Planning, Writing, and Editing Your Longfic – How to Write Long Fanfiction Part 2

Ever wanted to write a longfic? They’re certainly an undertaking, but well worth it. The best way to do this topic justice is with not just one video, but two. In Part 2, we’re covering how to outline, edit, and stay motivated to finish your longfic.

A little about me: my name is Cora (she/they) and I'm a creative writing graduate, professional copywriter, and self-proclaimed fanfic writer extraordinaire with over 10 years of experience here to help you live your best fanfic writing life! Subscribe to my YouTube channel for your fortnightly dose of dreamy fanfiction tips. 💞✍️

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[starflightruby]

"Do you really need to mention alternate dimensions that won't be explored" *me side-eyeing canon of a fandom I'm writing for*

[cyrus]

First time I've ever heard the term Discovery Writer. That's 100% me and my problem: As soon as I begin writing an outline I start hating my ideas and lose interest.

[Bitsy]

Where have you been all my life…? Every time I would look up how to edit and write stories, I always felt like Fanfiction didn’t belong in that kind of mindset. Thank you for making me feel like an actual writer, even if I only wrote fanfiction .

[nat]

To borrow a term I hear a lot in the game dev/design industry: a story outline is more like a living document than something set in stone. Things will change over time, and an outline/design document isn't supposed to be this rigid thing that your story should be chained to.

[LinkhatesGanon]

As someone who runs tabletop roleplaying games, it's really made a huge impact on how I personally plot my own stories. I basically end up outlining them in the exact same way.

First, looking at the overarching story, I make the main plot points throughout the whole story. Then, on each chapter/session (when it comes to the point that I write them), I make a smaller outline, detailing specifics that I know I want to happen given what I expect these characters to do (this is, of course, subject to change as the chapter/session plays out in the drafting/playing phase).

Now onward is where tabletop and writing diverge. During my sessions, I do my best to maintain continuity as the game progresses. However, writing a fic, while I still do my best to maintain continuity as I write, I will still go back and edit the earlier chapters for the same reasons you've listed in the video.

This is at least the method that has worked for me so far. I've currently drafted 5 chapters into my most recent fic and am nowhere near publishing just yet. Sadly been hard to find time to write with a full time job, but I still make do with what I've got.

I appreciate your videos a lot! I love your approach to fanfic advice and your tips in general really helped me a lot when I was getting started a few years back. Keep up the good work :3

[Suzanne_sf]

You're so right about community. I'm reaching out to everyone, and like not many people are interested, so I'm mainly writing for me. However, I recently got someone who sounded interested, so I'm working more on a new chapter now.
I'm finishing my epic. I'm not going to be one of those authors who stop writing before the story is finished. It's frustrating when the story is amazing, but not finished.

[milkflavored]

Is anyone else NOT motivated by letting others read their stories or community feedback? I just want to finish a story for me 😂 it’s my perfectionism that gets in the way

[franchescaadames]

Can you go over how to expand in the world building in canon? That’s something I’m super passionate about but always seem to get stumped on

[hellosurname]

I was writing a fic that has reached around 100k words at this point and honestly I just write chapter by chapter 😢 I do plan sometimes and I definitely look back at stuff but I like getting feedback as I’m writing. I will try to outline more though, that’s probably a good idea instead of getting stuck and will make my plot link together more well

[jujuoof]

I'll try to stay invested in it lmao
AND THANK YOU FOR THE WARNING I HAD NO IDEA!! ^^

[jujuoof]

I'm an underwriter haha! How about you pals?

[jujuoof]

Thank you for all the tips!! I dearly needed them and I am sure they will help a lot :)
(Not particularly excited about writing that gigantic draftsheet, tbh....)

[wykedao]

Discover writer's should try to add in foreshadowing to connect it all together in the editing stages...<3

[Kk_uwu]

oooh this video is definitely going to help me with my longfic! ...even if part one caused me to rethink half of my longfic's plot. i'm replotting it because it has no throughlines and its looking to be even longer than before, curse you! /j

[FeeBee]

I try to write short-fics but mine all end up as long fics. I can't outline either. I now no longer post until its computer and a lot does get cut but some of the cut stuff either can spin off into its own stories and some of it re-worked into one-shots and short fics but they seem to only happen if I have written an epic first. My stories are all written out of order so I spend a bit of time playing fill in the blanks and scrapping because early story changes affect the ending. Its fun to write which is the main thing =D

[stYOb]

Thanks a lot for the video! ❤ I would like to put my signature under all of your words about the plan. It's a really important part of writing a fic for me. I love making graphs, diagrams and written plans. It is important for me to understand the story in order to write it cool in the end.
Thanks again for the video, looking forward to more! ❤

[wehrkraut]

Everytime I write an detailed outline I don't want to write the fic anymore LOL
Btw for 5:54 one can just get a adblock add-on for their browser, it's free

[cafezin]

I want to write a longfic that has been on my mind for super long, but i have exactly that problem: if i plan, i get tired, and just never write 🤡. I can do a lot of planning for original works, but when it comes to fanfic, i get really bored and can't finish it. 🤷‍♀️

[jeditalez]

Finally starting my fanfic! I hope this advice helps. I know that the process is mine to design buuut
How do you go about outlining your fanfiction? I keep seeing the 3 plot struture. Is that good?
I'm just atm making a brain map of every last daydream idea onto paper then trying to sew it all together into a coherent narrative (hopefully) lol

[jujuoof]

By the way, I still haven't made a concrete end to this longfic which means there WILL most likely be a sequel. So many things to tell! It'll play in multiple acts, too...