Sanders Sides BROTP One-Shots: EXPLAINED

Chapter 8: Waking Nightmares

Inspiration:

Waking Nightmares is a story that actually had multiple thoughts which eventually became the chapter I posted. Of all my stories, Waking Nightmares probably comes in second or third place for the sheer number of rewrites I had to do before I was pleased with the result.

Back on topic, just before this story was written I was getting comments on most of my platforms requesting a Logan-centric chapter, but for the longest time, I didn't know what I wanted for him as a character within my stories. Now, that's not to say I don't like Logan, he's actually my second favorite only bested by Virgil. Whatever the case may be, Logan was the one that I had the hardest time deciding on a story arch for, simply because of his hatred of emotion, which poses a problem since I am mostly an angst writer.

Then, much like The Pain of Assignment, I decided to write my own issues into the story. In the first draft of this story however, Virgil was going to be the one struggling with the nightmares. Over time though, more and more people began asking for a Logan story, and I actually found that with the topic of the nightmares as apparitions, made more since if Logan was the focal character, because he would be the most likely to overwork himself. This opened up more doors for allowing him to be more vulnerable, which meant he would be more likely to show, or at least admit to having emotions, worries, or issues within himself beyond just overworking.

Now, I myself struggle with waking nightmares, and more often than not they consist of dark, looming figures in the room trying to get at me, so that is where the design for the phantoms came from. Logan however sees them as the other Sides, and that I feel fits in well with the insecurities he has about being different from the others, that he wouldn't normally voice. So that's how the ideas behind Waking Nightmares came to fruition.

Funny tidbit, I almost always have an idea for the chapter name prior to having the first draft of the story finished, but in this case, I actually changed it at the last minute to Waking Nightmares. The original title was going to be either Overworked or Overworking but as I got further and further into the writing and editing processes, I decided they no longer fit as well as I had originally thought.

Overall Thoughts On Waking Nightmares:

This was a story that I had a difficult time writing due to the issues it dealt with hitting so close to home for me, but in the end I did find myself appreciating it. One thing that I found is I LOVE writing for Logan, I spend a lot of time on Thesaurus.com when working on his point of view just because I want to use larger words and more intelligent lingo similar to the way he would when I write for Logan. I really did like the way this story turned out, but I will go into more detail as to why that is in a later section!

A Little Insight on Waking Nightmares:

I had to be careful with this particular chapter because, I knew I wanted things to be said that would be regretted later, and things that were hurtful, but wouldn't have been said in any other situation. That being the case, I had to make sure that what I said was impactful, but it was something that didn't go too far, something that the Sides, Thomas, and you as the reader could forgive him for once the true villain of the story was revealed.

Another thing that I feel needs to be addressed is that Waking Nightmares ended differently than most of my other stories. There was no apology or discussion (specifically with Virgil) that allowed for everything to be wrapped up in a nice little bow at the end. I did actually receive a little bit of backlash for this choice, but I made that choice for a couple of reasons.

Reason One: This one is probably the most obvious, I had another story in the works at the time that worked well as sort of an apology / wrap up to Waking Nightmares, and that story was the next chapter: Telescopes, which I will get to in the next Explained chapter.

Reason Two: I feel like with Logan's pride, and not wanting to admit to emotion that he would have a difficult time approaching the others and apologizing, or admitting that it was his mistake that lead to the issue. This is also something I bring up in a later chapter and will elaborate when I get there.

Special Shout-out:

Now I cannot go any further without acknowledging someone who has been instrumental in helping me with these stories. Essentially, if I was Thomas, they would be Joan. My friend Jay, whose username on AO3: panacea_for_broken_souls, and on Tumblr: @jay-wants-to-be-a-paladin. They help me edit all of my stories now, but this was really the first story where they were more involved than just fixing punctuation and spelling errors. Just as I tend to act more like Virgil, they tend to act more like Logan, and they helped me immensely in getting his characterization right for Waking Nightmares. I can't thank them enough for all the work they do for these stories, and how much stuff they put up with from me during the writing and editing processes.

That being said, it is extremely important for me to give credit where credit is due and make sure that all of you know that these stories would be nowhere near as polished as they are if it weren't for Jay's contributions!

Writing Tips Based On Waking Nightmares:

-Different writing styles between points of view.

· Now, this one can be rather difficult to do, and I don't suggest working with this until you have a few stories under your belt. Either way, if you are going between the points of view of multiple characters, there are other ways to distinguish that than just using dialogue, thoughts, or just blatantly stating it.

For example, as I said earlier, when writing for Logan I like to use larger words and more complex ways of saying things when I describe the setting.

For Roman, I use words that are more likely to appear in fairytale type writings.

For Virgil, I spend more time describing settings because he is more likely to notice small details.

This is a particularly difficult skill to pick up on, but if you think you are ready to try it, you will find that your story is more stylized to the characters, and draws your readers in more.

-How far is too far.

· One thing I ran into with this story was that I needed to come up with different types of insults and generally hurtful comments. In this case you need to know the characters and your readership, because you don't want either one holding a grudge after the resolution. The best thing I can say for this one is if you think it is going to cause repercussions, it probably will.