I want to have no dialogue in my light novel I'm writing but the story kinda has a lottt of character interaction and I guess the things they say is vital for my plot to move. I really hate trying to write and format dialogue scenes though. I guess I could do it in the he said this but she replied like this and almost make indirect dialogue scenes but i don't know if it works. What do you guys think works best? Direct or indirect dialogue scenes.

I used to think I was a pretty decent writer. But I’m not. Creative descriptions and character design basics I’m kinda okay with, but I suck at plotting and am even worse with dialogue. Should I just call it a day? Or is there any advice anyone can give me to possible help me improve?

So I'm a junior student at university majoring in Communication and Media and our university is very flexible about what we can do for our Final Year Project (FYP). Recently I've gotten an idea for a novel that won't leave my head and I was thinking if I should take the chance to do it. Other students will be doing documentaries, podcasts, films, etc. but I really want something tangible I can have after I finish university. If I do choose to do a novel I would be getting guidance and feedback from my professors that I would never get otherwise. But also writing a full book could be difficult since I would need to do research (its a sci-fi novel with cultural contexts and outlines a potential future for tech), write it, edit it and publish it in the span of a year. I've had experience writing short stories and I'm writing a fun novel right now as a hobby, but I've never taken on such a big writing project. I'm going for a masters degree after and I might take creative writing as my major but I'm still not sure.

All this considered, do you think its a good idea? I'm not really looking for any concrete answer but your personal opinion, experience or any suggestions in general.

I don't know the best way to say this but I have been having existential dread whenever I try to write my stories. I Try to sit down and work but the motivation isn't there. I feel like there is no point to writing. My life is so short in the span of existence and the fact is anything I write will be lost to time. I just cant find the motivate to write because of this. Any solutions?

For example: Imagine your story takes place in an ordinary modern world, and there is a race, different from human, but everyone just living normal lives. Everybody in that world is totally fine with that race, because it’s they everyday life, it’s nothing out of ordinary for them. But how you could represent it to the reader without breaking his immersion into the story? Like, you could say something like “It may seem strange, but in their world it was an ordinary thing”, and that would totally remind the reader that this story is a work of fiction and the world is not real, which i think is bad. So should you just present it as it is?

Quick rundown on my WIP:

•FMC is early 20's

•Genre is sci-fantasy

•The "magic" of this world is more in line with X-Men BUT powers ≠ superhero

•Fear of the unknown; people like the MC are shunned/hated

•Heading towards a potential Nazi Germany-like setting due to rising political tensions

Now, the reason she isn't used to making decisions for herself is because her parent always did it for her. They've had to move around a lot while she was growing up. Getting work can be hard as she has to alert any potential employers of her status. Lots of shunning, religious zealots and "racists" spread propaganda opposing people like her. After her parent dies she finally gets accepted into one of the few places safe for people like her.

Choices she didn't make on her own so far:

•Going to the safe place. Her parent made that choice long ago for the MC to go no matter what should the opportunity arise. So she follows the order.

•After arriving she needs help and ends up accepting it from a stranger even though she feels like she shouldn't. While the guy himself isn't set up to be an antagonist he does sweet talk her into it and she doesn't have anyone else to rely on so she let's herself be led.

•She doesn't get to chose her job/place to live.

•The place is already fully furnished. She didn't get a choice in picking things out and when she mentions it she ends up taking back what she said because she doesn't want to seem ungrateful.

•She has to meet with the leader of the safe place and she isn't given a chance to decline his invitation.

•She doesn't own a phone because she feels guilty tapping into the money her parent left her. But she ends up caving anyway when another character gets disappointed he can't have her number. His influence leads her to get one but it isn't something she's necessarily thrilled about.

•The leader wants her to use her powers to help grow the community. And while he does say that she can reject his offer, it is made pretty clear that the safe place would suffer and they'd have to look for outside help (basically someone with powers similar to hers) should she say no. As of now, she's yet to officially say yes. But a major event in the next chapter (8th) will essentially force her to accept.

A vague timeline I can give is that it's been roughly two and a half weeks. So she hasn't been there long and her parents deaths is still fresh. She's withdrawn from the community. She's not shy or introverted per se. It's just awkward for her to go from having social interactions with just her parent. To having a whole community of people like her that are being so kind and welcoming.

When I write her she feels both worldly and sheltered at the same time. She has experience surviving the harsh reality of the world. But she struggles greatly with making decisions for herself without any outside pressure/influence because she's so used to following her parents lead. With them gone she's essentially being whipped around. Instead of leading the plot everything happens to her and she just has to take it and try to keep her head up.

She has no problem standing up for herself when being provoked or insulted and I've shown that in an interaction she had with the male MC. But she's also very vulnerable to the emotions of others and the power they hold over her.

Thoughts? I'd appreciate anything as I begin to outline her emotional/mental journey.

It's my first time trying to write one and I don't want there to be any problems

It's 2:55 am RN so if there's any miswritten words that could be it.

Context: Chapter 3, a similar scene happens infront of him and it reminds him of a traumatic event in his childhood.

Sabastian and Cecillia are the main characters

Elliott is their friend/side character and Jackson is minor/side character

Jone is Elliotts brother

“C, Cecillia.. huff the others….I need the others! Where's Jone!? I, I, I” Elliott began gasping for air.

“Elliot….I'm here, I'll be here until Jone is able to arrive. I'm with you. I won't leave you alone. Panic attacks, you hate them. It's understandable, it's a normal thing for others, there's nothing wrong with panicking. It's not your fault, what happened before…it wasn't you.“ Speaking Calmly, I motion towards Jackson to go to Cecillia to ask about the rest of them.

“S, Sabastian? I hate this so much, it's so hard and.. pant can…can you hold my hand until Jone gets here, please, help comfort me..“ digging his fingers into his palm tightly, as if he feels he asked something stupid.

“Of course I will, if it means I can help assure you and comfort you, I'll do whatever is needed” I quietly and calmly lay next to Elliott and let my hand fall, after a few seconds. Elliott moves his hand slowly until he reaches mine, to which he rests it on mine.

“Tell me when you want me to grip onto your hand, I'll make sure not to hurt you..“ calming my voice as much as I can I give Elliott a kind and gentle smile.

Elliott breathing even though still heavy has seemed to calm down to some degree. Feeling a grip on my hand and then disappearing, that was him signaling I could hold his hand correctly now.

I gently grip his hand “El, let's try the 3 3 3 rule, is that alright with you?“ I glance at Elliott, giving a small smile. Nodding his head at me for approval.

“El, name 3.objects in the room, please take as long as needed”

“The bed frame pant the, the lamp, and the rug pant” his breathing becoming slightly regular, he lifts his head a bit and wipes his tears with his sleeve.

“Good, thank you, 3 sounds next please.“ I lay my head on the wall, Elliott on the other hand laid his head on my shoulder “3 sounds..pant t the wind, the floorboards creaking, and Cecillia and Jackson, what, what's next?“ His breathing once again relaxing and beciming more gentle, he looks up at me and grips my hand harder.

“Lastly,move 3 different body parts of yours, make sure to try it slowly force, moving your body slowly might be a way for you to feel better compared to yours, I'm here if you need someone to hold onto” I move my eyes and focus on Cecillia and Jackson, who seemed to have stopped talking and are waiting for the others to arrive. I have an urgent question but Elliott comes first.

I notice movement and see Elliott moving his left leg, he then moved his right hand onto the floor gently, and lastly he move his head further into my shoulder closer to my head. His breathing had come more gentle and relaxed, but still holding onto my head for comfort.

Please tell me if I did well and what might need improvement

“Jesse!” he yelled, his voice drowned out by the rush of the nearby river, Silence. Gabriel clenched his fist, frustration boiling over. "He always does this,” he thought. “Just takes off without a word and then I gotta go looking for him.” He stepped back into the entryway of the camper, kicking off his crocodile slippers for rainboots before heading towards the forest in search of his brother.

I think this fits rule 3 but I'm not 100% sure, so apologies in advance if it breaks the rule. I spent a while looking for a question like this and couldn't find one.

So, as the title suggests, I'm struggling with the question of 'how big is too big' when it comes to writing sci-fi, cosmic horror type monsters. I have no experience writing on such a scale, which is definitely part of the issue, but I also just don't know how I would go about finding the balance between so large that it becomes hard to take seriously, or stops being at all grounded, vs being small enough that they stop being cosmic horror.

To get a bit more specific, if elaboration is needed (if not just ignore this part,) I want to write primarily from the perspective of/about human characters and make the story mostly grounded, but with some cosmic horror-esc creature/creatures coming to earth as a backdrop. I feel that if I make them too big it'll be harder to get people invested in the actual main characters of the story, but if I make them too small it just won't evoke that sense of existential dread and impending doom that I often get from cosmic horror.

Hi! I'm trying to find any publications online where I could submit flash fiction for free. I did try googling this but the results are a bit inundating to be completely honest.

Does anyone have any suggestions or recommendations?

Am trying to write a short story, got midway through the first draft and realized I’m not really feeling these characters. Their personalities don’t seem 3 dimensional or very developed to me, and I don’t immediately know how they would react to something, which is really hurting the writing proceeds. So looking for some methods to develop characters further!

I’m open to any ideas, particularly more fun ideas that don’t necessarily involve much writing (e.g. playing the Sims with your characters, making fake social media profiles for them)

I have ideas, many, for different novels, series, etc. I really would love to make writing a career. I keep seeing online that writing a book for a series as a debut is not a good idea. What if the publisher doesn’t want the rest of the series?

So I wrote down the plot for a novel idea I really like, a story I love, and I lost interest in it completely. I’ve been kind of bad at setting time aside to write. I’ve done a lot of writing throughout my life in groups, school, etc. But it’s been about a year or so now that I’ve tried to actually pursue this career I want.

Now my dream series surrounds the gods and goddesses of Greek Mythology in a way that hasn’t been done before (if you’re thinking Rick Riordan), and I’ve crafted the first novel a couple times (not fully completed, but written a large chunk, then scrapped and begun again with a stronger plot and beginning).

Essentially, I’ve come to Reddit because the procrastination is high, the motivation is low, and the desire to write is chaotically everywhere. Do I pursue writing my dream series with my debut being the first book or do I stick out my standalone novel?

Thank you for reading

I have rewritten this book many times because I cannot commit to anything. I'll change views, order of events, layout...or I'll take a break, come back, and forget where I was going so I'll restart.

I'm never going to finish. I feel so discouraged.

Hey everyone. I don't want to make this too long, so I'll try my best to keep it short. Basically I'm almost 30 and I've switched college majors twice already. It wasn't until recently that I discovered that I really enjoy writing. This is probably the only thing that I really enjoy other than videos games and watching YouTube videos. Normally this wouldn't be too much of an issue, but I'm already pretty far into my current college major to switch and even if I did switch, it would impact my girlfriend since she's counting on me to finish this major. I don't want anything to do with computer science or IT stuff anymore and I want to focus on improving as a writer. What tips or advice do you guys have, if any, for someone trying to get better at this? I'm feeling anxious and honestly a bit shitty overall, so I'm hoping to hear some tips that'll help me figure things out and help me make the leap into this field. Also, sorry about any grammatical errors. Like I said in the title, I basically have no writing experience.

Sometimes (either for brainstorming or just for fun/wish fulfillment), I talk to my characters in my head. Just daydreams, really.

On the fun/wish fulfillment side, it's sometimes because I have a particular predicament that I don't know how to deal with so I imagine how my character would approach it. I also use it is a form of emotional regulation.

On the brainstorming side, sometimes just to get my thoughts out. I have a conversation with them, imaging how they would respond to certain situations I might put in my plot.

Is this strange?

I was going through some work that I wrote about 4-5 years ago, and I realized I had created a villain that was essentially a self-insert.

Upon further inspection, it became clear that I had written this character with all the traits that I did not like in myself (it was during a bad time in my life, but I'm quite a bit better now).

As a result, there isn't too much of a lack of conflict or Mary Sue type issue, but I'm wondering if this is common at all, or if this even counts as a self-insert? Is this a bad thing to do?

Not sure what it's called but I'm assuming it's a form of writer's block. I have so many stories just in my head that I constantly think about and I don't even know where to start writing down any of them. I get genuinely a little worried I'll never be able to share this world with anyone else sometimes and would love some advice on focusing / starting.

Title

My character is asking a question in a packed room and is on the spot with everyone looking at her. How should I go about making her dialogue in this scenario? Would ellipses be appropriate?

I think I have to have the perfect name. I can never settle on an ethnicity, making it hard to select a name. I love rhyme and alliteration.

I remember being a child when I would make up characters out of nowhere - I had made this girl Melissa with red hair, turquoise eyes, and deeply tanned skin.

My adult brain would argue how unrealistic that is.

Everything I do now is research for accuracy.

Stereotyping thing sucks because for any romantic interest, I write, the man is always white, and I think it is based on TV and most books I have read. Even though I am black, I often write the ethnic black character as the sidekick best friend to the main character.

I love books of the way they make me feel - the hilarious internal dialogue, how a character experiences attraction to someone, and the beautiful scenery

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I appreciate that, in recent years, there's been a greater representation of those who wouldn't be considered "neurotypical". However, sometimes good representative narrations become drowned out by a multitude of narratives with comical, exaggerated, or stereotypical/vaguely related signs/symptoms that can give the audience a false idea as to what it's like for someone affected by [X].

With [X] being a neurological "thing" you personally are affected by - be it cerebral palsy, ADHD, ASD, GAD, MDD, BPD, schizophrenia (correct me if this is an outdated/partial term!), and others, alone or comorbid - what is something you wish people would get right more when writing about [X] when compared to what you've seen so far.

I'll go first - as someone with ADHD, I appreciate that people understand that it partly means I have trouble focusing on things I don't wanna do. But people seem to realize it's equally hard to do things I actively want to do. The times I've had personal projects I've wanted to engage in, only to stare up to an hour at an open book with a half written sentence or a computer screen with a barely-sketched diagram, is absolutely infuriating and I wish I could actually muster up what seems to be easy energy for other people to just do something, even if it's to add one absolutely minute additional detail.

Regardless of the recognizability of the character themselves, is it possible to take their name as my pen name, or is it copyright protected? If I, say, hide my persona and publish under the name Frodo Baggins or Cercei Lannister (for example), am I legally allowed to do that? No other connection to the character and their respective fictional world will be made.

In a world with no races that resemble humans, would you have difficulty identifying when these people? What would be too alien?

The people still have human problems; relationships, trauma, war, and language barriers. They just don’t look like us.

So I'm trying to figure out a way to write my male protagonist (who's in high school) as someone who's afraid of having connections with others.

His backstory is that his sibling was separated from him and sold off because of a curse when they were preteens. He held a grudge against his parents for it and wanted to kill them, but his realization was that he would feel useless without them and couldn't do it. Since then, he feels like he is undeserving of love and hates himself for it.

His occupation is to exorcise demons and kill them.

The protagonist's personality is that he's introverted and has a snarky, blunt personality. I'm trying to make him interact with others, but finding a way to do so is difficult.

I'm still working on the world-building process and other characters.

I have my paragraphs, but I’m stuck on one sentence. “After dinner go upstairs…” That’s all that I’ve got for that paragraph. Can someone give me suggestions?

It's set in a vague 80s small town, because aesthetic joy. It features a nonlinear narrative, where a police station is trying to figure out who this bloodsoaked kid is and where he came from, while the kid tells his story, set in the same town about a week before. Nobody remembers who the kid or his friends are.

I need to allude to plot points, a mystery, and a monster in the first couple chapters, because I find I enjoy things more when I can see the foreshadowing. My question is, how should I spread it? Should I try to place it in the first chapter, introducing ideas as details, or should I put the ideas in the mystery? Like, the foreshadowing is there, but detective story style where the evidence shouldn't be examined in the order it's found?

I've written two versions of the Detective chapters, and I don't know which one works better from a technical/reader standpoint. Help me <3.

I (28M) didn't apply myself in college and dropped out years ago. I've been thinking of doing an online English degree program while I work full time to become a better writer.

Hi guys! If you don’t mind giving me quick feedback for my female protagonist’s name. I want to pick a traditionally girl’s name that has a traditionally male nickname. I plan on having her go by her full name, but having her love interest be the only person to call her by the nickname. He does this during the friendship stage of their relationship, and stays throughout their intimate and will later be used when they are no longer together. Please let me know which option is your favorite or if you have any others!!

Josephinia (Joey) Annalise (Andy) Stephanie (Stevie) Juliette (Jet/Letty)

Hi, early early starting aspiring writer here. I have started "writing poems" more or less something like three years ago, and now i have a good collection. Not long ago, however, I started getting really into writing, however I have one problem, HUGE problem, I can write every situation, give my character a background, describe their action, give them tought, however, I find writing dialogues soooo hard. when I write them, i find them so unnatural. what I write more than a story seems like an introspective treatise made by mute people. Should i read/write more? Now I'm deep into Dostoevskij and i'm loving it. I'd appreciate every type of advice, thank you in advance

Colleen Hoover is an author who pumps out books like a faucet.

Personally I feel that in order to pump out books at this rate she needs to sacrifice quality for quantity, and I feel that is evident in her editing process, but also that she needs to have a writing template.

I've been putting tiny things here and there together from different authors and different books about writing and I feel very confident that she does have some sort of template that she is filling out as she goes in order to create books this quickly. I have heard that other authors do this and romance is one of those genres that lands itself particularly well to templates.

I did find a template on the website Laurel lit, my question is is there a better place with more details on a writing book template?

Surely authors like Colleen Hoover have these templates ready to go, and surely there must be somebody selling them? Or maybe nobody is selling them and you just have to know where to look.