#such as it is!

[punchdrunkdoc]

Hi honey how are you? I read your Battinson story and I am completely in love with the way you write. the details, the dialogues, the way you show each character's personality is incredible. I wanted to ask if you have any tips for new writers? English is not my native language and I find it very difficult to write references, information that makes sense (like everyday things that make sense to happen in a city in the United States, medical terms, slang and such) even if I read a little of the comics and the movies deliver some information, when we are going to write our own history it is so difficult to build a universe

Thank you for your lovely comments about Just Breathe, and I'm so glad you liked it!

My imposter syndrome always goes into overdrive whenever I get asked about writing, because I don't really consider myself a proper writer - I just do this for fun and I'm fumbling through the process as best I can.

But here's what I did to get to the point of writing Just Breathe - I hope it helps you in some way:

I started out small.

When I first started writing my own stories (after literally decades of reading other people's fanfic) I started really small. There was no way I could have tackled a 90000 word novel with plot and characters and backstory and all the references you mentioned straight off the bat. So I wrote an 800-word fic which was basically one character's inner thoughts.

No dialogue. No action. No setting the scene. Just thoughts.

In my next fic, I tried some dialogue. And a single setting - nothing complicated that needed research, just a beach.

Then I wrote a story with a couple of scenes, each in a different setting. Nothing complicated, but I got some practice creating locations with words.

And on it went. You can go on AO3 and see the progression - building up to writing Just Breathe was gradual. I challenged myself with each new fic to try something new - plot, fight choreography, creating original characters, etc.

My first attempt at a big sprawling original story with an original character and some world building wasn't all that successful (in terms of reader engagement, but also in how much I was happy with the product). So I tried again with Just Breathe - and I'm really proud of how it turned out.

But I cheated a bit. I'm a pathologist, so I made Beth a pathologist. It was easy to write someone who has a similar job to me. If she was an aerospace engineer, I would have really struggled! But I did what all writers are advised, and which I'll advise you as well - write what you know. Create a character that has your job. Set your story in your home town. Practice with the familiar, before moving on to the unfamiliar.

Which I've done for my latest fic Tabula Rasa. The OFC has a life and job that is VERY different from mine, so its taking a lot more research. A LOT!. I google everything! Probably more than I need to. Things like, what does a beach house in Maine look like; what do you call the metal thing you use in abseiling, what bus routes go through Danbury, Connecticut. I watched you tube videos of MMA fights and Aikido tutorials and tried to describe the movement of their limbs. I looked up chemical names so things sound scientific and correct even when I'm talking pseudoscientific nonsense. I took virtual walkthroughs on google maps to look at buildings in Hell's Kitchen so I could describe them in the fic.

My search history is varied and weird and LONG!

And once this fic is finished, I have my next challenge already lined up (in fact I've already written the first few chapters): It'll be an epic story set partly on a completely fictional planet, where all the world building will be up to me and my imagination.

I'm terrified, but excited!

So in summary (if you're still reading this long ramble!), my 3 pieces of advice are:

Start small, and gradually challenge yourself to go bigger

Write what you know, before moving on to what you don't

Google everything!

#Thanks again for getting in touch #it was fun trying to distill my writing process #such as it is! #fanfic writing #tabula rasa #just breathe