How to Write Fanfiction Epics and Longfics - Part 1: Story Elements

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 1, we’re covering the four things to consider when coming up with a plot: premise, throughlines, POV, and character development.

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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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[wistfxlwishes]

as somebody who is best at writing fics from 1000-5000 words, i was blown away when the asker at the beginning said 20k was a shorter fic, haha. writing something that's hundreds of thousands of words is way out of reach for me

[a.c.]

RPGs with multiple dialogue options and/or endings are easily THE best candidates for canon retellings. You can pretty much look at them as prompt generators for a more fleshed out story (one of my favorite examples is the first Dragon Age game, because it has multiple endings AND multiple beginnings, but the game itself isn't able to go into *too* much detail exploring the ramifications of each different path for obvious reasons)

[peppermint_quartzz]

As someone who's been trying (and failing. RIP my abandoned fics, I'll get back to them!) to commit to a longfic for awhile now, this video has been a great help! It made me think a lot about the premises and plots that I have come up with before, and what I could possibly change about them to help support a longfic... when I realised I already have a cannon divergence retelling sitting on my Ao3 profile! I wrote a oneshot a little bit ago back in March which got a lot of love and people asking for more, but I had no idea how to continue the story. Thank you so much for this video, (and the next one I'm gonna watch) I feel motivated to keep trying now!

[CoraMaria]

Hello fellow fic-writers! Hope you enjoyed this video and found it helpful. Did it help you narrow down your premise, throughline, POVs, and character arcs? Tell me all about it! 💖

[treefish]

Watching this ticking off things my current WIP has makes me so proud of myself lol

[absinthespoons]

Love the video! One struck-me-funny note: I wonder whether maybe retellings are a lot more popular in your fandoms specifically... I don't think I've ever even seen one, let alone read one. Unless I'm not getting what a retelling is, beyond the obvious.

[praiseion]

I've written 242 pages of SCP Foundation fanfiction in 16-point Square Peg font (which is smaller than you think) in a Google Doc over the course of around Dec 22 last year to now. It revolves around, basically, there being 7 amulets like Dr. Bright's (I don't support Duckman, just think Elias Shaw is a crap name) and when the 7th one is inhabited, it summons the Scarlet King. It's messy and cringey, but exponentially better than my first fic, where Bright and co. go to D&D world, and I'm proud of myself for writing it. This video really helped!

[Crxwned_Thxrnes]

i'd like to say, as someone who cannot write a regular sized fic (10k+) and usually, if i come up with an idea worth making me like a fic i want to write, i end up coming up with too many ideas for that one fic and then it becomes a trilogy, it's very hard to stop because i took a year just planning and writing, i posted two versions, one from when it was just a regular fic, and another one, updated, which only has 5 9very short) chapters in a half year, so while i am still committed to finishing that story, it's grown so big because of the world i put them in, and how i have to subtly edit my world to fit the themes and context i originally wanted, and now the characters are more like unfortunate randos stuck in a not-so different from my og stories-world, with the same conflict from my og world what they have to over-come.

btw, it's just a zombie apocalypse AU, then I decided to make it fantasy, because the characters can be hybrids in some versions of their media, but then i'd have to diversify the zombies a lot, so I worked around it to make the zombies their own species, then I realized I could create a fantasy-based reason for the apocalypse, so now evil goddess is behind stuff, and now I don't even know how to include the rest of the og source material, because the last 4 months of planning was just me figuring out ways to mutate the zombies similar to the 100!Day SCU video. and adding more and more fantasy elements until I fell out the fandom and got into HBIC fic AU's for MLB :/

[crazyladywhodrownedinthelake]

OK the sundae signage in the back of every video makes way much more sense now.

[vllyy]

I’m going to write a canon divergent story so I’m glad it’s suited for longfics lol

[Kirkeyressa]

cora: Don't tackle too many POVs! Six is already too much.
me, a polyamorous wreck of a man juggling 20+ povs in several google doc note files: And I took that personally.



(i'm already at 71k words and will probably reach ten times that number by the end. i feel no one was meant to read my fic and live and i am ok with that.)

[acsaudiodramas]

Wow ... the promising premises were a list of all the fics I don't enjoy. Guess I won't get many readers for my new sequel longfic. But I will not change the plot, since writing it is more fun than anything I ever wrote. And I write fanfics since over 30 years - having started in 3rd grade. I will try to make it as good as possible, but I can't make it an au.

[stYOb]

Hey! I was waiting for this video :) Thank you! In fact, your videos really help to understand not the most obvious things. This is cool! Thanks to your videos, writing fanfiction doesn't seem hard or complicated. And I was also motivated by the latest videos and finally finished writing a fanfic that I wrote for a year. Thank you so much for the positive in your videos, I will look forward to the second part this video and all the other videos ❤ All the best!

[jujuoof]

I'm so glad you are getting more fans!! You deserve much more!!

[jujuoof]

Loving your outfit, vibe, and attitude, as always!

[alexandersison]

And then of course you could just write one of those endless harem fics that seem to clutter the pairing tags all the time.

Anyway, I really enjoyed the video. I think it will help me brainstorm on how to finish some of my longfics.

[TheTimon]

These vids are a joy to listen to thank you!
Trying to decide if i should really do a longfic myself or maybe try to condense the premise i have and this really helps, onto part 2! =)

[raydarcarter]

Im coming here after spending 5 or so years on a fic and getting absolutely nowhere. Love the vibe frfr. Maybe this time i can actually finish it

[Rexneous]

Thanks. Just the advice I need for my dream Longfic.🇨🇦

[SparkTheKirin]

If you need some help picking apart a through line, it's a fic that's a little long but Diaries of the Anonymous Filly (yes it's an mlp fic) is probably my favorite example. The entire story ties together in a way that's honestly magical. I won't spoil too much, but the story ends as the main character begins to tell it. That's confusing, but essentially the main character ends the story off retelling their experience, and the first words they start with are the very first words of the book. For a story that's sometimes dark and more often than not sad, the way the beginning and end lines are conveyed in completely different emotions does a great job of showing the characters growth