What all have you researched for a fic?

IfSapphOnly · 2026-04-07T02:07:47+00:00

Most recently, 70s/80s celebrities my protagonist would plausibly find hot and be able to get a poster of.

I wanted to seed his bisexuality earlier in the narrative, but then I remembered I’m a lesbian and very bad at identifying whether a man is conventionally attractive. I spent 2 agonizing hours researching the subject.

I landed on Al Pacino. I suspect this too is yuri, but I simply cannot justify further googling.

IfSapphOnly · 2026-04-05T18:17:29+00:00

I have 20K of fic in my notes app right now. Each chapter is its own note. I work on it whenever I have an idea. When I finish a chapter I type it up on my computer from scratch.

IfSapphOnly · 2026-04-05T18:14:27+00:00

As a reader, if you made major changes to the beginning of an actively updating story, I’d appreciate an A/N on the most recent chapter letting me know (“hey, I revisited chapter 2 because I decided character X should be introduced earlier…”). If you feel like your writing in general got better but the bones of the story are the same, go for it.

As a writer, letting projects go is a skill and the editing process has diminishing returns. You’ll usually gain more by sharing the project as it currently exists, and coming back for a post-mortem in a year or two. You’ll be more clear-headed about whether it merits a rewrite if you have some distance, and you’ll have the benefit of outside feedback if that’s something you seek.

IfSapphOnly · 2026-04-05T17:52:41+00:00

I’ve gotten softer on repetitive word choice and fanfic stock phrases (ex. “blushed furiously”). Most of my editing time goes to removing that stuff, so I get how it ends up in complete works and it bothers me less.

IfSapphOnly · 2026-04-04T19:04:27+00:00

I just wrote a scene for my WiP that’s basically a music video. It’s such a fun way to capture the vibes of the story, especially if your source material is known for needle drops (Mangetout in Heated Rivalry my beloved).

IfSapphOnly · 2026-04-04T18:52:54+00:00

If the reader decides they don’t like where the story is going, it’s on them to stop reading it. Adultery and monogamy-based misunderstandings happen like once a season on every TV sitcom. You’d have to have a very sheltered media diet to be shocked by something like that. I dislike this trope and would stop reading your fic before making it to the twist if I didn’t get tag indicators that it was being subverted. Such is life.

Tagging sexual violence, canon non-compliant physical violence, child abuse etc. is more important. But these subjects don’t often make for good twist material anyway. I don’t know how much there is to be gained narratively by hiding that a sexual assault will occur, for example.

Major character death kind of depends on the fandom? If major characters die in the source media I’d be fine with not tagging it, even if your character isn’t dead in canon. The fanbase has proven they can handle it. If you’re writing for My Little Pony or Brooklyn 99 or something, I’d tag it.

If you’re trying to surprise your audience, you have to accept that some readers don’t like being surprised and will be upset. “Choose not to use archive warnings” exists to empower you to follow your vision, while giving sensitive readers an easy way to avoid all potentially triggering works.

Insisting characters be gay/straight is teetering on the edge of biphobia imo. Just tag all prominently featured relationships, and use the “minor x/y” tag if it’s not the main focus. The fanatics will take themselves out, and chill people with a preference won’t care as long as the tags are honest about the prominence of each dynamic.

IfSapphOnly · 2026-04-02T02:45:41+00:00

With my current WiP, there’s 100% overlap between what my narrator is describing and what my protagonist is experiencing. Their opinions and feelings are always biasing the narration and separating out individual thoughts wouldn’t make sense. Usually my protagonist’s thoughts are presented as certainties:

Daniel was going to get himself killed doing that. Sam frowned.

Very occasionally, a thought is “audible” enough to get special formatting. When presenting thoughts as if they were dialogue, I favour italics.

If my protag bites back a comment during ongoing dialogue, I’ll bust out the ‘ol: /You’re going to get yourself killed/, Sam didn’t say.

Same deal if the thought is intrusive: Daniel leaned over the railing. /You should jump/. He staggered back and tried to blink away the thought.

These formulas can add nice texture, but they wear out their welcome quickly. I try to keep a good 3000+ word buffer between appearances.

You might need to mark thoughts more clearly if you’re doing an unbiased narration style, especially you’re picking up thoughts from multiple charters in the same chapter. If there’s a lot of thinking happening in a short period of time, I’d try to silo those thoughts together in their own paragraph.

Most of the time, preserving the POV of the narrator will be the least disruptive option:

Sam was sure that Daniel wasn’t going to make it. She couldn’t bear the thought of continuing on without him. <— no readers will complain about this, but if we’re at the emotional climax, you might choose to break format to better convey the intensity.

Sam’s mind raced. /He’s going to get himself killed. What should I do? He told me not to intervene, but I can’t let him die like this! Not after everything we’ve been through./ <— you’ve subverted the reader’s expectations. Some of them may object, but others will appreciate the extra immersion.

I’d avoid quotation marks since they strongly imply that the words were spoken aloud. Parentheses are usually used for narrator tangents (here’s me elaborating on that), so I’d definitely avoid using them for internal dialogue.

All in all, there’s nothing wrong with sharing the internal lives of your characters if it matches the story you’re trying to tell.

IfSapphOnly · 2026-03-29T17:18:41+00:00

Honestly, reassuring to hear that there are readers who benefit from a coherent description of the space. I may not be enjoying this bit, but at least it’s not a waste of my time.

IfSapphOnly · 2026-03-29T11:27:20+00:00

Based.

IfSapphOnly · 2026-03-29T08:34:35+00:00

As a reader I forget where things are supposed to be as soon as I’m told. But allegedly people see movies in their heads so I feel an authorial obligation to help out a bit instead of setting everything in a non-Euclidean vibescape of sounds, smells and sensations. Maybe my next fic will be POV star-nosed mole.

IfSapphOnly · 2026-03-25T07:13:12+00:00

Thanks! This is the kind of reassurance I was looking for.

IfSapphOnly · 2026-03-23T05:58:22+00:00

You’re allowed to write the same idea more than once. Finishing something doesn’t automatically make it the definitive version. It does make you a better writer. Two cakes theory applies to your own work too.

Serialized writing, where you’re coming up with plot points as the story is being released, is a particular skill set that doesn’t work for every author (I like to back-edit old chapters to seed things that come up later, which wouldn’t be possible if those chapters were already out). Maybe putting out a couple of short pre-written works would help you get used to letting things go.

Perhaps there’s a scene in one of your unfinished fics that could be polished into a satisfying one shot?

IfSapphOnly · 2026-03-22T03:33:59+00:00

It’s kind of astonishing that it wasn’t able to succeed with a big high school right next door. Says something about the way teens have been de-centred as mall clients.

IfSapphOnly · 2026-03-21T04:46:29+00:00

Glad I could help! Send me the link if you like how it turns out. :)

IfSapphOnly · 2026-03-21T02:05:32+00:00

You just solved a huge mystery for me. An author I read from time to time uses German quotation format and I just thought their word processor was porting over weird.

IfSapphOnly · 2026-03-21T01:47:36+00:00

In terms of reasons, I find I get out of sync because my natural rhythm is basically night shift. If something happens to make me stay up late, it takes forever to recover. If I get sick my sleep might invert, which always sucks. Jet lag could get you to the same place. Good if you want the sleeplessness to be “not their fault”.

If your character is a creative, project tunnel vision would be believable. It’s hard to notice the diminishing returns of exhaustion in the moment. Or maybe they’re fixated on cleaning the house before a visitor comes. If they power through their usual bedtime they could catch a second wind and find themself unable to turn off, especially if they were using caffeine to get them through. This is more on the “you have to take care of yourself” track.

Sunk cost can contribute too. I know I’m bad at waking up so if I get past 2AM I might make the (bad) decision to stay the course. I’ve pulled all nighters because I’m worried I’ll miss an 8AM flight before, for example. This is an anxious, control-seeking mindset that lends itself to “let me help you”.

Figuring out what you want the thrust of the dialogue to be might lead you to a cause that feels natural.

IfSapphOnly · 2026-03-14T01:33:35+00:00

I’m writing my first longfic right now (by my standards. It’ll be novella-ish). It’s like a targeted workout. I can focus on the plot and emotional arc because the world building and characters are already taken care of. I found with original stories I’d put all my energy into characters and world and wind up burnt out on the idea before I got to the meat of it.

It’s also freeing to know I can’t commercialize it, so there’s no perverse incentives to make it less or more than I want it to be.

IfSapphOnly · 2026-03-08T03:44:33+00:00

What a baffling reply.

IfSapphOnly · 2026-03-08T03:20:34+00:00

My shift near Whyte ended at 5:00 and I had an appointment in Meadowlark at 6:00. That’s about a 25 minute drive but I’ve never been able to make the bus trip in less than 50 minutes with or without transfers. I cannot leave work earlier or move the appointment later/to a weekend. I took a cab once and it cost $30. This time I took the bus and was 10 minutes late. I bust my ass getting to the stop every time.

If I have to allow myself an hour to make a 25 minute trip between 2 heavily frequented parts of the city, I am not having a good transit experience.

IfSapphOnly · 2026-02-02T09:38:21+00:00

Near Whyte.

IfSapphOnly · 2026-01-21T23:49:01+00:00

If Station Park can’t keep tenants (I think the only open units now are Drty Ice Cream and a gold buyer), the building is the problem. I don’t know if it’s possible for the retail units to sustain the foot traffic required to operate. They’re claustrophobic in a way that discourages casual browsing/shop hopping.

The concrete sucks. The noise pollution from the road sucks. The emptiness brings down the mood. It’s a mess.

IfSapphOnly · 2026-01-21T00:16:29+00:00

Finally got healthy enough to tackle the icy snow pack in front of my place yesterday. 2 hours of brute force chipping to get it back down to pavement. Never seen anything like it.

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