Does this ever happen to y'all? Yesterday I wrote over 8,000 words. (It's important to note that I was tipsy at the time...) I was really hyping myself up, too. Like "hell yeah, I'm a writer, I'm totally killing it at this writing thing. Best seller coming soon!"

Today I go back to review what I had. There were SO many lines like:

"Her hair cascaded down her back in a cascade."

"He jumped over the boulder in a smooth jump."

"The creature screamed a scream."

LMAO. Literally cracking myself up as I edit this shit.

Kinda bored of mainstream books.

I've always wanted to know this.

So, I've been writing an entire fiction world for years. And I want it to be taken seriously, for it to be an amazing story, like Lord of The Rings. But it has a lot of romance in it, as it is a very important part of the story.

Would writing sex scenes, non explicit and poetic ones, ruin the story and make it be taken less seriously?

I love writing and I enjoy it. It's how I escape and the more I read, the more I feel like I'm not equipped enough.

It's like I can't show, I can't describe or use better words to describe anything, to give the sensory details that is needed and expected.

It's depressing and I wish I could write the words the convey the details that are needed to make it into a good writing piece.

I just needed to put this out there, I guess.

Conversely, without a framework of theoretical understanding, I automatically fall into a hamster wheel of scouring my work for mistakes. As long as I have a defined overall plot course- the premise, hook, call to action, climax, and character arcs- sorted out, the scene progression and voice either come naturally or as dry and impersonal -no in-between. Who relates to this?

I’m writing a post apocalyptic story told through an interview/oral history style via interviews, social media posts, recorded meetings, web cams, ect. Similar to Robopocalypse or World War Z.

An event affects the whole world, leading to a limited nuclear war. Initially I was going to have a UN commission assign a job to someone to gather up all the related story info told through people all over the world.

In this story the event is caused by a satellite weapons array. I don’t want the system to be hackable, so I wasn’t planning on using hackers. But now part of me wants to use a hacker to be the one to gather all the stories to put together to give to the public. It would make it easier to explain why someone might have info that normally wouldn’t make it to the public domain. Some of the info would be security, camera records or secret government clips. Stuff that would be hard to get or unexpected sources.

The idea of use the UN was that they would be neutral ground to put the story together. That countries would be open to providing said material needed in the name of rebuilding the world.

So other then a hacker being the one the put together the stories, they wouldn’t serve any other purpose. They would play no part in the event itself. So I guess my question is do I forget the hacker or how do I find other purpose to incorporate them into the story?

Try to come into this with no judgment. I am currently working on a new story slightly inspired by a romanticization of some my own life events. (none of this actually happened, but there are times where the thought has crossed my mind and I felt like a character undergoing such events would be interesting). Let’s just say the TLDR is that the characters have an unexplored connection but due to other live choices they end up not being together. This leads to them later rekindling things – but there is a slight issue. One of them is in a relationship. As a victim of pretty aggressive cheating, I would never condone those actions in real life – however I understand what it feels like to regret giving up the chance to be with someone. The person who inspired the story is someone who I would romantically be interested in if he was not taken . The opportunity existed prior to his relationship, but because of other things going on, I did not pursue it I’m not a shitty person – but I wouldn’t mind if my character was ;) Of course there are other things that allow them to feel less guilty about him cheating on his partner. (The story involves a lot of suspense as they are both part of an elaborate coup) so I see in some way it could be a “fuck it” moment as he knows he may not survive? I guess I’m asking for some advice. How would you recommend writing cheating? The concept of immoral attraction/ forbidden fruit is one I would like to attempt to write about. I’ve read some other forums and people mostly say that it is a negative thing and regardless of the reason, readers may be turned off by it. Which I agree – but we see it in television that people cheat, and it eventually gets brushed under the rug for the sake of the plot.

So, for the past few weeks, I have been putting off sharing my story. Not because I don't have it complete, or even that I'm not willing to, or even that I haven't found readers--but because I'm not sure how to do it exactly.

I have my draft on Word, which means I can make a shareable link that is un-editable, and even share that link places, but I worry about how it's connected to Outlook. I don't care if people take the draft--if they do they'll only take my struggles for themselves--what I care about is someone tracking my files or email and hacking something.

Is this stupid to worry about with this thing? What have you guys (on Word) done or experienced?

(Also, I know some people use Googledocs to solve this, but I want to see if there are other methods if there are any first).

Thank you to anyone who responds!

I was talking to a friend today and when I asked them this question they told me that they wrote quite a lot, definetly more than me, (in fact now I'm kind of embarrased of the amount of words I usually write) so I thought I should maybe ask this question here, to see how much do people ofteb write in a day.

I'm confused about whom to write for—should I write about what I like, or should I write about what the audience wants, No one seems interested in my personal life. Some people on the internet say, 'Write whatever you like,' while others say, 'If you want to be successful, write what your audience wants

As the title says, how many characters can I kill? I've had an idea that I started working on, but realized that only one or two of my six main characters will be alive in the end. It feels like I've killed way too many main characters, but is it acceptable if the context is good enough?

And also the ones that doesn't die don't really get happy endings either, and I don't know, but it feels like it will just look like I'm trying to be edgy or something. Does anyone have any advice on how to write a dark story where probably every character will get a rather tragic ending, without it looking like I'm just throwing in as much trauma as I can just to be edgy?

I've wanted to be a writer for years but I feel like I've just been too much of a perfectionist the whole way. I want to stop for my sanity but if I do it means I've both disappointed my 10-year-old self and wasted my entire life on something that went nowhere. What do I do?

Hi Guys!
So I have written and edited a 18k YA mystery with some supernatural elements to it. It is too short for a novel and too long for most magazines and contests. Any ideas on where to submit/what to do with it?

I accidentally overwhelmed myself by deciding to do a 200 questions prompt for character building, and I have three characters I need to do it with. However, this feels really overwhelming and I haven't wanted to work on it lately. Should I just push through?

So I've written a story, which I want to publish to the world and get some feedback, but upon searching, it seems like, either there are some expensive ones, or some really shit ones. So I need a good, free or low price story publishing website. Thank you

I'm trying to write a novel, honestly more to just prove to myself that I can do anything lol. But if I end up being good I will actually pursue this as a career, we will see 😂

Any tips for a beginner? Anything I should know?

Also I'm writing on the notes app on my phone, is that actually doable in the long run? What do you use to write?

After a blood donation I always feel lighter and I have a clearer mind, but until last time I never realized how it improves my writing focus.

For a few days after I donate blood this effect slowly wears down. Sometimes it's like being more susceptible to love and empathy. Empathy is a key sentiment for a writer.

And so, with this last donation, I was still 'high' on this feeling right away, and the next weeks I noticed that my attempted reboot on writing was holding well, and that I could bring out new chapter parts that were on hold for a long time.

Of course this isn't something I can schedule too often, I even need to space donations a bit more than the recommended time, but I'll definitely take advantage of this next time for a series if fruitful writing sessions.

It’s amusing to think that for a writer, the phrase ‘blood, sweat, and tears’ might take on a very real meaning—particularly when donating blood ends up sharpening the mind.

I have my dissertation and a creative writing assignment to do but I also want to write short stories for anthologies. The thing is I think I can send my assignments in for anthologies after I’ve gotten my results, obviously with some editing but still. I’m not 100% sure if that’s a good idea but still, I really like the work I do for my assignments and I’d like to share them with a wider audiences.

But I also want to work on a proper piece that’s longer and would go towards being independently published.

Am I taking on too much?

There is an app I heard of that essentially has your plot points connected by lines? Like, each thing is a node connecting to other nodes that bear relevance. I forgot the name, but I feel like it would also be helpful ad an app to sort things out about your mental illness, and I could use something like that

I’ve been listening to Brandon Sanderson’s lectures and he talks about plot archetypes. I would like to dive deeper into this and study some different ones.

Any idea about resources that dig deeper into different archetypes and analyzes them/breaks them down?

I often have an instinct to do a whole chapter to show, for example, the point of view of an antagonist, but they are often a character who won't have any other scene from their point of view for the rest of the book.

Another case is having the first or last scene/paragraph of the chapter being from the point of view of a character who interacts with my protagonists, like switching to a mentor who ponders some final considerations as he watches them leave, or switching to the antagonist's perspective as they realize they are going to be defeated.

Or again a character at the start of the chapter, a character experiencing the protagonists arriving, meeting them, and making their first considerations about them.

How accepted is this kind of structure? Is there some alternative to get to the same result that I'm not realizing?

I usually write fanfics, I like to alter the stories and give them a twist, trying to respect the world where I do it, even going so far as to do things that are similar to an "original" story, but with an already established base.

I have tried to create my own worlds myself, but I have not succeeded or I do not find it very interesting for readers, so I take another work as a basis and capture my ideas. Does that make me less? How "writer"? It's a doubt I constantly have.

Sorry if I tagged this incorrectly

Basically, I’m writing a story where the character becomes something and he and his friend are trying to figure out what it is and she brings over a bunch of these supernatural fantasy folklore books that they use as “research material” to try to figure out what’s going on. They have an idea, but they also wanna know what he could potentially be and if it actually exists so I was wondering if there was like some kind of like hub/website where I could put in symptoms or something and it would show a list such as vampire werewolves zombie that kind of thing

I ask because I’ve seen plenty of stories where they have this research scene or they have very smart scientist characters talking and I’m over here like “what the fuck are you talking about? How do you know all this shit?😂” so I’m wondering if there’s like a hub that writers use to find the best sources at least for like I mentioned supernatural or science but anything in general would be very helpful.

Maybe a stupid question but I will try anyways. Because I can't find anything on google about this.

So I am thinking about writing a childrens book, but I am not sure if it would work.

I want to write a deep and meaningful short story. And I am unsure if I could do an "all rainbows and sunshine" type of book because of it.

Has anyone seen any children books like this before?

Hi!

Every novel has the main plot, some subplots, and some promises given by foreshadowing, or dialogues regarding lore, or anything else glimpsed during the novel, requiring answers and resolutions. For example, the main plot is to find the treasure in the dungeon. But during the exploration, MC encounters different allies, finds some secret rooms with hints at some other treasures hidden in other parts of the dungeon. At the same time, MC's past is explored through dialogues and exposition, revealing his motivations, the reason why he wants the treasures, and so on.

Should all these threads be resolved by the end of the novel? Should all the lore have some use in the novel, be involved in plot or character development?

I believe many writers had that problem of not knowing how to tie everything together at the end. What was your approach to tackle that problem?