I’m a 22y french college student. I used to study film bc i wanted to become a screenwriter, didn’t get into the cinema school i wanted to enter and am now graduating from my chinese major this year. My chinese is C1 level, i lived in Taiwan for a year and i’m staying one more to keep improving. I’ve been diagnosed with GAD and depression last year. I’m in a pretty bad mental space rn but I noticed that every time it happens I keep having the same thoughts over and over again. I desperately want to write but i can’t seem to write anything unless i’m under pressure. I feel like i’m missing on the only thing that would make me feel good, I always wanted to be a writer. Most of my friends are artists and I admire them so much. I wish I could pursue my dream just like them but it seems i’ve got crippling perfectionism. I do have a lot of time on my hands but the thought of writing makes me feel so bad even though I desperately want to do it. I really don’t know how to get out of this situation bc I definitely feel like if I don’t write anything in this life time i would have thrown my life away.

I am working with a small team to develop an app to allow people to motivate themselves and increase their motivation in the long term. Think headspace for motivation. The app is based on academic literature, and our initial testing has produced some very good results immediately after use. Users have also anecdotally reported higher average levels of motivation after a week of use.

I am looking to expand the app to more users while in the testing phase to optimize the app. If you are interested, the link to join the alpha is below:

https://forms.gle/raViuv15FTMHpzgv7

If you have any questions, please send me a message or post them below.

https://medium.com/@sammynaicker/the-life-of-a-writer-d2e0e70e821d

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Hi guys. I'm really bad at achieving goals. I want to write a book by the end of the year, maybe by March of 2025. Depends on novella vs novel. Anyways. I've always started books and then never finished them and I really really want to get this goal. Does anyone have any advice for keeping track and staying focused for someone one with AuDHD and mildly forgetful?

It seems like every time I show someone my book (a high fantasy ttrpg system), their first reaction is always something like "wow! I was expecting this to be basic/poorly written but it's actually good!"

Do yall get this? How do you feel about it? I know it's meant in the best way but it still kinda stings a little.

Not sure this is the right sub but whatever. I'm a unique case, in that I found it less daunting to compose verse than to write prose. I've always wanted to write proper stories, fantasy specifically, but I've always been too scared of fucking it up, not having a well developed enough world, etc. So I never tried. I ended up writing an epic poem about the mythology of my fantasy world, and that diverged into me writing general poetry. I have a small portfolio, but more poems than most have written my age who're into to this.

Now, I really need some motivation to actually start writing prose properly. I've written before, gotten generally good feedback . I'll paste an old work of mine below. Please go easy on me, but be truthful.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1o6dRadFeKZlHSg6sVhjFslNszCkW0xQDkdy2jPI_2-s/edit

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The title says it all. Anyone down for joining a discord fantasy writing server? It will be a fun way of getting to know each other and offering advices to one another. We can share our ideas there and discuss about anything related to fantasy writing. It will be a great opportunity to offer support and gain experience from discussing fantasy-related topics. Any member is welcome💖

Who knows, we might potentially become close friends! :)

I have had three books out on submission, each one different genres, different agents, different query letters, etc. etc. and I haven’t had one bite. I don’t know if I should keep on going. If I should even try to do this. It’s been over two years. This is just the way the universe is telling me to give up and do something else or should I keep trying? I’ve been looking at the market, trends and different things like that and I’ve tried to write books of what they are getting right now, but it’s so hard to not do what I know and what I don’t . I’m thinking about just writing a straight up porno and seeing if that sells because at this point, I’m getting desperate

I got this idea for a gender imbalanced dragon based society where females easily out number males 7 to 1 but I don't want to make it too explicit but I do wanna explore power shifts in relationships and how they reflect in everyday life. Like how should I relay to a reader "hey the queen just got fucked by a slave class dragon" without putting directly that in my book? So far i've just been leaving notes such as [charter A spent a night with Chater c and now B is jealous] anytips on how to write such scenes? Am also struggling to choose a main character and so far have just bounced around the 4 main characters [queen, her bestfriend turned lover, and 2 water dragons (one male one female) who the queen slowly falls in love with. Am a fairly new writer and i've been told bouncing povs could less the impact of my story but i feel like its the best way to tell the story i have in mind. Anytips on how i should attack this idea.

Tldr how do I bounce povs properly and write a story with sexually/sensually secens without degrading my story?

The power system of my book are called "Laws" every item, concept, idea that I'd create is turned into a law that is given to a random human at random. If this human dies it goes to the next baby born. For example the person with the law of... ford f150s can fix them with easy, build them without instructions and hit with the power of a ford.

In order to gain power they need worshipers. The main villain (The law of miracles) had a relatively weak law but they performed miracles to people and wrote the Bible and claimed he was God so he grew exponentially in power. He can now alter luck and chance.

The Mc has the law of the universe and this is a very prevalent law so they can create mountain sized objects or items with the mass of a mountains. She also had low omnipresence of her town acting as a recon.

When people with gifts lose their sanity they go into a state called "Feral" and they lose all memory of their gift and gain the mentality of a blood thirsty animal. But they lose all restrictions of their power and skip straight to their strongest form. (Law of ford's can launch ford's at full speed, move at the speed of one, and have full omnipresence of them)

But this serves a problem as this would be VERY overpowered for the Mc as she could have full omnipresence, create things without limitation and alter things without limitation.

Any tips on how to fix this?

We met God today

The date is 2/7/2020, Oregon State Hospital a boy was born, it was a risky birth, and she almost had to do a cesarean, lucky her though the boy popped his head out. “Push!” The nurse screamed, she was holding onto the boy's head, not too much force, not too little as not to drop him. “Oh god, why does it look like that!?” The father (Gabe) screamed he had never seen childbirth before, and his wife Marigold Pentce had been through a messy divorce. While still married to her old husband another baby was conceived so she knew what joy and horrors childbirth can bring, this baby had a lovely name, Hiki. The name was Gabe's idea, he grew up in Hawaii, and that was a common name where he was from.

The birth of her second baby went well, although scary and painful, the baby was beautiful, and he seemed to copy the looks of his mother. “Congratulations Mrs. Pence. What is his name?” The nurse asked, holding the baby. “Elijah, beautiful name don't you think?” Mary said, tearing up from joy. The nurse nodded and she walked out with the baby. After 20 minutes of waiting the doctor walked in with a huge smile on her face, Mary looked around for a second until she heard something, a giggle. “Babys don't giggle this young,” Mary said, suspicious, “what kind of prank is this” She let out a nervous giggle. She looked at her baby, and just then he let out a giggle, it sounded nervous, just like his mom. Mary held in a laugh and Elijah did the same. “Smart baby” The nurse giggled. Suddenly Mary started cackling, laughing uncontrollably. Elijah began laughing hard, and everyone in the room began laughing too. The sound of a baby laughing, the sound of joy from his mother, and the confusion from his father made the room brighten from the pain Mary had just gone through.

“Mom im here are you ok?!” Hiki barged into the room, looking around she noticed everyone laughing. She stood there for a second inspecting the room. “My friend Gaby drove me here… what did I miss” Hiki questioned, narrowing her eyes. The nurse turned around and showed Hiki the baby. “Meet your baby brother, Elijah.” The nurse handed Hiki the baby. Elijah cooed while being handed to Hiki. “Oh my god-” Hiki said, tearing up, her voice cracked as she spoke again “-Hi Elijah, im your sister, Hiki.” Hiki said, pulling Elijah closer. The room became silent for what felt like an hour. “H-Hik-” Elijah babbled. The room somehow got quieter than it was before, more quiet than silence. “Hi-Hiki” Elijah said, giggling throughout. The room erupted in screams, cheers, and the sound of gasps. Elijah screamed due to the loud sounds. “He spoke! The 20-minute-old baby spoke!” Gabe screamed pulling out his phone. “Hey guys, GabePlays here! We may have a world record on our hands!” He stood up and pointed the camera at Elijah. “Hiki Hiki Hiki” Elijah babbled, clapping his hands and bobbing his head back and forth. Gabe turned his camera towards the very visually shocked nurse “Confirm it, how old is this baby” Gabe waited for her response. “23 minutes and 34 seconds is when he first spoke” The nurse spoke, her voice shaking. “Babe cover up, im about to point the camera at you” Gabe whispered while covering the phone microphone.

Mary waved at the camera “He is definitely from Valhallah…” She spoke, staring past the camera at Elijah. Gabe moved the phone back to Hiki and she understood the assignment “Hey Gabe squad,” She said, staring at Elijah, who was still babbling her name. “I was his first word, Hiki, Hiki is my name and my baby brother said my name first.” She choked up, staring lovely at Elijah. Suddenly she pulled Elijah in close and began sobbing, happy tears, so many happy tears. Elijah stopped yapping and began crying too, giggling in between breaths of crying and baby tears. Out of respect, Gabe turned off the camera and hugged Hiki. “Im happy for you, im going to take care of your mother, follow the nurse out to the baby-care-zone-place-thing” He said, unwrapping his arms from Hik and walking over to his wife. Hiki handed Elijah to the nurse and they walked out together.

“Congrats Hiki Elaine Lexi Pence.” The nurse said, staring at Hiki. “Full name huh?” Hiki laughed, making eye contact with the nurse smiling wide not able to hide her unfathomable joy. “Having two middle names isn't common, for America at least. What does it mean anyways” She laughed, remembering her Hawaiian dad. Hiki took a few more steps and stopped right outside the NICU “It means Can do, I can do anything I wish, anything I set my mind to,” She sighed falling into a wall and holding her head in her hands. “But not getting good grades, a boyfriend, a job, loyal friends I guess” She looked up at the nurse, who looked sad but also confused. “Im not good at comforting, but im also trying to be quiet,” She said lowering Elijah and showing Hiki he was asleep. The nurse smiled and gently placed Elijah on Hiki’s lap. She lifted her arms, looking down at him. “I don't want to wake him,” She said, sliding her hands under him gently. She stood up from her wall sit and cradled him. The nurse opened the doors to the NICU and led Hiki in to a crib which Hiki gently placed him in.

Story Valley is a discord server looking for fresh blood! We have Storyteller, Gamestreams, Question of the Day, Ask the Editor, critique group (we have spaces!) and much much more. We are collaborated with a professional editor with 20 years of experience who is happy to answer all your writing questions for free! We welcome all kinds of writers but have limited spaces. No minors. Drop me a line if you are interested in joining our very homey, welcoming and chill group :D

Heyy, I've recently given myself the challenge of writing at least 15 mins every day and I'm trying to figure out the best place to do this writing. I want a catch-all place I can write every day, easily organise my entries by day and also tag each entry with labels to easily search for when I want to put my ideas together. Any suggestions are appreciated!

After a 20 year hiatus from writing, I decided a week or so ago to get back in it. I wrote a short story (750 words, so “flash fiction” to be precise), submitted it about five days ago and just got an acceptance email today.

Granted, the publication is non paying and has a sky high acceptance rate, but it still feels pretty great. I worked pretty hard on the story, and although it was far from perfect, I’m proud of it, and more importantly it was fun, and I get to share it with other people.

Taking that first step of my 1000 mile journey. Thanks for reading and good luck to everyone else out there.

Too often I see writers on the verge of giving up. If not, things are not going well and it's tearing them up. They've taken a leap of faith to start their writing and they're stopped by a thousand brick walls: writers block, don't know how to start a story, the writing sounds bad, etc.mWorst of all, when you get stopped, you don't even know where to go. You're lost. You're frustrated.

I was like that too.

Then someone recommended me deliberate practice in my writing. I subscribed to blogs, newsletters, YouTube, anything that gave me writing advice. With their guidance, I practiced and practiced.

Now I write better.

I'm no longer stuck on how to get a story out of me. I'm no longer stuck on how to get words out. It just flows. I no longer look at my writing and judge it like a hot piece of garbage. Actually, I'm rather starting to like what I write.

So writers, don't give up! KEEP GOING! It does get better.

But I also wan't to caveat that. It doesn't get better on it's own. Don't just write, write smart. Use other authors method to help you move along if you're stuck. Use resources to see what writing techniques are out there and try to implement them in your writing.

You've got this!Don't give up on your dream. I sure am glad I didn't.

Seriously, I get a migraine every time I try to flush out the story. I need help, I don't know what the hell I'm doing, and I keep getting tangled up in knots. Why is writing a character driven story so fucking hard.

I'm obsessed with my story and I've been working on it for about 3 years but I've also never written a book before so this is not going well. It sucks because it's super important to me, and I can't afford to go back to school to learn how to do this. What do you do when you too poor for anybody to care to teach you how to do stuff?

I have YouTube videos and online parasocial mentors and I read constantly but at this point I really just need a mentor.

What do I do?

To writers, readers or whatever you are out there. i am currently writing a novel for a competition but i have no money to let someone check them and my friend dont feel interested to read them. What do you think I should do to ensure that my novel is just fine and I should just proceed with sending it ?

I started a romance fic, but I've written maybe 200 words. I need to outline it and write it but I can't find the drive.

Hi everyone!

I'm currently 3 chapters into my first book, and I'm looking to finish this book by July.

I have a loose plan to keep me writing in the meantime (I'm a product manager so I'm breaking things out into sprints so it feels familiar) but I'm having some serious imposter syndrome while writing.

How have people gotten past that doubt? Like I feel that I would read this book, but I want to bring people into this world, too.

I’m writing a story right now (my first one). The thing is I’m writing a scene where my main characters are dancing and I need to find the perfect song to describe their story. They are in love but can’t be together because the girl is with somebody else. Can you give me ideas? I love music but I feel like I’m blocked about this.

Sorry if this doesn’t belong here. I’ve been searching for writers subs all day.

I'm joining an event apparently meant for writers who need help planning out their stories. Sharing in case anyone needs it! PSA: There is a ticket cost but it's cheap. Link