read. I’m writing because I enjoy it, even the boring car ride Wonwoo and Jeonghan are going to take before they get to the bar where lycanthropes are disappearing!! I hope writers who happen to read this, as corny as it sounds, know that it’s more important that you enjoy what you’re working on!! With long fic there’s no time limit!! You can write a chapter and leave it for a few weeks or months! Take it as slow as you need to!!

babyvillanelle: I don’t think so!! Thank you for doing this! This was really fun to do and think about! I love talking about the process of writing.

misspamela: One of my favorite pieces of advice is to leave something unfinished when I stop writing - stop mid sentence or mid thought, because you want to leave yourself a thread to pick up on.

pixiepower: Sometimes I get to a certain wordcount and go “well, only x thousand words until this is the longest fic I’ve ever written…” and I’ll go back and see where I can flesh out a scene or dialogue or a character more just to hit the wordcount. Not my proudest quality but maybe someday I’ll get to that elusive 40k mark, haha!

sinchun: Longfic can be hard because there’s none of the immediate gratification of writing something short and posting it right away. Share snippets of your longfic with friends! You can be excited about something even before it’s done! But if you ask a beta reader to check for “Am I conveying the intended theme?” try to find someone you haven’t already shared snippets with, to get a fresh set of eyes on it.

trestle: Hmmmm, not really, except that I do want to emphasize letting your story take you where it wants to go as it’s such a rewarding experience. Not all fics have to be long. Sometimes, stories are better told succinctly and there’s joy in that. As long as you are happy with the story, regardless of length, then it would have all been worth it!

Auber_Gine_Dreams: This entire thing is basically me promoting White Noise 3 (working title)!! If you haven’t read my Wonu is a Necromancer AU now is a great time to check it out! No Anita Blake knowledge required!! Vampires and were-animals and witches and fun magic!! The series totals at 136k right now!

babyvillanelle: If anyone reads any of my writing I would be honored!!

misspamela: I just wrote a Critical Role fic that I’m super proud of! It's Shadowgast and takes place over the course of C2 (spoilers for C2!) and I feel like i did a good job capturing their voices, even though I’m new to the fandom.

pixiepower: I’m especially proud of my new, longer fic the night is short and you’re not a given, a Seventeen Vernon/The8 fic that feels like a true encapsulation of all my writing trademarks: tenderness, vibes, art, animals, slightly purple metaphors… But I hope everyone can look forward to some more unique fic from me—I have a crossover piece in the works that will surprise in many ways but one, I think!!

poppyseedheart: Emma AU, light of my life, center of my writing world rn! Stay tuned Stays, she’s on her way. Otherwise, golden isn’t particularly long but it’s the longest thing I’ve posted in a hot minute and I’m very proud of it.

sinchun: Ooh, I’m always working on stuff! Some themes I’m playing with right now include: canon divergence, reversal of crushes, humorous kink discovery, and toxic codependency. But as for hyping myself up, here’s what I think is my most underrated fic: Catch a Dream.

trestle: Taking a bit of a break from SVT fic to dabble in TXT fic (ao3 trestle, twt user fragmentofday), so I have several plans for that fandom. It’s quite daunting but very exciting to expand and write for more good boys! Thank you for this, Em! It was great fun!