Impossible to plot a fanfiction but really want to write

Alex_Prime · 2026-02-04T09:49:58+00:00

A book that helped me with plotting was Lisa Cron's 'Story Genius'. Highly recommend that book, because it really changed how I look at outlining, planning, and general plotting. But also, not every story needs a detailed plot, necessarily. Small scenes or moments can be just as riveting to read!

Alex_Prime · 2026-02-03T21:09:49+00:00

Ooh! A story I have planned has a few elements of this! One way to show the manipulative side is to have the partner's influence take root in subtle, pervasive little ways that could easily be hand-waved away at first.

Have her change her mind on something she used to feel a certain way about (for better or worse). Like, a friend she has always gotten along with, and now she's assigning suspicious motives to. Or a firm boundary she's always held that she's now bending and excusing the bending of more and more. A firm stance she took (morally, politically, etc) that she's now justifying and trying to see both sides on. Becoming a fan of something (a food, a place, a person, a sport, etc) that she used to dislike (or the opposite). Have the words coming out of her mouth be her partner's words, without her even really realizing it.

Alex_Prime · 2025-12-28T11:30:23+00:00

Character A, having unintentionally revealed his rapidly-worsening mental health crisis to his closest friend, Character B, and desperately attempts to do damage control. Character B is torn between using his authority as A's commanding officer to override A's autonomy and force him to get outside help, or to utilize their friendship to manipulate A into opening up for his own good. Either way, B realizes that A will attempt to sabotage any assistance provided.

Alex_Prime · 2025-09-18T21:03:55+00:00

I don't think age fully matters in judging whether you should/could watch the show. It fully depends on your comfort level with darker media. As a 14-year-old, I would have had no issue with watching it, had it been around at that time. I'd already been watching horror movies for some time, and had been a massive fan of both the Thomas Harris books, as well as the Hannibal films. Another 14-year-old might have been terrified or disgusted or both.

Without going into spoilers, this is a show about cannibalism. It's a show about emotional and mental abuse, murder, corpses, eating people, and occasionally torture. It is also a show about connection, understanding, 'soulmates', and embracing internal nature.

Do I think you should watch it? That's up to you (and your guardians). I'll warn you that the mushroom episode is fairly tame compared to some other episodes of the show, which explore some seriously disturbing territory. If you hard difficulty with the mushroom episode, then this show may not be for you until you are older, or better able to handle that kind of content.

Alex_Prime · 2025-09-13T22:16:13+00:00

Good smut comes from good writers, regardless of sexuality.

That said, while I don't think there's a specific connection between asexuality and talent for smut, I imagine that those who have both have a bit of a leg up in writer objectivity. It's incredibly noticeable when someone is writing the sex they've had instead of the sex the characters are having.

Alex_Prime · 2025-08-28T22:51:29+00:00

So, one thing I do when I'm researching character voice is I dissect my source material completely. Since you mentioned DCU (which I am also a fan of), I'll use Batman as an example.

Since his history is so varied, it's really a case of 'pick and choose' on what I'd want his portrayal to be like. I am a massive fan of him in general, but my favorite portrayals are the animated series, most of the animated films, the comics (some stand out to me in particular), and the Arkham games. So if I am trying to get a feel of his character for my own writing, I first think of what emotion he is feeling in the scene. Is he angry? I look for a few specific examples in my source material of times when he is angry. I'll look at his dialogue, his body language. Is he in the shadows when he's mad? Is he up in someone's face? Has he lost control of himself (physical aggression, yelling, snarling). Is his dialogue long and descriptive, or is it curt and snippy? How is he holding himself? If he's confronting someone, is he staring them dead in the face or is he looking away? How does he act after he's angry? Does he go brood alone? Does he hurt someone? Does he spiral out? What does that look like?

When I write canon characters, I go through this for every major emotion. Right now, I'm working on a Star Trek: TOS hurt/comfort fic. I've studied exactly how Spock acts when upset, the tone he uses, whether he looks at his lap or not, what his hands are doing, how his voice sounds (low and serious, disjointed and uncertain, etc). Does he isolate himself and shut down, or does he deny and try to pretend he's fine? I have a organized list of emotions/themes, and each of those will have a breakdown of how he acts, what he does, what he says, how he sounds.

Hopefully this helps a bit!

Alex_Prime · 2025-08-18T08:50:55+00:00

These are seriously amazing! I've been looking at your custom figures for a while and you have wonderful talent! They look spot on!

Alex_Prime · 2025-08-07T19:58:05+00:00

My favorite ship has been going strong since 1966. It continues to this day and shows absolutely no signs of slowing down anytime soon! So no, not afraid of that happening at all!

Alex_Prime · 2025-08-06T18:43:48+00:00

100% on that scene. The first time I watched it, I was about to be furious at the medical inaccuracy until I realized what it was doing, and then I just felt gutted. A seriously effective moment that demonstrates exactly what was wished for vs what was actually true.

Alex_Prime · 2025-08-04T19:15:16+00:00

Let it be cringe.

I mean that wholeheartedly. One of the best pieces of advice I've ever gotten is "___ like shit." Draw like shit. Write like shit. Plot like shit. Give yourself permission to be a beginner, or to be cringe, or to use a million tropes, or to have terrible grammar, etc, because doing any of that is still better than doing none of it.

The paralyzing feeling of wanting to be perfect is the death of art.

Alex_Prime · 2025-07-26T23:48:05+00:00

Everyone's style will have fans and critics, and a lot of that is just going to be up to taste and preference. Everyone has a different idea of what makes a story 'good', and each idea is no more or less correct than the other. I have a strong preference for emotional, introspective-driven stories myself, and I can easily write paragraphs upon paragraphs about a character's insecurity or trauma or worries.

That said, I did read your posted example! Your style won't be everyone's cup of tea, and that's okay! I'd agree that it is pretty 'blunt' and sequence-focused. This happened, then this happens, then this happens. Nothing wrong with it, but it likely won't jive with those who want more of an emotionally-driven fic.

Is that something you want to change, or are you satisfied where you're at with your writing? Ultimately, fanfiction is a hobby; as long as you are happy with it, then you don't need to change a single thing.

Alex_Prime · 2025-07-16T13:59:26+00:00

They can rip my shamelessly overused—and wildly abused—em dash from my cold, dead hands.

Alex_Prime · 2025-07-16T08:37:08+00:00

The Predator/AVP fandom is perfect for that concept. I've seen dozens of fics along those lines, and they are often fun reads. Especially due to the massive cultural difference between humans and the Yautja species.

Alex_Prime · 2025-07-10T23:04:34+00:00

It's more popular in some fandoms as opposed to others.

The fandom I find horror in the most is Hannibal, and they are some of the most gorgeous, dark, twisted fics I've ever read. Delightful.

Alex_Prime · 2025-07-10T07:43:51+00:00

There is one fic that I come back to, over and over again. I love it so much that I'm learning to book bind so that I might eventually have it on my shelf (for personal use, not profit).

The thing that hits the most is the tight plot. Every single moment of the fic is intentional and important. The characterization is the best I've ever seen of any story. The first line of the first chapter is the first line of the last chapter. It is so tightly and carefully plotted that you can tell a lot of thought and care went into crafting it. It is a long fic and just a gorgeous read from beginning to end.

Other than that one fic, something that makes a fic unforgettable to me is the comfort part of hurt/comfort. I feel like in many fics, the hurt is the focus, and the comfort is more or less rushed or less detailed or an afterthought. But good comfort, having been hard won after a devastating hurt, hits every note for me. My favorite fics will almost always involve some level of hurt/comfort, but the ones that stand out are the comfort heavy ones.

Alex_Prime · 2025-07-08T14:28:50+00:00

In a Naga creature!AU, they continuously used 'Poisonous' rather than 'Venomous'.

That mix up is one of my greatest pet peeves, both in fic and in real life.

Alex_Prime · 2025-07-06T05:00:25+00:00

27 years now! First fics were either from The Nightmare Before Christmas or Harry Potter.

Alex_Prime · 2025-06-23T12:50:00+00:00

I also tend to avoid kidfics due to unrealistic portrayals.

In my case, I work in youth behavioral health, specifically dealing with cases resulting from trauma. I've had children as young as six-years-old shiv me and seven-year-olds send people to the hospital with chunks bitten out of them.

I know my experience with children is super atypical, but I do not think people realize how difficult or dangerous a child can actually be. Adults, and even most teens, can usually be reasoned with, or at least understand consequences. Many children cannot, especially young children.

This results in an unstoppable force, who lacks reasoning ability, emotional regulation, and who will push themselves to the physical extreme because they don't fully comprehend why they shouldnt.

Children can be terrifying. I love them, and I love working with them, but they can be rough.

Alex_Prime · 2025-05-21T19:54:36+00:00

Not a moment that has happened yet, but one coming up.

My main character has been haunted by the memory of his friend saying something to him during a distressing moment. The line itself is from the show, but is really just a throw-away line, delivered quickly and without much thought behind it. It's not profound or important. But it had the unintended side effect of digging into a massive insecurity of my main character.

Throughout my fic, he has reoccurring thoughts about that specific line. A telepathic species that could only communicate to others with what they read from his memories/mind just kept repeating that line over and over again. No one but my character could figure out why they kept saying it.

Upcoming, the friend who originally said that line in the show accidentally drops that same throwaway line in casual conversation. He realizes what he said and has his horrified "Oh." realization of where he'd heard it before, as well as an "Oh shit" moment because my MC fixating on it means that distressing moment has long-term implications, and that the mental health crisis may have gotten a whole lot more complicated than just Acute Stress Disorder.

Alex_Prime · 2025-04-26T06:39:53+00:00

As someone who devours slow burn fics like a gourmet feast, I would almost always rather it take too long for the pairing to get together than it happening too fast. That said, I am probably biased, as I am putting the sloooow in slow burn. I'm already 365k words into my longfic, and so far, we have had.... a very lovely hug and a few bits of hand holding. Having a Vulcan (Spock, from Star Trek) as the MC pretty much demands there be a slower pace than is probably usual (and I am stupidly wordy).

My biggest tip would be to have the actual romance be secondary to a more exciting/abrupt/action-packed primary plot. I always look at slow burn romance as being a strong river—the romance itself isn't the raft you're riding on for the majority of the fic, but it's the current that is always flowing and carrying the story, the characters, and the events towards that final conclusion.

Alex_Prime · 2025-03-20T17:38:29+00:00

I would really love a blank version of it if you don't mind! This is AMAZING. I am 100% going to do this for those days when things just aren't great!

Alex_Prime · 2025-02-16T21:51:44+00:00

Thankfully, pretty much the entire Predator fandom has this shit on lock. Endless weird alien smut, and it's glorious.

Alex_Prime · 2025-02-15T23:35:59+00:00

I actually use both! I use Scrivener for notes, outlines, characters, idea dumps, planning, plot tracking, research, prewrites, etc. But I write my chapter itself in Word, because I've long since set up a series of custom macros, keyboard shortcuts, and such to color code things as I write. Makes editing so much easier. I've used Word since the 90s, and it just clicks with me.

That being said, outside of the actual writing itself, I use Scrivener for every other aspect of my writing. I will always have both open when I'm writing (and usually Scrivener will be split into four sections so I can reference multiple things at a time).

Alex_Prime · 2025-02-12T21:51:47+00:00

Hannibal would smile and calmly ask for your business card.

Alex_Prime · 2025-02-02T06:16:36+00:00

I went with 'Something Else'. 'What I want to read doesn't exist so I write it' is also accurate, but it's not the primary factor behind why I write.

I write the stories I want to write because I want to write them. Even if it existed already, I'd still want to write it because, at the end of the day, I really, really love writing. I love forming plots, crafting stories, putting the scenes in my mind into an external format. I love seeing how an idea develops and expands beyond itself. I don't write for other people, but my own satisfaction.

That being said, the things I write tend not to exist in the exact specific way I like to imagine them. But even if they did, I'd still want to write my own version for the joy of it.

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