hi! i need help. i've got an idea for a fic i've been sitting on for a while now, but it's a bit of an ambitious au that requires research and an actual plot that makes sense. i don't know where to start, and i'm the type of person who bases their worth on their productivity (something i need to work on, i know). i've had lots of free time, but even then i haven't written anything. any tips on where/how to start? or not feel shitty about this? thanks ✨✨
Bear with me for a moment while I talk about something that might seem totally unrelated: project management methodology.
There are two major ways that I've encountered for managing a project. One way is called Waterfall and the other way is called Agile. In Waterfall project management, you basically build the whole thing and then release a finished product. This is useful in a situation like baking a cake. Giving people the uncooked batter probably won't go over well.
In Agile project management, you build something that's referred to as the minimum viable product. This is a sort of stripped down version of the final product. It still does whatever it's meant to do, but it doesn't have all of the bells and whistles on it. If you play video games, you'll be familiar with this. They release the base game and then add more functionalities and levels over time, but meanwhile people are buying and playing the game and those sales help to finance further development.
So what does this have to do with writing a big fic? Well, writing longfic is its own kind of project management. Depending on your own personality, either a Waterfall or an Agile approach could work for you.
Based on this ask, I think you might want to take an Agile approach. Look at the overall story and think: what's the core story I'm trying to tell? That's the minimum viable product. You can add in all of the world building and the subplots etc. after you've got the main thread figured out, but that main thread is what you should focus on first. Any research on the main thread gets priority. Any research on the side stuff can wait for later.
And this can also be a way for you to get feedback as you write. That's another core of Agile development - getting feedback from the stakeholders (in this case your audience) throughout the development process so that the final product fits the need. You can do this with a beta reader or by participating in things like Six Sentence Sunday.
You can also break your huge story down into a series of smaller stories that can be posted separately and grouped together in a series on ao3.
Decide what the most important part of the story is that you really want to tell and start there. Once you've got that part, you can build on it.
How do the rest of you figure out a huge story like this one? Can you offer anon any advice?
For a long project, so that I’m sure that I’m gonna finish it, I need to have it all written down before I start posting, otherwise the pressure of having to write it down combined with the pressure of having readers waiting for an update will scare me into never looking at that project again. I will certainly still edit it and maybe even add some scenes as I proof pread for posting day, but most of it needs to be written down.
Long fics scare the hell out of me, so what I do is focus on it one scene at a time, cause I will get overwhelmed if I know I have 5, 10, 20, 40 more scenes to write.
Just write the scene you have on your mind now - or do it chronologically, whatever works best for you - as if it is your only worry.
I, particularly, go back and forth a lot, though I leave all the scenes in their respective “space”, leaving little notes to myself so that I know that I need to add another scene in a certain place, a transition paragraph, anything like that.
I know a lot of people make a plan for the fic, and that sounds really smart, but it doesn’t really work for me. I go with the flow, always rereading what is already written so that I can have a feel for what needs to come next. This approach also makes me end up with quite a few discarded scenes, but it is what it is 🤷♀️
While pantsing is valid, I think that it's worth giving a shot at planning in Anon's case. I too am writing a super ambitious au, and it took me 9 months to thought-dump on-and-off, and another three to plan out the plot, characters, and world in detail. Yes, I am on the extreme side of things, but here's some wisdom I can share.
First of all, I feel like planning gets a bad rap for being "homework". Like I've heard "Oh, it stifles creativity" or "It feels like the story has already been told so why write it?" and I just... don't get that at all?
Sometimes planning doesn't work for you, and that's okay, but planning is an intensely creative process! This is where you lay the skeleton of your story down, and then actually writing it is where you lay on the flesh. Along the way, you may have to rearrange a few bones here and there, but you see a finishing point ahead.
Having a general path to follow is what gets be through longfics. I can't stand to run in blind. I need to see the gist of what's ahead of me. To some people, they feel outlining the story means there's no point in telling it because it's "already been told" but to me it's like inhaling a binge-worthy book at lightning speed and then writing the fic is like rereading the story to pick up on countless details, clues, and foreshadowing that flew over my head the first time. Even with my meticulous planning, the drafting process continues to delight and surprise all the time. It just comes from the details rather than the trajectory of the story.
When it comes to planning a large fic, though, it helps to get visual. Go beyond the typical Word or notes document. I am once again quite extreme because I pay like $12 a month for Milanote, but I use it because it allows me to easily navigate between my notes, colour code them, add visuals, as well as put in a ton of detail while also being able to see the bigger picture. Look into using a free program that allows you to do the same thing, or spice up your document with bookmark links, coloured text, and pictures.
When it comes to the actual content, these are the three places to focus on:
- Plot
- Characters
- Worldbuilding
Plotting is about ensuring that you have a strong throughline. You don't want to get side-tracked and you want to keep the pace. Where does the tension peak and rest? Planning will help you find that balance early on without having to do a ton of deleting or rewriting.
Character profiles will help you nail down how they've been shaped by this world, as well as consistency. The thing to focus on here are goals, motivations, values, and development. That's the real meat and potatoes. If you know that deeply, then it'll be easy to keep your characters in-character.
Worldbuilding isn't my favourite thing (and I like that fanfic lets me gloss over it most of the time) but this is where you focus on plot-relevant regions, magic systems, cultures, and political systems. This is also where pictures come in handy. Instead of writing tons of notes, just get some inspo pics, add a few sentences below it for context, and vola! Worldbuilding!
After you've finished your planning, read through all your notes again. See if there are any changes, big or small, that you want to make before you start. It'll save you a ton of hassle.
And after all that planning, your longfic should hopefully look a lot less intimidating because you know exactly what you're getting into. There's no running in blind because the path is clear and now you only have to pave it.
Hope that helped!
Wow, lots of amazing advice in here for comics creators too 🥰
