I passed a milestone without realising it. For the fanfic I am currently writing, I have blown past the 100,000 words mark:

(Stats as of today)

This is excluding another 32,000+ words or so of scenes from my ‘Random Scenes’ folder, a place where I flesh out scenes that may or may not eventually work their way into the story. Quite a few have, and they connected the dots nicely.

This is by far the story that I have stuck to the longest in terms of plot and length, and I even have a vague idea of how to tie it to a climax and ending. I have already written out some of the last few scenes (in my random scenes folder, naturally).

It’s fun to reread scenes where my character was ten, and compare it with the tentative last scene when she was twenty. And it’s not just age-wise — the dynamics between the characters changed, the way they hold themselves or speak change. It’s as if I am sculpting, but instead of a statue it is a life I am shaping.

And the pleasant surprises along the way! Some little details turned out to be important, and sometimes a random piece fit neatly into the context as if I had it planned all along. I can’t help but wonder how true this is for the books I read — does anyone ever say that some of the brilliant strokes in plot had a completely random and unplanned beginning?

Sometimes it’s hard. Nothing flows from my fingertips and the dialogues were awkward. But many a times it feels like magic, bringing a scene to live and painting a moment that changes lives. It is often the smallest moments that are the most enjoyable — a quiet realisation, a pat on the back, a question that turned out to the profound — these sometimes give me more satisfaction than the big, pivotal scenes.

I have learned that writing a story is as magical as reading a story can be, and I love it so, so much.

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On a practical note, I highly recommend a writing software like Scrivener. I used to be a little sceptical about writing softwares, because what else do you need other than a screen and words? Wouldn’t Microsoft Word or even an open-source word-processor be enough?

But Scrivener had been liberating for me. The ability to keep one central file, with all assorted ideas, plot notes, maps, along with the actual story or any number of random scenes in one place played an important part in me progressing so far in the story.

It becomes easy to start a new section and let the random idea take you places. You can move chapters or sections around with ease. There’s no need to keep track of a ton of different word documents and try to figure out which is what. It’s awesome, and I can’t imagine writing without it again. Check it out if you do any sort of long-form writing!