Red Hands | BillDip

XCQBOTLOA

I had been working on this fanfic for a little over a year and I am so happy to see it done. All of the things I wanted to happen did happen! I honestly thought I wouldn't get this done until like a year from now.

I started planning Red Hands out April of 2017. I finished June 2018.

This fic changed from a road trip between two dudes that (probably) hate each other to two dudes staring up at the stars because they're real gay and they love each other.

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I got the idea for Bill and Dipper's cupcakes in the bake-off/pool chapter from a Klance fic called Secret Ingredients. It sounds so good and I haven't made it yet, go make some (kind of) spicy peach cupcakes when you have the chance! I bet they're delicious!

My inspiration was the Klance fic, Dirty Laundry for the road trip part of the story. I don't remember what my other inspirations were, though.

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I've seen at the end of finished stories that some people put their learning experiences at the end, so...here I go!

I started to write When Siren Meets Pirate in sixth grade. I thought it was so great. I didn't have an ending for it when I started to write, even though that should be the first thing you think about while writing a story—I learned that. Working on that story through the years has been a challenge. That's why I discontinued it. I felt like that story was getting nowhere and that the characters weren't like-able and I didn't explain anything. I didn't add reason to why the characters did things that they did or how they became what they were at the right time. But people were enjoying it anyway and I didn't want to let them down. I thought of an ending, but it was weak. I tried writing toward that ending but it didn't seem to be working. I forgot about Tad Strange all together for a few chapters and I panicked. I didn't write where he was now! None of the readers knew if he was dead or alive or where he was or what he was plotting and they knew nothing about what happened to him and I made Captain Strange just a person that the characters in the story not care about, even when that guy did some really awful things to the crew and the Pines. And so I said that Tad was in a cell under the ship and boom, done. I didn't know what to add next. And none of us, not even me, knew about Bill or Dipper very well. I asked my followers if they would care if I'd drop the story altogether, but they all said to do what I needed to do and that I could drop out if I wanted to. But I didn't want to let everyone down. I wrote one more chapter before dropping it. I chose to do that because I knew that I would not only let myself down, but all of my readers as well.

At the end of 2016, I wrote the first two chapters of Oak Tree. It was a brand new, fresh start for me. I didn't write an outline, though, until a couple of chapters later. Luckily it was only a few chapters. Oak Tree made me so happy. It still does. I wrote four chapters in one year...I didn't really care for that story that much until I looked at everyone's support and reactions to the story. That's when I got inspired, wrote an outline, and wrote one or two chapters a month. I'm working toward the ending pretty quickly! I really do appreciate everyone who has read, commented, and voted on it and I wish I could hug everyone of you.

On April of 2017, I had an idea. I listened to this one song while drawing and I was like, "Woah, what if I made a story based off of this song?" And so I made an outline. I also tried something new and made the chapters longer to about 2500 words to 3500. None of the chapters were really important at first, but the grammar was terrible. I always go back to fix it now. My writing style got better and better and it was always improving. I had this story on my other account, redrobokitty, because I thought I would start with something new. But I didn't have the same feedback as my other stories and so I moved it onto this account and deleted that one. Now that I've moved it here, I feel more content because Red Hands is hawkfrost_swag's, not redrobokitty's. Mine. Hawkfrost_swag will (probably) be my name on here forever. I (again, probably) won't change it. I won't put my stories under a different name. This story made me feel what the character I'm writing is truly feeling and that didn't happen with When Siren Meets Pirate or the first four chapters of Oak Tree. I made a background story for Bill. I wrote why he did the things that he did. I gave him reason for all of his actions. I had him and Dipper fall in love because that is what they deserve. Thank you so, so much for the love and support for this story!! I really, really, really appreciate it!!