Advice and Trust [NGE]
Always Late
Lacking in coffee, sleep, and brains
- Location
- Ohio
Triple post of insightfulness.
- Location
- United States, EST
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I think I've been hit on the head, I'm seeing threes...
- Location
- Spain
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 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."
Well, crap. Like, Hugs, Insightful, or Funny?
Decisions, decisions...
The Fourth Monado
S U B A R A S H I I
- Location
- Away
It's the legendary Tripost!
Bursting Eagerness Soul
Threadwalking Rating Machine
- Location
- Wisconsin
How does that even happen?
- Location
- Too Deep in the Midnight Sea
Like the first because it's a good post, informative the second because it is, funny the third because shit's just ridiculous.
- Location
- Guatemala
I thought it was a preview, a snip or something o well
New here hello everyone
New here hello everyone
Always Late
Lacking in coffee, sleep, and brains
- Location
- Ohio
Connection issues, mainly in the form of the page not updating when you hit 'post', leaving you no idea whether or not it actually worked. Take it from a guy who's been through it personally.
Greetings, new person! Firstly, you have activated the 'Friday post' effect! Whenever someone new shows up and says they've read the story so far, our amazing author does his damnedest to put the next chapter out by the upcoming Friday. Secondly, what specifically have you enjoyed so far in Advice and Trust?
Last edited:
samdamandias
Apprentice Plane Wizard
Well, he posted it three times, so you can pick three of thr four.
Or do what many people have joked about and like the post twice.
- Location
- Guatemala
Great waiting for the friday post.
I know of a&t because of ff.net and i just have finish to read a throne of bayonets and i needed fluff thats when i found this amazing story, so what i most enjoy is the fluff, and the cliffhangers.
Sorry for my english can read it
Can't write good
Last edited:
- Location
- National Capital Region, USA
Damn work filter... sorry about that, everyone. My office has a filter that at random will sometimes decide it doesn't like Sufficient Velocity, and block the page. This morning it let me load the page and write the post, but when it came time to actually hit 'post it', it suddenly decided "I'm not going to tell you if the page is updated or not", and block it. It took me 3 tries before I figured this out.
Hello, new friend Kickhopper. Per tradition, there will be an update by Friday. I have one scene done, but I'm holding off on posting it until I can finish the next one and hopefully close out a Chapter 8.
The Englanderish
Schrödinger's Kuudere Kitty Caliph(a)
- Location
- Califat de Chats
Don't apologise; that was glorious!
Then sit down.
Better to lie down a bit, sip some beer, and relax. We have a whole lot of thousand-something words incoming.
- Location
- National Capital Region, USA
At least 2k, probably more.
The Englanderish
Schrödinger's Kuudere Kitty Caliph(a)
- Location
- Califat de Chats
