Do the Research, Keep the Shiny! A writer's guide. Want a good story? Choking on yet another sparkly cinematic production that has all the flash and explosions yet no real people in it? If you want stories done right, sometimes you've just got to do it yourself. But how? Roll up your sleeves, we're going to cover it all. No preaching; no "but thou must follow steps X, Y, Z". Just, here's some ideas, and some examples, of how it can work. From getting over that first hump of pen to page, through getting ideas and characters from point A to point B, all the way to how to keep breathing when the whole world's crumbling in. There are links. There are tropes. And there's a sober explanation of why fanfic has always mattered. In your mind's eye there's a world no one else has seen. Here's some tools. Worldbuild away!