Hello! I’m writing some fanfiction and am trying to “translate” a character’s trauma (caused by someone else using in-universe mechanics negatively on them) to a modern au without those same mechanics, but I’m not sure how to go about it. On the one hand, I still want them to be in character, but on the other, I don’t want to trivialize what they’ve been through. Do you have any advice that might help?

Oooooh yeah. That’s often kinda hard. I would say relying on subtext can be helpful, and it’s okay to slightly alter things to fit what you need, because a trauma does not make a character, though it does shape them. I think that’s an important distinction to make.

Like, Kurapika in HxH is focusing on his trauma, but remove the trauma from him and he’d have the same instincts and flaws at his core, though they may not be pushed to that extreme. So think about what, at their core, the character wants. What’s their deepest desire that manifests in their goal? For Kurapika, it’s that he wants to be a good person (we could get into why but I’ll stop here). This manifests in his goal as I want to honor my tribe who died. His flaw is that he believes he isn’t good because of things that happened around him, and so he is becoming someone who does terrible things to honor his tribe.

In my modern AU for Kurapika x Chrollo, “Chain Reaction,” Chrollo did not murder his tribe (which is now just his family) because that wouldn’t work in a modern world where everybody is not a murderer. Instead, Chrollo started a chain of events (heeeh) by stealing rubies (not eyes) and that led to Kurapika’s family spiraling which led to their deaths. So I think it’s fine to play with this because given who Kurapika is as a character with his rigid beliefs in right and wrong and his belief in an eye for an eye (heh again), this would lead to the same resentment of Chrollo/self-hatred that we see in universe, while allowing for development in a modern AU that doesn’t so much break the suspension of disbelief.

So my advice is to think about the character at their core, and to translate the trauma specifically it’s okay to use subtext. Like, for Nora in my Noragami AU, the subtext indicates a metaphor for slut shaming, so I’m making it directly that in my AU.

I don’t know if this is helpful–I hope it is! Best of luck!!!

How do you outline your fics or stories?

In a draft document on my gmail with the fuel of hot tea and chocolate and if I’m lucky wine. 😛

I generally start brainstorming because of a particular development I would like to see a character undergo, be they an original character or for a fanfic, and/or I want to explore a trope or twist and see what that would do to their development. Usually I have one specific scene/scenario in mind that I desperately want to write, and so I craft the story around that one scene, learning what brought a character to that point and figuring out where they’ll go afterwards. This scene is usually towards the end of a story so I can dangle it in front of me when my dedication to writing starts to wane. It is the “dessert” scene that I will slog through the vegetables to get to. (I love vegetables but like. I also look forward to cake.)

Anyways, I start with that scene + specific ideas I know I want to incorporate from those scenes. Here’s my jumbled list of ideas I wanted to incorporate into Chain Reaction:

I couldn’t spell Tserriednich’s name and you don’t even want to know how I pronounce it in my head. Also it’s really like jotted notes; I know what they mean but they aren’t coherent at all. They really just exist to trigger thoughts on what I hope to do with it when I actually get to outlining.

I then specifically outline by chapters. Again, here’s the beginning of my outline for Chain Reaction:

It’s not hard and fast as a rule though; like I put brief summaries of what will go down in each chapter, but sometimes I wind up splitting an outlined chapter into multiple chapters, or realizing it’s too soon for a particular development and moving it around. For example Illumi threatening Chrollo got moved to like two chapters later in writing it.

For stories with multiple POVs, I identify whom I want to narrate a specific part of a chapter. Like for Freighted with Memories and Dreams of Time:

Sometimes I actually forget and assume a certain part will be through a different POV than I initially wrote down. Again it isn’t a hard and fast rule and I can change, but actually trying to remember why I initially planned for a particular section to be narrated by one character makes me think more about what I was planning to say thematically in that section, so it works out for me.

Also, as you can tell, I’m not always very specific. I can’t outline every last thing I plan on doing because the characters can be little shits and don’t do what I want or will say something I didn’t have planned. Often as I’m writing a line I know I will have to include, etc, will occur, and I put it in a note at the bottom of the document.

That is probably way more detail than you wanted, lol. But yeah. There you go XD

How do you plot your stories so quickly?

I have to outline before I write! Honestly I usually have plot bunnies, like hundreds, running around. When I find a character (original or one for a fanfic) for whom I’d like to throw this plot bunny at them, things usually start to take shape. But outlining is actually the hardest part for me. But if I don’t have a detailed outline for what I want out of each chapter in the fic (that’s why I always know how many chapters it will be, approximately) i will fall flat on my face and not be able to write it lol.

Wow, your metas are so clear and easy to understand! Do you have any tips on how to reach that level of skill? Oh, and also, how do you think about all the arcs and themes and such so quickly? I usually have to spend so much time and write everything down before I get everything the story is trying to say.

Oh wow, thank you!

They aren’t always super clear (sometimes I look back and am like “what was I thinking” lol). But I try.

My answer is practice, practice, practice! It’s okay to write bumbling circular metas, because you’ll definitely improve the more you do it. Read other metas, and practice writing your own. Post them, engage with other metas, etc. It’s okay to be wrong, too, to write something and then a few weeks later be like “nah actually my mind’s changed.” XD I think I’ve improved over the past year, and I wouldn’t have done that without practicing and without learning from other fantastic meta writers and engaging in discussions about themes and characters, because other opinions can really help expand your own opinions. @linkspooky @cirrocumulus-cloud @aspoonofsugar are some anima/manga meta writers I highly recommend, because of how brilliant they all are, and their work has really helped influence my own. Also? They’re all super nice and I’m honored to call them friends.

For a lot of themes and arcs and such… it depends on the person, tbh. For me, it takes rereading tbh. I have not posted much on Black Butler yet because I’m just starting to reread it, for example, and my one reading I don’t feel like gives me enough to go on since I tend to miss a lot on first readings (but I hope to write more on that story soon too!) I also think the more you practice the more you’re able to pick up on arcs and themes and the like. So really it’s the same answer. Practice!

I have to admit, all this stuff about things that don’t make sense narratively and/or lack of narrative consequences, themes being dropped or plain contradicted in some way. I agree, like I love that Kaneki and Touka got a happy ending together, and so did Ayahina and Nakimiza, BUT the narrative framing got kind of destroyed (broken “framing”? Is that you Urie?). Even though Taki and Kuro have futures that are “in character” like I said in another ask, they still disappear in some way. Rio OUCH

YEAH framing honestly completely vanished post OEK reveal. And people don’t seem to get that framing can actually make or break a story, and in my opinion, it broke it here. Framing is what tells you to view an event as good or bad, powerful or ominous, by using the set up around an event to inform readers. The framing post OEK was a mess. It was impossible to tell what was good or bad, from Ken’s finger cracking to Dragon to just, everything.

Tagged by @momtaku!

Rules: Post the last sentence you wrote and tag as many people as there are words in that sentence:

“You don’t get to say that!” Haven erupted. “You act like saying it absolves us, but it’s just words! It’s just words! We’re going to wonder, and you know it!”

Oh hey from an original fic I’m in the process of rewriting for like the 8th time. (I’m still trying to decide between writing a TG SnK or HxH fanfic next–I’ll eventually write all of them though!)

I tag… uh… @mercyandmagic @our-mathematical-universe I DONT KNOW HOW MANY OF YOU WRITE FIC @lilacflamesss @ladywongs @arvendell @linkspooky @prettyreaperxiii @fangirlingforeverz @i-am-thesenate @koyuki-tan @cirrocumulus-cloud @tinfoilchan

I read on one of your answers that in real life happiness shouldn’t be earned (I may be misrembering bc I can’t find the post) and I feel like was raised with a pretty unhealthy mindset. Can you expand on that more please?

So, I think people try to apply to concepts of real life to fiction too often, and consequently lose track of how fiction works. In real life, people suffer a lot, but I would not say that suffering is necessary to earn happiness. Not at all. I think suffering happens like all the time, yes, but it sucks, and it’s okay to acknowledge that is sucks instead of glorifying it. It’s just really uncomfortable imo to tell someone they don’t deserve happiness because they haven’t suffered enough, and it’s a really unhealthy mindset. Honestly, I think people deserve happiness just because they exist, but the world is not fair nor generous, and happiness is hard to get irl.

In fiction, however, where you’re trying to tell a story, you don’t randomly inflict suffering on a character with no purpose to their suffering. That’s “torture porn” as we’ve all heard about, and it isn’t a good story usually. Suffering in stories should mean something, should be leading the character to some sort of realization or to further delusion (really, it’s leading them to that choice, as a good character is not a puppet to be controlled by an author). Suffering needs to move the story along.

That’s why if TG for example is heading for a happy ending, which it probably is, the characters need to have realizations and make different choices, which in TG often happens in response to suffering. That’s why according to story dynamics Amon’s fight went exactly how I wanted it to go (and I got a lot of flack for saying he a) needed to lose at first and b) needed to realize he loved Donato). Show not tell aside, the fight went exactly how I wanted and predicted it would go for his character to move forward, because suffering (losing badly to Donato) + intervention from Seidou helped Amon have the realization he needed (he loved Donato, and love is what makes the difference between them) to defeat Donato (for now, at least).

When reading about representation of LGBTQ+ in fiction I read comments stating that hetero people can’t write LGBTQ+ characters and conflicts they deal with. It would make sense if the writer had lite knowledge of the stuff LGBTQ people go through, but what if you are hetero and have an understanding of it? I have a bi friend who tells me of their experiences (& ik that’s no excuse for some situations) and I do know I should do more research. But I can write them even if I’m hetero?

As someone who is mostly straight I don’t feel super comfortable answering this and I would like to hear from LGBT+ people. But what I will say is that this is my opinion, and again, I’d love to hear from people about this. I see a difference between writing a story with a gay character and between writing a story about being LGBT+.

I write LGBT+ characters. Hell yes I do, because they are people, and people are people no matter what. I write men, women, and nonbinary characters and think it would not help if I was limited to writing only about cisgender women who grew up in cults. I think that if you limit representation to being written only by a person who is like the character they’re writing about, that means a limit to representation and that makes me uncomfortable. Approaching it as “I’m writing a gay character” but rather “I’m writing Spencer, a character who is sensitive and intelligent and anxious” who happens to be gay and ends up with another guy, is important I think because if you approach it like people are an “other” that is a problem.

Writing a story about what it’s like to be gay, or being transgender, on the other hand–those stories are better told by LGBT+ authors in my opinion. But again, I would love to hear from others.

This maybe a weird question (and I saw your updated policy) so you might not answer it but I’m curious – what do you call a major character that tells the story of other major character? Like tg tells kaneki’s story and we follow his journey through him as protagonist (and so is snk with eren), but there are cases when the story tells other character’s journey but not from their pov (like, I think, sherlock/poirot? From watson/hastings’s pov?). In that case, who is the protagonist(s)?

Oh no worries! To be clear, the policy has been in affect since I was in India XD; I just figured since I’d said otherwise in the past I should come clean about it so people wouldn’t be misled. I still plan on answering like… 98% of asks I get XD (and if I don’t answer your ask it doesn’t mean I didn’t like your question; it is more likely I’d answered it in the past or someone else did! Those are mainly the asks I’ve not answered haha)

So point of view character is usually our protagonist, but the two don’t always conflate. Like for Sherlock, Watson is the POV character but also our deuteragonist (second most important major character; tritagonist=third most important major character). I’m alas not as familiar with Poirot and Hastings, but just because Hastings is the POV character doesn’t mean he’s the protagonist or even the deuteragonist necessarily; he could just serve as our narrator. Narrator-POV character-protagonist don’t always coincide though they often do.

It’s also funny because a series like SnK and also Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn have, say, Eren and Vin respectively as our protagonists, but they are not the heroes in their respective stories. Armin and Sazed are. Armin’s probably been a deuteragonist most of the series with Mikasa as our tritagonist (though now Reiner seems to be the deuteragonist, Idk, Snk is a pacing disaster but an excellent story regardless which is a stunning testament to Isayama’s talent as a writer) and Sazed is the tritagonist after Vin and Elend in the latter two books (Vin and Kelsier in the first). All that to say that there is no set rule for the roles characters have to play–writers bend them all the time. XD

Writing ask. When writing a story should you first think of how the story will end or no?

There’s kind of no rule book and it depends on what kind of story you’re writing! I personally think it’s a good idea to have a broad idea of the endgame in mind–like having every detail planned isn’t s good idea, but having the basic idea of what you want your ending to say and where you want your characters to end up is good. Although sometimes characters will surprise you 😂