Hi writers of Reddit,

I'm plucking away at a story again. In the first chapter, I am trying to establish my main character, and the plot. He is a prison guard in a magical society who feels trapped and is unhappy with his situation. I write a slice of life for about 4,500 words on the job in a cavernous underground unit and end on a fight.

Now, I'm wondering how to develope my second chapter.

The plot is to carry the Protagonist out of the city, into a smaller town, that falls under attack by an unknown monster. Ultimately, a magic devices teleports the monster and characters back into the prison for the climax.

I'm going for a Valentine and Earl, Tremors, dissatisfied duo, looking for a better tomorrow vibe. I was planning thinking about having the characters start the chapter in a bar, complaining about how they got fired for the incident, and trying to figure out what they are going to do for money now.

What are your thoughts?

Hey all, I'm thinking of exploring some hobbies and story writing was something I loved before I got busy. Anyone got anyone story lines or ideas I can write about? Well see where this goes :) I'm open to posting them on here if anyone wants to end up reading them (highly doubt but its worth a shot)

I’m doing a level English literature and despite being a very talented story/ creative writer, essays have been something I usually have to practice. Recently I’ve been banging out a lot of essays and I haven’t written anything creative in a while I don’t really have the time or energy for it. My dream is to be a creative but I have a fear my brain will become acclimated to the structures of literature essays and idk maybe I’ll like lose my touch in my scripts/ stories probably just me being irrationally dumb and rejecting studying. But as someone who makes stuff sometimes I get a bit of an ego when I’m analysing something because I prefer to hear people analyse my work. Anywho is it possible to get worse at creative writing when writing lots of more analytical structured essays. Thank you!

I have so many ideas, but my brain thinks of everything like a movie, and sometimes it can get hard understanding what’s important. I see all the vivid colors, the camera angles and panning, the switch between characters and all the tiny details. I try to write it out and it becomes so muddled.

I also struggle with plot points. I have so many major ideas but it’s the little details to carry the story between that I struggle figuring out.

There's all these arbitrary rules about what you're supposed to do or not do and how you're supposed to fit your writing into a neat little box that publishers know what to do with. And everything has to be either YA or not YA when really the target demo for everything I write is autistic people aged 16-80 and that's not a demo a publisher understands so basically no one will read what I write so why even bother

There's also the issue that I don't have great love for literature and would rather make films, but in screenplays you're not supposed to give in-depth descriptions or give characters any interiority or describe their thoughts. You're not even supposed to describe characters looking at things (one of those arbitrary rules) because that's all supposed to be the job of the director, apparently. But I do like doing those things and don't like the idea that a director could do something completely different than what I had in mind (I understand that's the job, but still). So basically it's like I'm too cinematically minded for the page but too literary minded for the screen. I'm feeling like I don't fit in anywhere and have no place to go

Hello Everyone,

Happy Thursday.

I'm currently working on a second story. More of a psychological/creature horror story. Also running with the trope where no one believes the MC.

I can't make up my mind if I should write in First or Third? I do read quite a bit but never a story where no one believes the MC.
My first story I wrote was in third and I felt that it was more natural.

Out of boredom, I've decided to start adapting a game into a book. Theres one issue however, theres a lot of violence and murder in the game which can't be discarded. How do I write these?

I just received an email from the Master's Review about their Summer 2023 Short Story Award winner:
On Monday, we published the winner of our 2023 Summer Short Story Award for New Writers: “Elbow in Zulu” by Dara Kell.
Dara Kell is a South African filmmaker and writer. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, GQ, Zoetrope: All-Story and The Masters Review, among others. An investigative journalist by training, her award-winning documentaries have screened at film festivals worldwide and have broadcast on Netflix, PBS, and the Sundance Channel. Dara lives in Cape Town, where she is completing an MA in Visual History and writing a short story collection about South Africa. Her forthcoming documentary about the legacy of Martin Luther King’s 1968 Poor People’s Campaign will be released in summer 2024.

What am I missing here? Dara Kell doesn't appear to be a "new writer" by any stretch of the imagination. Writers pay for their work to be read and considered by the Master's Review under the apparent false pretense that the publication is seeking new writers. Why not just tell new writers upfront: Good luck, suckers, and suggest they move along without spending their money? Very discouraging.

So I have this part of the story where a protagonist's childhood friend died. She was later on reincarnated as an ice fairy or something. At first she became an enemy of the protagonist when she hasn't gain her previous memories as a human yet but later on she regain it bit by bit after their fight. Then she would become an ally but would keep it a secret that she was his childhood friend.

I kinda want to make a foreshadowing where the childhood friend (who was now a fairy) was told by a prophet or a fortune teller that her life would change if she goes to human lands (where the protagonist lives). But I feel like its gonna be too obvious and I'd like to keep a shock factor when its revealed later in the story that she got reincarnated

The idea of “too many beds” is hilarious but less practical than “lovers to enemies” for example. What are some others that would be interesting to explore?

Ah, yes, a question as old as time is answered again. Hello, writers of Reddit, I need your help once again. I was wondering just today, what makes good prose, and how could one learn or get better at writing prose. Are there any tips or basic knowledge I should know of? Or is writing prose simple but just a steep learning curve that takes time to get better at?
Are there tasks I can give myself to improve my prose, or even some videos that could be of use to guide or aid me in making better prose? (hell, a whole subreddit, I don't mind.)

Is it a good idea to write on my social media apps?

idk if its the same for everyone but for me when that happens its like an upside down kind of smile but im actually smiling. idrk how to describe it but maybe someone knows what im talking about??

I look at writing as a reward. Enduring hours of people and their annoyances, doing chores, and generally getting all the things I need to do, done during the day, to sit down, open my laptop and sigh a relief that it's my time and now I get to chose to write. It's the only thing that when I do it, I never think I could be doing something else more important.

Granted, this could be temporary. But, I'm in a good space with the story, most of the main scenes are 80% complete, with plot structures and finally adding the sub and sub-sub plots to my first attempt at a sci-fi novel. With a lot done (70,000 words. Thinking about 100-120ish) I find that when I get the things I need to get done in the day, I'm full of ideas on what to do for the few hours I set aside to write.

How does everyone else structure their days with writing? And how do you find it?

I was looking through my writing and in some stories I used smart quotes and in others straight quotes. I never really paid attention before until someone pointed it out. Since I prefer writing in Arial (it is easier on my eyes and I get less strain) I noticed I prefer the use of straight quotes. Could be an eye thing or a obsessive-compulsive issue, as the font has clean lines and lack of ornamentation and the smart quotes seem to disrupt its flow.

What is your preference?

I'm writing two characters. Caius, an altruist who believes in his morals and priorities them over law and chaos while Agatha who is a marauder, indifferent to morality and apathetic to honor. Immediately, people will say that this relationship would never work but given that these people may be the last two survivors of their species and share traumatic experiences, they've got a good chance of getting together. However, I am having trouble finding other reasons to why they should get together.

Do you use numbers, spelled out numbers, words, titles, Ronan numerals? Something else?

Hi everyone, I recently started a new job with an events company, I produce content related to the event topics to make us look like thought leaders and support the events. I have 3 years experience doing this, but for digital events not physical ones. Previously I was part of an editorial team, but here I am the first editor hired and am essentially getting editorial content off the ground for them (daunting but I think I am capable).

I have been asked to put together an editorial calendar for the 'space' portfolio (I am working on space, defence and pharma events). This is something I am really not sure how to do, since almost all of the content I am producing so far is reactive, either news or longer form content that shares insights from our events. The task was added to my planner by one of the marketers, not my direct manager.

I am unsure how to develop a long-term plan like this, as this was left up to the managing editors at my last job. If anyone can give advice on how I can go about this that would be great, I'd hate to have to say I don't know how to do this in my first month here.

Hi all,

Wanted to query about the legality of using a real person's name in a story. I am aware of the circumstances and grey areas of legally naming someone in a work, but I was wondering if, were I to submit a short story using a person's name, it would become complicated.

If it helps, I am submitting a short story to a magazine that is essentially titled 'The Agent said I sing like David Bowie'. It is set in a fantasy universe (think Lord of the Rings - that kind of total immersion and complete difference from our own world), where a being from a parallel universe arrives, and in conversation with a character from this fantasy world, remarks that he 'sings like David Bowie'. There are no further specifics, no named songs and no further details, so it essentially exists as a name.

Would this be okay? I believe that a real-life figure of recency is absolutely necessary to get the emotional absurdity of the story, so that the reader effectively holds more information than the characters. There is no description of Bowie, no details as to literally ANYTHING except that he is a singer.

I'm planning to submit it to a relatively small science fiction magazine, if such a fact alters any of the arrangements.

Thank you for any answers!

My grandfather has been writing a book about an old MLB player from the early 60's. This has been one of the very few things he has done since his retirement in the 90's. He finished about 2 years ago and sent his finished product to some publishing company in September last year and has only communicated with them about 4 times since. Is there any way I can help find a way to publish his book (not self publish, he's adamant about this) so he can finally be a published author?

I've always struggled with confidence and I've always hated sharing my work. Family and friends would read it and say it's good, but it didn't matter because they were well, family and friends. They're supposed to be supportive.

However, on Tuesday I received my first email from someone I've never met, with no possible ulterior motive, reaching out just to say they related to one of my characters, and look forward to reading what I write next.

For the first time, and not embarrassed to say I'm an author. I know it's just one email. But it proves someone enjoyed my work, and I believe others will too. It's made me excited to wake up each day and create.

Has anyone felt a similar way or am I being over dramatic to one person's opinion?

So, I don't know if it's a problem on my part or if there's something wrong with Wattpad with my story. I've recently started publishing an original novel on several sites like Wattpad, Webnovel, and so on, and somehow the story doesn't get any views on Wattpad.

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It's not that it doesn't get many views but it doesn't get ANY views besides my own? Adding to that the story is somehow ranked 20th in the Necromancy tag with stories that range from 40k to over 100k views being underneath mine and I still don't get ANY new views?

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The story isn't tagged as mature so I'm kinda lost. Am I overthinking this or is there some issue I need to solve? I already sent a ticket two days ago but didn't get an answer so I decided to turn to Reddit, maybe you guys can help. :)

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Disclaimer: I'm not saying my novel should get thousands of views but I find it weird that not even the first chapter which usually garners quite a lot of views didn't get any...

When writing a revenge plot I think regardless of how it ends it’s always going to feel played out. Sparing the villain feels too cheesy, killing the villain and acting like it never happened just feels like a forgotten plot point, and killing the villain off and still being broken just isn’t satisfactory. So I’m wondering if the “hero” goes about breaking the villain in every way possible and ends up falling off the deep end is the right way to go. I don’t want the audience to agree with the hero, but I don’t want the hero to be a full villain, I want them to be truly morally gray, where both sides are disgusted by their actions, but they can understand the reasoning for their actions.

I've been working on a novel series for years, and my strengths are more in scene and character building. I'm getting stuck on details and specifics (I know, classic rookie mistake), but I'm trying to build an entire new world from the core to the exosphere. I've crunched mathematical numbers, researched our own history, and even done scientific research to see how planet size can impact the ecological and gravitational pulls within itself. I'm struggling with cultures, ancient civilizations that helped build the foundation of why my world is how it is to their current day, and even the fashion of the people. Are there any tips or ideas that other writers would mind sharing with me? I'm also kind of ignorant to details when it comes to fashion, architecture, and even hair styles.

Whenever I submit a piece of writing to a fellow writer for critique and criticism these days, they always highlight adverbs and say nothing but "Watch adverb use." Why do people hate adverbs these days? Did I miss a meeting? I'm not saying I want every sentence or quote to end with some word -ly, because yes, that can be jarring, but sprinkling them in occasionally, to drive home the atmosphere of a scene, seems fine to me. So what's the deal?

Has anyone here done Antioch's Post-MFA Certificate in the Teaching of Creative Writing program? I have an MFA that didn't provide any teaching experience, and finding teaching work now seems like a catch-22: in order to get a job teaching, I need to have had a job teaching. It's costly for a semester-long program, though it's unclear what tuition includes (possibly room and board?) since the program isn't featured in the Cost of Attendance components doc. Would love to hear your experiences completing the program and how it's helped you pedagogically/professionally. Thanks!

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Can't write anything? Start by writing a post about how you can't write anything! This thread is for advice, tips, tricks, and general commiseration when the muse seems to have deserted you. Please also feel free to use this thread as a general check in and let us know how you're doing with your project.

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I started my own novel and I had this idea to add my own sketches. Most opinions I’ve heard are negative and that I shouldn’t add sketches of scenes or characters. In my book though, the sketches aren’t too detailed and the face of the characters isn’t too detailed as I want to let my readers imagine them, besides the most basic ones like color hair and length or body type.

Hey all,

I wrote what my friends have told me is a pretty decent crime thriller. The pacing and writing are good and they think it could be marketable. The only big glaring problem is that the plot is pretty dependent on Covid. The story focuses on a murderer who is getting away with his murders during the beginning of the pandemic because everything is locked down and people are distracted.

The Covid part of the plot makes the book a hard sell because people are sick to death of Covid and don't want to think about it anymore. And yet it seems hard to me to simply just take out the Covid part, because it seems so key to the plot.

Is there any way to save it? Is this something I should just sit on for a decade, until I can sell it as historical fiction?

Thanks.

EDIT/UPDATE: Thanks everyone. While I couldn't reply to everyone's comments, I found what everyone said to be very helpful and encouraging. It was heartening to hear that other books have been published that have Covid in the timeline. I think what I'll do is just go ahead and try to publish it. I guess I never know if I don't try, right? If it doesn't work out, I'll just sit on it for a few more years and see if I can sell it as historical fiction.