notes by chapter
these are notes that i make to myself as i work on a chapter, unraveling my train of thought behind certain writing decisions as i go along to ensure consistency later on. for the birds is far from my first rodeo when it comes to multichapter fics, as i have started, finished, abandoned, and returned to my fair share of longfics through the years.
(yet somehow, despite— or perhaps because of— my voluminous notes, i still sometimes end up confused as to where a story was going when i return to it after a pause AHAHA)
unlike my annotations of pure identity, these are not so much in-line comments as they are just bullet lists of comments, scribbled as i write. i typically will quote the line i'm referring to, but not always, so it might get a bit confusing, because cleaning them up will be too much time and effort on my part.
- Wild Goose Chase
- Dead Dove (Do Not Eat)
- Swan Footprints in the Snow
- Bird's Eye View
- Light as a Feather, Heavy as a Hill
- A Little Birdie Told Me
- Meet Me at the Magpie Bridge
- Feather Your Empty Nest
- On a Lark
- As the Crow Flies
- A Pair of Mandarin Ducks
- Epilogue: Happy as the Swallows Nesting in the Eaves
(unpublished chapter titles and exact number of chapters are subject to change blahblahblah)
fic titled “love is better left for the birds” on three reasons:
- xiao’s true form is that of a bird + venti’s association with birds n freedom
- it’s a play on the english phrase, “for the birds”, essentially meaning “fuck this shit”
- the concept of “lovebirds” n couples.
essentially, it’s meant to invoke this feeling of exasperation with other people’s romantic hijinks bc of how meddling in other people’s affairs is often more trouble than it’s worth.