this is just a silly question that i’m wondering about—i’ve never written one before but am curious since so much time has to be dedicated to a long work! did you get it right the first time and feel proud of it? what contributed to that? or would you have changed your process?
i just got through reading a super long fic and there were so many small details, so many motifs that the author kept returning to, and at the end when the characters finally got together for good, all of their mini hopes and dreams and mini problems had been solved. i found myself wondering, how many of these aspirations and problems were planned ahead of time? how many of these literary motifs were intentional from the beginning?
how many small details/subplots/arcs do you personally plan in a long fic? do you know every single detail about your characters before you start writing? or do those come later? how does that process look?
i’m writing here because i’m planning on writing a long fic that will likely include explicit content. i currently have two ao3 accounts: my main account, which has only pretty wholesome oneshots (around 20, give or take?) and one which only has smut (like 4 fics total, because some of my online and irl friends have the username of the first one and i was too embarrassed to start writing smut with them knowing)
i was planning on writing this long fic on my main ao3 (because i have a lot of active readers and a pretty successful tumblr account connected to it) but im so embarrassed thinking about people who actually know me reading this and worry it will affect my writing. should i just start from scratch on the smaller account with this fic? do you guys feel uncomfortable knowing people you know could be reading your work? how do you get over it/is it even worth it when you can just be anonymous?
honestly, the best scenario would be somehow that i keep all of my readers but zap the memory of my username and any trace of my page from my friends’ internet history😭 any way to do this lmk… maybe i just promote it on my main acc and hope my readers see it and not my friends?
but i honestly just wanna open a dialogue about why this does or does not make you uncomfortable! let me know how you feel
i’ve come up with a college au idea that i like but am wondering about the logistics of where it takes place.
the fanfic will be about anime characters, so there was the idea in my mind to have it take place in japan somewhere the anime takes place, but i don’t think i’d be able to do that idea justice since i am modeling the story based on my own experiences in the united states.
so, since i know more or less now where i want the story to take place (in the U.S., i have a specific area in mind) do i use an actual university for the story? do i make up a fake university? or do i not name the university at all? what are the drawbacks/benefits?
i guess what im wondering is like, how real should i go? should i name real restaurants, cafes, cities, parks, etc..? or can i get away with naming none of them? or should i make fake names for everything? what’s your preference and why?
and also, do i have to explain why the characters are here? in canon they’re obviously in japan but does this now make my au like, America AU (lol)?
let me know what you guys like writing but also reading the most!
hello! i’ve been writing fanfiction since 2020 but have never finished a single story that i planned to be longer than a oneshot. this is really embarrassing to admit honestly and i feel especially ashamed of it since i have so many drafts titled “YOU WILL FINISH THIS ONE” or “WHY CANT YOU FINISH ANYTHING”😭😭. i really would love to reap the benefits of having actually finished a fic—engaging with a community of readers (which i’ve absolutely loved in my oneshots!) and feeling proud of myself and the universe i’ve built—but im not sure how to force myself to do it.
for instance, i started a multi-chapter fic and started posting chapters but just… stopped at one point and don’t really intend to/want to go back to it because i don’t really like it anymore.
now, im really REALLY trying to step into the long fic world with periodic uploading and longer chapters and a thought out story but im honestly just worried that no idea will ever stick with me, that i’ll never want to actually stick an idea out til the end. has anyone else dealt with this? how did you get over it? how do you make sure you don’t lose interest in something you’re writing? how do you stay motivated?
hi! i have been in fandom spaces for a long time but never truly got into the fanfiction world until recently. i had always written it on my own for fun, but upon seeing the community built around ship fics i want to try my hand at a long fic for the first time.
i’ve come up with plenty of “good” ideas, but none that i feel particularly passionate about/feel like “me”. i struggle with coming up with things that are far too bland or too close to something i’ve read before. since i plan to work on xyz fic for quite a while, i wanted to know if there are any methods y’all employ to make sure you are passionate about a fic idea or how you know what it is that you want to write. should i just wait for it to come to me? or is there anything i can think about that could be helpful?