This Scene Is Everything To Me…

my fav disaster trio :3

havent watched the IT crowd all day havent watched it since last night what am i gonna do ive been busy ill watch it tonight but i have stuff to do until 10 and i need to sleep but i wont sleep i have to watch the IT crowd

Moss:(laughing) Oh, dear me.

Jen: What are you laughing at?

Moss: This flipping circuit board, Jen. Some chump has run the data lines right through the power supply. Amateur hour! I've got tears in my eyes.

one thing i learnt after years of being on here is that we need an office-centric series to obsess over

Update #2: A New Outlining Method, Dropdown Plotter

I've been having a hard time conceptualizing how to plan out a novel lately. It used to come so easy to me. Now that I'm a real adult, it feels like there isn't enough space in my brain anymore for me to have my story all in my head without writing my ideas down somewhere.

So, good outlining methods, which can be hard to come by, are crucial for my writing process.

But, a lot of traditional methods don't work for me.

In my opinion, it's extremely important to have an outlining method that doesn't overwhelm you, and which feels creatively freeing. And when do I need to be more creatively free, than when writing an IT Crowd fanfiction?

So I've come up with a new outlining method that I'd love to share with you all! I call it Dropdown Plotter.

Dropdown Plotter uses the dropdown menu feature, which can be found in both Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel, to help you better visualize (and, most importantly, easily reorganize) the major aspects of each chapter of your story.

Basically, it's a spreadsheet that includes, at minimum, 8 columns.

Chapter Title

Plotlines

Included Character(s)

Perspective Character(s)

Location(s)

Chapter Story Description

Writing Stage

Due Date

Why keep track of these things? Balance. Basically, making sure your characters, plotlines, POVs, and important locations all get adequate page time.

It's a lot easier to conceptualize these things when you have it on a color-coded spreadsheet, zoomed out really far, and can see in a big picture way. For example, you might see that the red color indicating "Legolas" is in a scene, drops off after Chapter 17. You might see that the green-coded plot about his missing shoe is only important for 5 chapters in the middle of the story, or that we're spending almost the entire story in the bathroom and never in the evil lair.

So, how do you use the Dropdown Plotter?

First, you go into the dropdown menu, and you can see all the plots you've selected. There's a handy "search feature" for those writing the next Game of Thrones. You want to click the little pencil icon in the bottom right, which is the "edit" button.

On the right-hand side of your screen, a column will pop up called "Data Validation Rules." From here, you can edit the names and colors of each item in the dropdown menu, and add or delete things as you'd like.

Make sure to click "allow multiple selections" on the bottom of the data validation rules pop-up. This will allow you to select multiple characters, multiple locations, and multiple plots when you're in the dropdown menus.

Don't forget to click "Done" at the bottom!

On top of the dropdown menus, the nice thing about working in a spreadsheet is that you can always drag and drop the rows and columns. This makes it extremely easy to change the order of scenes around, in a way that feels very impermanent and easy.

Here is what my Dropdown Plotter looked like for the first three chapters of The Grant: An IT Crowd Fanfiction.

Looks pretty, right? And pretty outlines build confidence! Not only that, but what I like most about this outlining method is that it encourages me to be less precious with my ideas.

It's way less intimidating to overhaul major aspects of your story, such as the dominant POV, the main plot, etc., when all you have to do is click a little button in the dropdown menu to change everything. When I'm editing a little blurb in a spreadsheet versus an entire step outline, it reminds me that no writing problem is insurmountable, and nothing is ever really set in stone.

Again, it builds confidence.

Unfortunately, I've only built a Dropdown Plotter in Google Sheets, but I've provided a blank version to share with you all. The nice thing about spreadsheets is that you can add and delete things as you see fit. For example, some people might want to add...

More columns indicating multiple scenes within the same chapter!

A "Story Beat" column, to mark the specific plot beats each chapter follows (as in the Hero's Journey or the Blake Snyder Beat Sheet).

An "Important Info" column, to mark any worldbuilding or character details discussed or introduced in a certain chapter.

Literally anything your little heart desires!

Happy outlining and I hope you enjoy the Dropdown Plotter!

Google Docs

Dropdown Plotter Spreadsheet

No IT Crowd fanart? Fine, I’ll do it myself

OG image I found off of Pinterest

Introducing my new Tumblr sideblog for my IT Crowd fanfiction!

Hello! My name is Lu and I'm a 22-year-old writer from the Midwest who currently lives in Austin. I am a huge cinephile which is my one defining personality trait. This summer, my goals are to make real bread for the first time, eat healthier, outline my next screenplay, and get my temps license (because I can't drive). To procrastinate all of that, I'm working on a side project!

I began writing a long-form IT Crowd fanfiction in 2018 (age 15) which had a small but mighty community of dedicated fans on Wattpad. I am incredibly thankful for the readers who STILL encouraged me to finish writing even after a six-year-long cliffhanger! Hitting 20k reads in 2025 meant a lot to me.

In succumbing to IT Crowd brainrot yet again, I was surprised to find there are still less than a handful of long-form IT Crowd works available online, including mine. Also, looking back on the work I wrote when I was 15, I realized that it would benefit a lot from a rewrite (obviously). After I put on my slightly larger glasses, I had a bit of a eureka moment!

Now that I'm on summer break from my M.F.A., I'm planning to take some time to write some low-stakes, no-pressure stuff for myself. So join me as I start the journey of a new(ish) long-form IT Crowd work, temporarily titled Unexpected Reboot!

Unexpected Reboot is a rewrite of The Grant: An IT Crowd Fanfiction, only with an actually coherent plot, and a couple other updates and tweaks for being, well, written by a 15-year-old in 2018. I'm not changing a couple words and cutting a couple scenes--it'll be a page 1 rewrite with a completely different plot, but the same characters and storyline told in a more satisfying way.

Like The Grant, Unexpected Reboot answers the question: What if yet another woman was hired at the IT Department, but she was another standard nerd?

Well, for starters: Comedy. Action. Romance. It's just another day in IT. I can't spoil too much this early ;)

This blog will feature updates on my writing process, goofy memes and polls, and general IT Crowd stuff. At some point, I am also hoping to host a cover design competition! My ask box is always open for questions, comments, and general goofiness.

Side note - I hate Glinner and as a big FU to him I have a list of LGBTQ+ resources for the US & UK on my blog. Please feel free to send trans mutual aid requests, fundraisers, or even just more great links to my submission box.

All updates on the fanfiction will be tagged as #it crowd unexpected reboot! Follow the tag for updates.

Looking forward to hearing from you! All the best, Lu <3

gif credit: @goodomcns

Actually kind of in love with this little pixel art I made of Imogene...very much captures her essence. I love the 2010s hipster look she has going on, even if it's a little anachronistic. In 7 more years she could be a nerdfighter.

made on makepixelart.com

Rip Jen Barber from the IT crowd, you would have loved chatGPT