#i can *only* do what i do every week because I've given myself a roadmap and i don't have to stop for directions

[pastafossa]

how much ahead do you write for TRT? would you recommend writing as you go or finishing a few chapters (or even the whole thing!) before posting

also my middle name is hind so it's almost flattering to see the shipnames and such :)

love your work!!!!!!!!!!

So me personally, I don't write ahead, but I do outline ahead! I've got everything charted out, what needs to happen, how the arcs need to unroll, clues to leave, etc. This is what allows me to write the chapter every week - in my natural environment, I'm a pantser and I tend to wing it (which works fine for a one-shot but less so for an epically long fic like TRT). I'm also an extrovert - I need external feedback or, at the very least, some form of interaction to feed my creative drive. If I don't have that, if I wait to post a chapter until I'm done with everything, I'll essentially run out of energy and coast to a stop. By posting a chapter each week that I've written, I get that feedback and can keep going! There are flaws to my method - sometimes it's impossible to tell how a chapter's going to go until you write it, or you suddenly get a good idea about some event that should, in reality, have caused clues and foreshadowing to appear three chapters ago. But that's where the outline comes in! It gives you a north star to drive towards even if you choose to take a side road on the way there.

But note that this is me. Most of the other writers I know are introverts and can write just fine by being left alone with their own internal feedback for encouragement, and I also have a few friends who absolutely hate the idea of writing like I do. They absolutely need to have it all done before posting, and the sheer chaos of writing a new chapter into existence every week isn't something they'd enjoy, just like I'd hate being confined to their method. So everyone's different. I'd say the low-risk, high-patience, safest option is having it all written ahead of time, if you're introverted enough or can charge your own battery. The high-risk, high-reward option is writing as you go, favored by those who need to interact in order to create. And the neutral ground is getting ahead by three or four chapters before beginning to post, finding a safe middle balance between the two. So the real question is, which would work best for you? Do you have the patience and inner drive to get it all done first? Do you need interaction to keep yourself going (hi it's me)? Do you land somewhere in the middle? I will say, my writing absolutely suffered when I tried, desperately, to be what I wasn't. People will tell you to write for yourself, to get it all done before posting because it should be for you anyway, and while that works for a lot of fic writers, for some of us, writing in isolation for only ourselves is where our creativity goes to die. I think figuring out where your creativity graveyard is, and going in the opposite direction, is a huge benefit to you once you figure it out, even if you need to experiment a little to figure it out.

Also YESSS I'm so happy to hear from a Hind! I always love hearing about people with the same name. It also strikes me as funny because I never actually meant to name her Jane Hind. It was originally just a placeholder I used while writing and in notes, a joke about a Jane Doe reader insert, the one we can't trace back, and only after I'd used it long enough in notes and the first chapter that I went... 'actually this kinda works, because she is a Jane Doe, with a real name I can't ever use'. And admittedly it would make me pretty happy too to see my own name for a ship like this LOL.

Thank you so, so much anon for coming to say hi!

#ask response #the red thread #my writing process works for me and i'm not sure how common it is tbh #i know when i've seen polls most writers seem to check off as introverts #and a lot of advice i've read seems tailored to introverts #and then there's me like 'i need interaction or i will literally die' #so take my advice with a grain of salt #mostly i'd just try it out #maybe try a shorter chapter fic and see which works for you #if you can get it all pumped out ahead of time or if that just doesn't work for you #if you need to get it out as you go or if you need that but can wait until you have a few chapters #i'll say if you go my way just make sure you outline or you'll run into that wall facefirst #i can *only* do what i do every week because I've given myself a roadmap and i don't have to stop for directions