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Through the Shadows of Shame: an AUP fanfic | Table of Contents (Masterlist)
Here's a TOC of my fic, because I realized it's probably going to have at least 50 chapters, at least that's what I've outlined so far.
Last update: October 12, 2024
NOTE:
Not everything written is a summary to prevent spoilers as best as I can. I just put in things I find interesting about the chapter, even though they're not the main focus.
Subject to change.
PUBLISHED Chapters:
Chapter 1: Why I did this work -- my rationale on why I wanted to write it, and why I made the decisions I did.
Chapter 2: Flashback - meant to set some of the dynamic up.
Chapter 3: Library - here we really get to see their current dynamics.
Chapter 4: In His Element - Ludger gets the praise he deserves for teaching
Chapter 5: Braid - People simp for Ludger and his braid
Chapter 6: Bento - Ludger's students cook him a homemade meal. He thinks it's an assassination attempt.
Chapter 7: Doodles - Ludger being Ludger, not understanding his students' intentions as he rants.
Chapter 8: Scooped - Something bad happens to Erina's research. Ludger is there. Wholesome
Chapter 9: Sausage Octopi - Erina cooks for Ludger. Hilarity ensues.
Chapter 10: Fops - Faculty Meeting about an upcoming magic test. Ludger fights for commoner students.
Chapter 11: Library Shift - Ludger does double library shifts. He makes some students cry (in a good way)
Chapter 12: Cheeky - Erina is a pillow murderer. Ludger has fast reflexes. Erina accidentally talks about one of Ludger's secret identities. Sometimes having fast reflexes is bad for you.
Chapter 13: Consultation Hours: Aidan - Ludger gives relationship advice to Aidan. He has no idea what he’s doing. It works?
Chapter 14: Flashpoint part 1 - see definition of flashpoint ;)
Chapter 15: Flashpoint part 2 - some cool magic thing/magic lore happens
Chapter 16: Croquettes - semi-spicy(?); i got secondhand embarrassment when I wrote this chapter.
Chapter 17: Lavender and White Violet - this whole chapter was so chaotic. Just read it, no spoilers.
Chapter 18: Invisible - (secret) asks (secret) to have a blind date with (secret)
Chapter 19: Whiskey Business - UN Owen appears. Bellaluna making crazy drinks.
Chapter 20: Stay - Ludger doesn't usually get drunk but when he dpes he can keep you up all night long.
Chapter 21: Dragon - What better way to forget all the stupid shit you did while drunk by fighting a dragon?
Chapter 22-24: Okay (1-3); Healthy communication yay.
Chapter 25-27: Encrypta (1-3) - Ludger has a new assistant professor. Magic lore (non-canon) Chapter 28: Flora - Flora subplot has been Triggered (TM)
Chapter 29: Lap - Ludger has a genius idea on how to make Erina stop overworking.
Chapter 30: (School)work-life Balance - Ludger helps Sedina manage her schedule. Sedina asks how to make friends.
Chapter 31: Candidacy - A sort of retelling/adaptation of the canon mana output research arc starts here
Chapter 32: Try - Fluffy end
Chapter 33: Warm - Erina talks about Moriarty without knowing she's talking to Moriarty
Chapter 34: Ripe - Erina and Sedina *ahem* use creative problem solving to get more research participants
Chapter 35: Punishment - Repercussions, punishments, and... other stuff 🦯
Chapter 36: The Moon is Always Shining Somewhere - Ludger trains Erina and he passes out. Erina finds a certain pill bottle.
Chapter 37: The Goddess of the Moon
Chapter 38: White Peonies, White Lilies
Just thought I'd share a lil' peek of how I develop my AUP fic! Lots and lots of annotations and research, and lots of moving chapters around and rewriting for improving the flow :') I haven't written fiction in a very long time but I'm having tons of fun right now and I hope it stays that way~
(Part of the fun is getting to re-read the manhwa so many times... and taking lots of Ludger screenshots. Heh.)
On writing a complex chapter: WIP/Author Notes for Through the Shadows of Shame (TSS), an AUP Fanfic
Just wanted to share another behind the scenes author's note for Through the Shadows of Shame, an Academy's Undercover Professor Fanfic.
Thumbnail is tiny so no spoilers ;)
This is for an upcoming chapter and it's very loaded with a lot of things. To be honest, I had to think of this chapter for almost a week, writing new outlines, drafts, ideas, assessing where I should put the chapter, and all of that.
It was a very difficult chapter because of all the emotions and body language as well as the environment which is more dynamic int his chapter compared to the previous chapters I've written.
So I figured I'd try mapping it out! I think writers really have a tool like this? But I didn't really reference any of those a lot, I'm used to doing flowchart to make sense of my brain, therefore I just did what was natural.
This was so helpful for me. When I tried to input all of the needed elements at once as I was writing it, it just didn't feel right and I got stuck thinking of what was wrong with it, not to mention how overwhelming it felt.
I like to really get in my feelings when writing the scenes, trying to feel and imagine what the characters would be feeling.
And there were a lot of feelings in this chapter.
So what worked?
Doing it in layers was by far a big brain moment for me. Instead of doing the entire scene in one draft, I did it in 3-4 parts:
First, I would draft the entire narrative focusing on the movement and dynamics of the changing environment and other external (non ML/FL) objects/characters. This establishes a sort of skeleton or structure for the entire thing because it gives us the timelines for when certain things need to happen and if it made sense for it to happen at that point (e.g. in my first draft it was only supposed to be 4pm and then the next paragraph the sun was already setting -- it just didn't make sense)
Second, after the skeleton is done and the scene is basically painted in with words, I add in the POV of the characters, 1 character at a time. The scene is difficult because they're both just walking silence not talking to each other, but they're both lost in thought so I needed to convey not only an inner monologue, but also body language, all juxtaposed into the setting in #1.
Third, I look at the side-by-side character thoughts/actions as the sene is unfolding (if you can kinda see it, there's a timeline of major events in the scene, and I've color-coded the thoughts of Ludger and Erina (my OC) and what change is happening at that point in time This is also for continuity, logic, and parallelism. (e.g. what are they thinking of at the same time? That would affect their body language and therefore change the perception or assumption the other person has of their current state of mind)
Fourth is copy editing. Mostly for rewriting the flow, making sure it makes sense, making sure the ideas are good.
Fifth is line editing. Tightening up the dialogue, cutting unnecessary lines, paragraphs, writing additional text for smoother transitions, wittier banter, etc.
Sixth is re-reading! And not just once. I re-read it a few times after editing, then leave it alone on the next chapter. Then I read it again at least once before I publish it. Because of this reason when I'm writing something I'm usually (ideally) 2-3 chapters ahead of my published chapters.
Phew, that was a hefty chapter. Anyway, I just wanted to share my process. Since I write the whole day and I'm alone most of the time, I don't really have people to talk to about this so I thought I'd talk to the internet void.
If you're curious about my story it's this one, on AO3: Through the Shadows of Shame - an AUP Fanfic
Tags: Romance, Fantasy, Comedy, Slow-burn Pairing: Ludger Cherish x Female OC (Original Character) Female OC is a fellow professor and she's a researcher who specializes in plants. And also she banters with him a lot. I think their interactions are cute.
Through the Shadows of Shame: an AUP fanfic | Ch 13 - Consultation Hours: Aidan
Chapter 13: Office Hours: Aidan - Ludger gives relationship advice to Aidan. He has no idea what he’s doing. It works?
Consultation hours were supposed to be for discussing class materials, not... not relationship advice! And yet here he was, trying to pull advice from who-knows-where, just so he doesn't disappoint a student in need.
This one deserves it's own standalone post because it can read as a one-shot if you ignore the beginning and end parts.
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Through the Shadows of Shame (TSS): An Academy's Undercover Professor fanfic AU, where Ludger does more teaching than fighting.
Celebrating 1.5k hits: Through the Shadows of Shame
I finally hit 1.5k hits on my story!
This may be tiny compared to some, but honestly? I'm overjoyed that my work has been viewed at least 1.5k times. (Well, 1.6k as of finishing this draft)
Woohoo! When I first set out to write this story, I told myself I'd do it for me. I'm still writing for myself, but it's nice to know other people are actually reading the words?
Like wow. Thank you.
I also hit a milestone on the story outline (that I call my roadmap)!
Part 1 (out of who knows) is complete! I would say a part is every time something significant happens in the story.
In the image attached, Part 1 is the one in the red square to the left. We've officially published 17 Chapters! ✨🥳
17 down, and so, so many to go 🤪
Right now, I think I have 5-7 parts in total?
I've plotted out 80 chapters but honestly that's subject to change. Sometimes I consolidate chapters, sometimes I need to add a chapter to flesh out the story more, but one thing's for sure:
I'm having so much fun~
*bow*
TSS: Encrypta Chapter Notes/Magic Lore
I spent a few days researching on magic systems and world building for this chapter because I can't write a chapter without thoroughly convinced that it makes sense even if my story isn't that heavy on the magic.
And so I was thinking of what Erina's first lesson could be.
I wanted her to overcome her low rank limitation through cunning, but it needed to be:
1) realistic (so plausible for low rank, and something great, but not OP because she's not OP magically)
2) logical, magic-wise (this was so hard since I just tend to turn my brain off when I read fantasy. Had to research different things to understand how shields, barriers, anti-magic, runes, etc. all worked. I don't know why I like making it hard for myself haha but it's fun so eh, *shrugs*
And so I consolidated my understanding on Erina's Personal Magic, [Encrypta] into these notes below. Spoiler warnings, obviously.
Read my story here.
Through the Shadows of Shame: Happy 2k hits 🥹🎉
Here's a drawing of Erina to celebrate 🥹 We're 30 chapters in now 🥰
Soft kwassant time
honestly it makes me happy everytime my hits on my stories go up because it meant someone clicked on my story! And perhaps some of them read my work! And maybe it made someone happy even for just a few minutes of their day and that makes me happy! :D
Honestly a few months ago I literally said, word for word, "I have no idea how fiction writers write. Writing nonfiction is so easy, but fiction? How do they even do that?"
And here I am, 80k words of fiction after, and. I. Love. It. aaaaaah.
Grateful for the chance to freely post my work out there •ᴗ•
This is how I know I'm kinda stuck with writing:
When I have this concept or idea in my head, or if I feel like there's something wrong with the plot, I turn it over and over in my mind until I find a solution.
And if I can't find a solution, I turn antsy. Really damn antsy. Like I need to fiddle and turn and twist and think of the story over and over, and I can't do that in my head because I literally have no imagination.
So I try to externalize it so I could look at it more objectively and well if I can't then this happens in my desire to arrive at answers:
Lo and behold, fiddling with whatever it is that I think my brain wants to fiddle with, featuring 5 different tools lol (graphs, mind maps, sticky notes, spreadsheets, etc)
(this was how I came up with the really crazy whiteboard/corkboard situation because I needed to track the plot in a non-linear way, since it was getting too long that a mind map wasn't cutting it anymore)
I'm just typing and trying things out with no filter and seeing where it takes me. I have no idea how it's gonna get unstuck but it usually gets solved after a few days so 🤞🏼 crossing my fingers 🤞🏼
