Rajvik_wolfboy
Wolf amongst the stars.
- Location
- Florida
Wait and pair it up. Probably work better that way.
Advice and Trust [NGE]
Wait and pair it up. Probably work better that way.
Turing Decidable
𝕘𝕒𝕣𝕗
- Location
- Belgium
- Pronouns
- He/Him
If it were me, I'd feel more satisfied if I brought it to a close in one go. However, I wouldn't say no to the alternative. More A&T is more better.
I say pair it.
- Location
- National Capital Region, USA
1400 word scene done, but I'm going to at least take a stab at the next scene before I think about posting any of it. The next scene or scene and a half will be the ones that finally close out chapter 8, and I want to do them right.
- Location
- in the trash
Just how long is Chapter 8 compared to the rest of the story?
- Location
- Spain
Just by checking the index at the start, I'd say that a good 20-25k words at the least.
- Location
- Out and About
Good to know. Thanks for keeping us in the loop.
- Location
- National Capital Region, USA
According to my master document, Advice & Trust is currently 296 pages. 100 pages of that is Chapter 8. It is 53,774 words at the moment and it's not quite done. So I may have to break up Chapter 8 into at least two pieces because it's the size of a novel by itself and one third of the fic.
- Location
- Spain
Ludicrulously huge piece of writing that got out of hand, huh?
I know the feeling.
Re-reading the whole thing while waiting for the update and smo... I-i mean, my cat that's on my lap is doing some pot at the moment. Not me, heavens forbid!
"Let's just say it has a different feel to it, less sugary - in a good sense of this word." So says my cat.
Although I'm pretty sure cats don't perceive sweet taste.
Ranma-sensei
Sorcerer
- Location
- Citrix Receiver
- Pronouns
- Weatherdependent
Not by taste, no.
Schpoonman
They call me the Bord of Lays
- Location
- United States
I am curious about something: Has 8's size done anything to your endgame? I recall you saying you had 12 chapters planned, so will this just expand to 13 chapters or are there additional ripples?
Hexokinase
contrarian for the sake of being contrarian
- Location
- Urban Labyrinth
Ah yes... In Literature we call this "George RR Martin-ing"
Iuvenal
Desperanda tibi salua concordia socru
- Location
- Terrace IV
- Location
- National Capital Region, USA
Pretty much just splitting Chapter 8 into two, and letting it roll. So, now we'll have 13 + epilogue.
Strypgia, how do you actually plan your stories?
Been recently trying to storyboard things out before actually writing the nitty-gritty detail so that I don't write myself into a corner.
How do you plan things?
The Englanderish
Schrödinger's Kuudere Kitty Caliph(a)
- Location
- Califat de Chats
His secrets are sealed in the most secure vault of Fort Knox, behind intricate flame traps, guarded by Jormungandr the Midgaard serpent itself and the entire extended Justice League.
YOU WILL NEVER FIND THEM!
M. H. Fuzzball
Aperture Science-certified Horrible Person
- Location
- Sector 2814
What planning? He's got two angry Germanic redheads following around, one complaining about how long since she's had alone time with her baka, and the other grousing about how he destroyed her new toy. Unfortunately, there's a serious lack of blue-eyed Japanese cello players to calm them down.
Schpoonman
They call me the Bord of Lays
- Location
- United States
...Who's the second redhead?
The Englanderish
Schrödinger's Kuudere Kitty Caliph(a)
- Location
- Califat de Chats
Kyoko I guess?
Story Process
- Location
- National Capital Region, USA
Well, first I just start writing, and get 20,000 words in before I realize I should probably have a plan, and then sit down to figure one out.
More seriously, once I got that far into A&T, I sat back and looked at the overall theme I was shooting for, and the general direction of events, and extrapolated both out to the end of the canon storyline. I had both advantages and constraints here, in that I assumed canon events and the timeline not affected by the Point of Divergence would continue as normal until and unless the ripple-effects from the kiss changed things. I did plan on letting said changes ripple out and seeing what happened. (Rei falling in love with Shinji and Asuka and Hikari being named Fourth Child in Touji's place were two such things.) But having canon as left and right limits on how events would proceed provided some structure: I didn't have to figure out what would happen to bring things to an end, just how the changes to canon would alter things. SEELE and NERV's plots are still rolling along, but even I've been a bit surprised at just how things are changing.
I'm very much a 'discovery' writer: I have an outline for a scene, things I want to have happen and possibly some key bits of dialogue I want to insert, but I almost always just take that framework and dive into writing a scene, and let things happen. Sometimes I can be very surprised. For example, when I started writing it, I truly had no idea how the scene was going to go or how Asuka would jump in the confession scene in A Crown of Stars, Chapter 25. I had mapped out a couple of potential scenarios, but I was on the edge of my own seat even while writing, waiting to find out how Asuka would react to being offered Shinji's heart. Similarly, in A&T, Chapter 4.4, the scene in Rei's apartment where Asuka first learns that Rei is drugged into apathetic numbness every day was just supposed to be a way for Asuka to see how much Rei's life sucked and become less antagonistic to her, making harmony between the Children easier. It was not planned to be the beginning of the three of them coming to love each other like it has.
So, backing up a bit: Late 2014, once I realized I had a lot more to A&T that I wanted to explore than the initial one-shot, I sat back, looked at A&T's general theme of 'stronger together', and considered how that would affect things, going over each Angel battle and then the final confrontation with SEELE. I blocked out the chapters, initially using each Angel battle as the rough center. So Chapter 6 was Bardiel, Chapter 7 Zeruel, Chapter 8 Arael, etc. This has changed as non-Angel events expanded to fill space, but that was the first cut. Chapter 8 was supposed to just be the wrap-up post-Zeruel, Shinji and Asuka revealing their relationship to Misato and their classmates, and then the early arrival of the Fifth Child. However, as I wrote, things like the week of pranks, Ritsuko's shitty week, re-detoxing Rei, and then the Synch Test & Unit-00's berserker rampage, which sparked Ritsuko's dark night all popped up, which has resulted in Chapter 8 now being 50k words all by itself.
None of those things were in my initial outline written back in late 2014. In fact, I think I might retype the 'script' I made up back then, and let you all see how it has and hasn't worked out. (As yet unwritten parts will not be shown, of course.
) Back then, I broadly wrote out what events were supposed to happen in each chapter, with far less detail for the later ones since I knew events in the earlier ones I hadn't written yet would shape things. I had a page each for Chapters 4-7, a couple of paragraphs for 8, and maybe one each for 9-11. Chapter 12 got a little more, since I know how some elements of the final battle will go, but it's still just a rough outline. Well, I do have some bits worked out.
I know what Shinji, Asuka, Rei, and Kaworu's last lines will all be. Yes, they'll all be there. You can probably name some others who will be too.
That's the overall outline, mind. In the smaller scale, I take my scene-to-scene outline, and start visualizing it in my head. I generally do several 'takes', movie-style, of a scene before I start in on typing it out. Sometimes this is the whole thing, with dialogue worked out. Sometimes it's just a rough storyboard, and I do the dialogue later as I type. Scenes with heavy import, like Shinji and Asuka's reveal to Misato, or Rei's apology to Ritsuko, can take a long time to work through, since what is said in them has major affects on the story, and I want to get them right.
It might surprise you to hear that these are basically hot and fresh draft pages, with little re-writing. The betas check spelling, punctuation, and overall impact, but it's very rare that I do a major re-write. Partly this is due to how I come at a scene: I talk out the development with @LilithPrime as I go, so a fair amount of the 'how do I do this?' is worked out with her before I start typing.
Ok, this got way longer than I thought, as usual. Overall, my process is to work out a broad outline of events, make sure it marches with the theme, and establish key points and notes I want to hit, then start working, and let the interstitial parts and surprises come at me as I go. I let bits of scenes and key lines come to me as they will, and write down notes as I go if what occurs to me isn't something I can use in the next scene, since I don't plan in that level of detail more than a scene ahead.
Tl;dr: Have an outline, go into detail before you write a scene, and stay flexible for interesting surprises as they come to you. Know where the end is, and let the path you take to get there come at it's own speed.
Hope that is what you were looking for, Fernandel.
"Ok, you, #2, you just charged headlong into danger, like you always do, and got literally shot down. So that's on you. You didn't think I'd make it that easy, did you? Since when has anything in your life been easy? Plus, we're like 2 scenes from the climax of ACoS, so you better put on your Big Girl shoes and be ready for that. There will be blood, and you're going to need every scrap of courage and strength you've ever learned to make it though that alive."
"And you, #1, just got some alone time with your boy, I just haven't posted the scene yet. And Misato is due to give you her decision soon, which you may or may not like. So relax, be patient, and wallow in the Schadenfreude of Doctor Bitchface having the worst night of her life in the last bit."
Legend Of Desu
Frustrated easily by Rudeness and Stupidity
Well, first I just start writing, and get 20,000 words in before I realize I should probably have a plan, and then sit down to figure one out.
More seriously, once I got that far into A&T, I sat back and looked at the overall theme I was shooting for, and the general direction of events, and extrapolated both out to the end of the canon storyline. I had both advantages and constraints here, in that I assumed canon events and the timeline not affected by the Point of Divergence would continue as normal until and unless the ripple-effects from the kiss changed things. I did plan on letting said changes ripple out and seeing what happened. (Rei falling in love with Shinji and Asuka and Hikari being named Fourth Child in Touji's place were two such things.) But having canon as left and right limits on how events would proceed provided some structure: I didn't have to figure out what would happen to bring things to an end, just how the changes to canon would alter things. SEELE and NERV's plots are still rolling along, but even I've been a bit surprised at just how things are changing.
I'm very much a 'discovery' writer: I have an outline for a scene, things I want to have happen and possibly some key bits of dialogue I want to insert, but I almost always just take that framework and dive into writing a scene, and let things happen. Sometimes I can be very surprised. For example, when I started writing it, I truly had no idea how the scene was going to go or how Asuka would jump in the confession scene in A Crown of Stars, Chapter 25. I had mapped out a couple of potential scenarios, but I was on the edge of my own seat even while writing, waiting to find out how Asuka would react to being offered Shinji's heart. Similarly, in A&T, Chapter 4.4, the scene in Rei's apartment where Asuka first learns that Rei is drugged into apathetic numbness every day was just supposed to be a way for Asuka to see how much Rei's life sucked and become less antagonistic to her, making harmony between the Children easier. It was not planned to be the beginning of the three of them coming to love each other like it has.
So, backing up a bit: Late 2014, once I realized I had a lot more to A&T that I wanted to explore than the initial one-shot, I sat back, looked at A&T's general theme of 'stronger together', and considered how that would affect things, going over each Angel battle and then the final confrontation with SEELE. I blocked out the chapters, initially using each Angel battle as the rough center. So Chapter 6 was Bardiel, Chapter 7 Zeruel, Chapter 8 Arael, etc. This has changed as non-Angel events expanded to fill space, but that was the first cut. Chapter 8 was supposed to just be the wrap-up post-Zeruel, Shinji and Asuka revealing their relationship to Misato and their classmates, and then the early arrival of the Fifth Child. However, as I wrote, things like the week of pranks, Ritsuko's shitty week, re-detoxing Rei, and then the Synch Test & Unit-00's berserker rampage, which sparked Ritsuko's dark night all popped up, which has resulted in Chapter 8 now being 50k words all by itself.
None of those things were in my initial outline written back in late 2014. In fact, I think I might retype the 'script' I made up back then, and let you all see how it has and hasn't worked out. (As yet unwritten parts will not be shown, of course.I know what Shinji, Asuka, Rei, and Kaworu's last lines will all be. Yes, they'll all be there. You can probably name some others who will be too.
That's the overall outline, mind. In the smaller scale, I take my scene-to-scene outline, and start visualizing it in my head. I generally do several 'takes', movie-style, of a scene before I start in on typing it out. Sometimes this is the whole thing, with dialogue worked out. Sometimes it's just a rough storyboard, and I do the dialogue later as I type. Scenes with heavy import, like Shinji and Asuka's reveal to Misato, or Rei's apology to Ritsuko, can take a long time to work through, since what is said in them has major affects on the story, and I want to get them right.
It might surprise you to hear that these are basically hot and fresh draft pages, with little re-writing. The betas check spelling, punctuation, and overall impact, but it's very rare that I do a major re-write. Partly this is due to how I come at a scene: I talk out the development with @LilithPrime as I go, so a fair amount of the 'how do I do this?' is worked out with her before I start typing.
Ok, this got way longer than I thought, as usual. Overall, my process is to work out a broad outline of events, make sure it marches with the theme, and establish key points and notes I want to hit, then start working, and let the interstitial parts and surprises come at me as I go. I let bits of scenes and key lines come to me as they will, and write down notes as I go if what occurs to me isn't something I can use in the next scene, since I don't plan in that level of detail more than a scene ahead.
Tl;dr: Have an outline, go into detail before you write a scene, and stay flexible for interesting surprises as they come to you. Know where the end is, and let the path you take to get there come at it's own speed.
Hope that is what you were looking for, Fernandel.
"Ok, you, #2, you just charged headlong into danger, like you always do, and got literally shot down. So that's on you. You didn't think I'd make it that easy, did you? Since when has anything in your life been easy? Plus, we're like 2 scenes from the climax of ACoS, so you better put on your Big Girl shoes and be ready for that. There will be blood, and you're going to need every scrap of courage and strength you've ever learned to make it though that alive."
"And you, #1, just got some alone time with your boy, I just haven't posted the scene yet. And Misato is due to give you her decision soon, which you may or may not like. So relax, be patient, and wallow in the Schadenfreude of Doctor Bitchface having the worst night of her life in the last bit."
Well, first I just start writing, and get 20,000 words in before I realize I should probably have a plan, and then sit down to figure one out.
More seriously, once I got that far into A&T, I sat back and looked at the overall theme I was shooting for, and the general direction of events, and extrapolated both out to the end of the canon storyline. I had both advantages and constraints here, in that I assumed canon events and the timeline not affected by the Point of Divergence would continue as normal until and unless the ripple-effects from the kiss changed things. I did plan on letting said changes ripple out and seeing what happened. (Rei falling in love with Shinji and Asuka and Hikari being named Fourth Child in Touji's place were two such things.) But having canon as left and right limits on how events would proceed provided some structure: I didn't have to figure out what would happen to bring things to an end, just how the changes to canon would alter things. SEELE and NERV's plots are still rolling along, but even I've been a bit surprised at just how things are changing.
I'm very much a 'discovery' writer: I have an outline for a scene, things I want to have happen and possibly some key bits of dialogue I want to insert, but I almost always just take that framework and dive into writing a scene, and let things happen. Sometimes I can be very surprised. For example, when I started writing it, I truly had no idea how the scene was going to go or how Asuka would jump in the confession scene in A Crown of Stars, Chapter 25. I had mapped out a couple of potential scenarios, but I was on the edge of my own seat even while writing, waiting to find out how Asuka would react to being offered Shinji's heart. Similarly, in A&T, Chapter 4.4, the scene in Rei's apartment where Asuka first learns that Rei is drugged into apathetic numbness every day was just supposed to be a way for Asuka to see how much Rei's life sucked and become less antagonistic to her, making harmony between the Children easier. It was not planned to be the beginning of the three of them coming to love each other like it has.
So, backing up a bit: Late 2014, once I realized I had a lot more to A&T that I wanted to explore than the initial one-shot, I sat back, looked at A&T's general theme of 'stronger together', and considered how that would affect things, going over each Angel battle and then the final confrontation with SEELE. I blocked out the chapters, initially using each Angel battle as the rough center. So Chapter 6 was Bardiel, Chapter 7 Zeruel, Chapter 8 Arael, etc. This has changed as non-Angel events expanded to fill space, but that was the first cut. Chapter 8 was supposed to just be the wrap-up post-Zeruel, Shinji and Asuka revealing their relationship to Misato and their classmates, and then the early arrival of the Fifth Child. However, as I wrote, things like the week of pranks, Ritsuko's shitty week, re-detoxing Rei, and then the Synch Test & Unit-00's berserker rampage, which sparked Ritsuko's dark night all popped up, which has resulted in Chapter 8 now being 50k words all by itself.
None of those things were in my initial outline written back in late 2014. In fact, I think I might retype the 'script' I made up back then, and let you all see how it has and hasn't worked out. (As yet unwritten parts will not be shown, of course.I know what Shinji, Asuka, Rei, and Kaworu's last lines will all be. Yes, they'll all be there. You can probably name some others who will be too.
That's the overall outline, mind. In the smaller scale, I take my scene-to-scene outline, and start visualizing it in my head. I generally do several 'takes', movie-style, of a scene before I start in on typing it out. Sometimes this is the whole thing, with dialogue worked out. Sometimes it's just a rough storyboard, and I do the dialogue later as I type. Scenes with heavy import, like Shinji and Asuka's reveal to Misato, or Rei's apology to Ritsuko, can take a long time to work through, since what is said in them has major affects on the story, and I want to get them right.
It might surprise you to hear that these are basically hot and fresh draft pages, with little re-writing. The betas check spelling, punctuation, and overall impact, but it's very rare that I do a major re-write. Partly this is due to how I come at a scene: I talk out the development with @LilithPrime as I go, so a fair amount of the 'how do I do this?' is worked out with her before I start typing.
Ok, this got way longer than I thought, as usual. Overall, my process is to work out a broad outline of events, make sure it marches with the theme, and establish key points and notes I want to hit, then start working, and let the interstitial parts and surprises come at me as I go. I let bits of scenes and key lines come to me as they will, and write down notes as I go if what occurs to me isn't something I can use in the next scene, since I don't plan in that level of detail more than a scene ahead.
Tl;dr: Have an outline, go into detail before you write a scene, and stay flexible for interesting surprises as they come to you. Know where the end is, and let the path you take to get there come at it's own speed.
Hope that is what you were looking for, Fernandel.
"Ok, you, #2, you just charged headlong into danger, like you always do, and got literally shot down. So that's on you. You didn't think I'd make it that easy, did you? Since when has anything in your life been easy? Plus, we're like 2 scenes from the climax of ACoS, so you better put on your Big Girl shoes and be ready for that. There will be blood, and you're going to need every scrap of courage and strength you've ever learned to make it though that alive."
"And you, #1, just got some alone time with your boy, I just haven't posted the scene yet. And Misato is due to give you her decision soon, which you may or may not like. So relax, be patient, and wallow in the Schadenfreude of Doctor Bitchface having the worst night of her life in the last bit."
Well, first I just start writing, and get 20,000 words in before I realize I should probably have a plan, and then sit down to figure one out.
More seriously, once I got that far into A&T, I sat back and looked at the overall theme I was shooting for, and the general direction of events, and extrapolated both out to the end of the canon storyline. I had both advantages and constraints here, in that I assumed canon events and the timeline not affected by the Point of Divergence would continue as normal until and unless the ripple-effects from the kiss changed things. I did plan on letting said changes ripple out and seeing what happened. (Rei falling in love with Shinji and Asuka and Hikari being named Fourth Child in Touji's place were two such things.) But having canon as left and right limits on how events would proceed provided some structure: I didn't have to figure out what would happen to bring things to an end, just how the changes to canon would alter things. SEELE and NERV's plots are still rolling along, but even I've been a bit surprised at just how things are changing.
I'm very much a 'discovery' writer: I have an outline for a scene, things I want to have happen and possibly some key bits of dialogue I want to insert, but I almost always just take that framework and dive into writing a scene, and let things happen. Sometimes I can be very surprised. For example, when I started writing it, I truly had no idea how the scene was going to go or how Asuka would jump in the confession scene in A Crown of Stars, Chapter 25. I had mapped out a couple of potential scenarios, but I was on the edge of my own seat even while writing, waiting to find out how Asuka would react to being offered Shinji's heart. Similarly, in A&T, Chapter 4.4, the scene in Rei's apartment where Asuka first learns that Rei is drugged into apathetic numbness every day was just supposed to be a way for Asuka to see how much Rei's life sucked and become less antagonistic to her, making harmony between the Children easier. It was not planned to be the beginning of the three of them coming to love each other like it has.
So, backing up a bit: Late 2014, once I realized I had a lot more to A&T that I wanted to explore than the initial one-shot, I sat back, looked at A&T's general theme of 'stronger together', and considered how that would affect things, going over each Angel battle and then the final confrontation with SEELE. I blocked out the chapters, initially using each Angel battle as the rough center. So Chapter 6 was Bardiel, Chapter 7 Zeruel, Chapter 8 Arael, etc. This has changed as non-Angel events expanded to fill space, but that was the first cut. Chapter 8 was supposed to just be the wrap-up post-Zeruel, Shinji and Asuka revealing their relationship to Misato and their classmates, and then the early arrival of the Fifth Child. However, as I wrote, things like the week of pranks, Ritsuko's shitty week, re-detoxing Rei, and then the Synch Test & Unit-00's berserker rampage, which sparked Ritsuko's dark night all popped up, which has resulted in Chapter 8 now being 50k words all by itself.
None of those things were in my initial outline written back in late 2014. In fact, I think I might retype the 'script' I made up back then, and let you all see how it has and hasn't worked out. (As yet unwritten parts will not be shown, of course.I know what Shinji, Asuka, Rei, and Kaworu's last lines will all be. Yes, they'll all be there. You can probably name some others who will be too.
That's the overall outline, mind. In the smaller scale, I take my scene-to-scene outline, and start visualizing it in my head. I generally do several 'takes', movie-style, of a scene before I start in on typing it out. Sometimes this is the whole thing, with dialogue worked out. Sometimes it's just a rough storyboard, and I do the dialogue later as I type. Scenes with heavy import, like Shinji and Asuka's reveal to Misato, or Rei's apology to Ritsuko, can take a long time to work through, since what is said in them has major affects on the story, and I want to get them right.
It might surprise you to hear that these are basically hot and fresh draft pages, with little re-writing. The betas check spelling, punctuation, and overall impact, but it's very rare that I do a major re-write. Partly this is due to how I come at a scene: I talk out the development with @LilithPrime as I go, so a fair amount of the 'how do I do this?' is worked out with her before I start typing.
Ok, this got way longer than I thought, as usual. Overall, my process is to work out a broad outline of events, make sure it marches with the theme, and establish key points and notes I want to hit, then start working, and let the interstitial parts and surprises come at me as I go. I let bits of scenes and key lines come to me as they will, and write down notes as I go if what occurs to me isn't something I can use in the next scene, since I don't plan in that level of detail more than a scene ahead.
Tl;dr: Have an outline, go into detail before you write a scene, and stay flexible for interesting surprises as they come to you. Know where the end is, and let the path you take to get there come at it's own speed.
Hope that is what you were looking for, Fernandel.
"Ok, you, #2, you just charged headlong into danger, like you always do, and got literally shot down. So that's on you. You didn't think I'd make it that easy, did you? Since when has anything in your life been easy? Plus, we're like 2 scenes from the climax of ACoS, so you better put on your Big Girl shoes and be ready for that. There will be blood, and you're going to need every scrap of courage and strength you've ever learned to make it though that alive."
"And you, #1, just got some alone time with your boy, I just haven't posted the scene yet. And Misato is due to give you her decision soon, which you may or may not like. So relax, be patient, and wallow in the Schadenfreude of Doctor Bitchface having the worst night of her life in the last bit."
Tri-tri-triple post!
Recorded for posterity.