From ' I'm a genius!' To 'omg this should be thrown in a lake.' constantly. Over and over.

Please don't make it something generic like: "I never expected this to happen." Or "It was a quiet, midsummer evening." Try to force me into a certain direction with specific sentences like: "You shouldn't ask why I beat that child to death." Or "I despise the whirring sounds of fans."

I'm excited to see what you come up with!

Hey all! Recently I overcame my fear of sitting down and starting to write my first attempt at a story. I wasn't sure on how long it'll be, but my rough projection is in the ballpark of 80.000-100.000 words, the deeper I get into the story. It's honestly an exhilarating experience. Creating characters that feel more real and tangible each day, getting ideas for scenes and lore out of nowhere and writing them down as quickly as possible for later usage. The way ahead feels a little daunting, but that's just my damned perfectionism standing in the way :P. I started the manuscript on the 17th of July, and I still got a few days of vacation left, so I'll definitely use the time to get along!

Also, the book is a mystery/Eldritch horror story, inspired mainly by Alan Wake, Pet Sematary and Twin Peaks. I'm absolutely loving the process of figuring out the way ahead together with my characters!

There have been several posts recently regarding the fears of agents or editors compromising the artistic integrity of a writer's vision, how they don't want anyone else to tell them how to tell their story. This is a completely valid thing to want. But it's worth calling that what it is, because it has an implication that I think writers are skipping past.

Traditional publishing is built from the ground up on the following proposition: your submitted manuscript is a draft of the book, not the final version. It was never meant to be a neutral pipeline that only ever introduces the occasional editorial note. Instead, it is meant to be a group of people helping you to build your manuscript into a polished and consumable form, a form that is often its best one.

Some of this stems from, I think, writers commonly operating in a bit of a literary bubble, outside of perhaps a critique or writers group (or reddit, God forbid), and that true collaboration feels foreign. Before I wrote, I was a musician. Still am. Musical collaborations have, to this point, been the most rewarding (and successful) art I've created. I encourage you to think of collaboration in writing less as theft or a wresting of control, and rather someone seeing something in your art that you did not see, and at least entertaining their idea as a good one.

Think of your favorite novel. Good chance an editor touched that and brought something else out of it, and that the book you love isn't the same one that arrived on that editor's desk. I'd even argue that you already trust the editorial process, but haven't seen the seams of collaboration in real time, and therefore it feels alien or somehow in violation of you as an artist.

I try to think about it like this. An editor's job is to make your book connect with people other than the one person with all of the pages already in their head, all the ideas already contextualized and in perfect order. It's their job to take this story that only works for you and make it work for others, because if it only works for you, then is it really finished?

But you're the writer, and you get to decide how you want to tell your story. If collaboration is a bridge too far, and you want full and total control over plot and voice and content, that is totally fine. But it also means that traditional publishing isn't for you.

This is most I have ever written. I am so excited! I still have so much else to write too. I feel like this is a decent accomplishment. I only started it on June 12th. It’s my summer project, and is really becoming something, yay!

Hello all, I’m fairly new to Reddit and even newer to the idea of writing. I have an idea for a science fiction story, and have written a rough draft prologue. Is this a safe space to test it? I’m not looking for critique on editing necessarily, mainly if the idea seems worth pursuing.

I'm writing a long series planned to be 7 books, so ever since I hit 100K I recorded the day I hit the next 100K benchmarks. I'm glad to say that my words per day has increased each time!

0 June 2016

100K June 10, 2021 (55 wpd)

200K Jan 31, 2024 (100 wpd)

300K April 8, 2025 (230 wpd)

400K January 7, 2026 (365 wpd)

500K July 22, 2026 (510 wpd)

Some feedback I recently got from a beta reader was that the beginning of my book was too slow and they almost wanted to not finish it, but that it became significantly more interesting after the betrayal reveal that happened about 1/3rd of the way though.

l'm kind of stuck at this point because on one hand I know I can't put too much stock into the words of one beta, but on the other I do agree that some readers won't push through a slow start and that it can make it hard to publish. I don't see how I can cut much from the beginning because I need the character development for the betrayal to matter and I need some scenes for foreshadowing and the inciting incident to actually start the story.

Does anyone have any suggestions on ways to increase the pace towards the beginning or maybe have examples of how you've delt with similar feedback in your own work?

Hello! i'm looking for a couple more folk to join my writing group. we're currently 5 people writing fantasy and sci-fi. it's more of a cozy little group where we talk about everything writing (and whatever else comes up). though we do exchange feedback regularly, there's no strict deadlines to keep the vibes up.

looking for people who are left-wing, anti-artificialint, tolerant and have a good sense of humor. especially if youre european for time zone reasons, but the majority of the group consists of americans either way.

will send invites upon request!

I have a story that I've been wanting to adapt into comic book recently, and it's almost finished. However, I can't immediately spot the inconsistencies and mistakes in the story. For example, an idea that had made perfect sense to me for months suddenly started to seem completely ridiculous just yesterday, so I changed it. I'm worried that there might be plenty more mistakes like this in the story that I haven't noticed.

Does anyone have any ideas or advice please?

So l've finally hit the point in my smutty horror novel where, after 8 chapters and 81k words of buildup, foreshadowing, and deliberately obfuscated and hazy wording, the MC sees his love interest in her full nightmarish monster form. I've had this scene in mind going on 2 years, imagine a fucked up take on the ally rescue scene in the first Spiderman. But now that l've finished the violence and reached the point he sees her clearly, straight up describing her feels really clunky and anti-climactic.

I'd love some recommendations for the best scenes and passages out there that give the reader their first real look at a monster/villian/antagonist. Classic, gothic, modern, whatever, anything that might give me a little inspiration juice would be amazing!

I have two LGBTQ couples in this book I'm writing (gay and lesbian), but I've never really been around homosexual people before and I don't wanna "write them wrong." Advice?

Good evening, everyone! I’m curious to know what you all think about the cover for my poetry collection, as well as any feedback you might have to offer.

I designed this cover myself.

I completed the book today, though I haven’t published it yet. I’m not asking for feedback to gauge whether or not I should publish the book.

My goal was to create a clean, professional cover that feels like something you’d find on a bookstore shelf. I believe I’ve achieved that, but I’d love to hear your impressions.

This volume is called Introspective.

______

Book blurb:

Vol. I: Introspective

Emotions flow like seasons, and seasons mirror our emotions-their beauty found in the depth, their rhythm shaped by time.

A collection of poems tracing the quiet storms within.

Volume I dives into reflection, memory, and the emotions that shift us from the inside out.

A story unfolding through lyrical prose.

For the first time in years I haven't really been writing or reading the work I make on a daily basis, I still look at my drafts, write new ones, edit them, the who shebang, and I don't have a specific project I'm working on, no scripts, novels, or what have you, but I still felt like I should be writing a lot of the times when I wasn't. Not so much in a guilty "I should be more productive" way, but like excercising muscles to make sure they don't atrophy sort of way.

So, somewhat recently, I decided to read some books I read in childhood again. Not so much the Diary of a Wimpy Kids and Captain Underpants, moreso the literature novels and book franchises that made me fall in love with reading and encouraged me to write my own stories. With adult eyes I understand a lot of the decisions better, why some things stuck with me more than others, and I had a lot of things recontextualised for that I was able to appreciate more. I started because I wanted to reread The Hunger Games in preparation for the most recent prequel and things sort of snowballed from there.

Books like Bud, Not Buddy, Walk Two Moons, and Bridge to Terribithia were amongst some of the first (relatively) pictureless books I can remember reading on my own, they shaped a lot of my tastes and writing style, and getting to reexamine and appreciate them has given me so many new ideas and thoughts on how to approach certain subjects and of techniques I could use. And it also encouraged me to read books I 'missed out on' that I didn't look twice at as a kid; I'm picking up on fantasy and sci-fi novels now, when I mostly ever read realistic fiction and black literature before. That or books with at least four rewards on the cover.

And honestly I feel like the writing I've pumped out since then has only improved for it. Which isn't to say I wasn't reading before or that I exclusively read and write for younger audiences, I think it just helped to be reminded of what gave me that spark to write in the first place. And also to see what's considered timeless and see what modern releases are being placed on the shelves with those books.

Anyway, do you have any books or pieces that inspired you to pick up writing, maybe something you'd recommend to expand by tastes or that taught you a technique you could use in your own? Would you have any general book reccomendations you think writers can learn from while reading? It doesn't have to be general audience or children's literature. :)

I know that everything I possess and everything I am capable of is limited. My days are limited, my strength is limited. Even the very body given to me belongs to me only for a finite period. My time will run out, and then it will be taken away. Eventually, these limitations will be handed over to someone else, and whether I exist or not, the world will just keep moving on.

​I haven’t yet decided if I even want to be a part of this order. But they must have brought me here for a reason, right? Wouldn’t just occupying space be a sufficient enough reason? Whether it is enough to justify keeping myself alive, I do not know. The only thing I know for certain is that there ought to be an explanation for all of this.

​I am aware that I am not the only one in this vast world. Yet, I observe and feel that I am profoundly alone. And I come to realize and perceive that no one else will ever truly be with me in this brief lifespan.

​After coming to these realizations, I still don't know how I am supposed to carry on as if nothing ever happened. I struggle so intensely, I thrash about, shedding sweat and blood through it all.

​Right now, I am walking down a street I have never seen before. An unfamiliar song is echoing in my ears. And I have nothing left in my hands that I know or am certain of.

I first begun seriously writing in middle school for my fanfiction. The depths of my inadequacy were apparent but for a time, it was fun. I made my first story on Wattpad, and I only got 5 chapters in before tossing it away. It was frustrating, but I had an absurd passion to bring the vision to life. That passion brought me to realize just how natural the art of storytelling was. Even when I was playing with toys, I was making a story. Didn't matter if it was terrible by conventional standards.

Now, the fanfiction, after a few failures, is now 600000+ words.

And of course I found a passion for original stories too. My first true dream was to become a mangaka, and even though I learned how to draw decently, the intense working conditions, I knew, wouldn't work well with me. The purpose of writing the fanfiction soon became to get good at writing so I can make masterful original stories.

Yes, there are more people than oneself, and I've been impacted by those brave enough to put their stories out there, but now, I've realize that making something that impacts yourself is just as important.

Writing is processing yourself, whether you're writing a novel or something in private. I wrote short stories everyday just to make sure my longer, much larger stories are all the more fun and impactful. You have the freedom to write something good, so don't rebel against writing something bad in your freetime.

I'll keep writing stories no matter how old I become, and maybe one day, I'll show the world my soul.

My grandmother left me one rule before she died.
She didn't leave me money.
She didn't leave me jewelry.
She left me her house and one handwritten note folded into four neat squares.

It read;

Every night at exactly 1:47a.m., someone will knock on the front door.
Do not answer it.
Do not look through the peephole.
Pretend you didn't hear it.

I laughed when I found it.
Grief makes people strange, I thought.

The first night, at exactly 1:47am…
Knock.
Three slow taps.
I checked my phone.
Same time

I ignored it.

The second night, it happened again.
The third night, curiosity won.

I didn't open the door.
I just looked through the peephole.
There was nobody there.

I smiled to myself.
My grandmother had been paranoid.

Then my phone buzzed.
A text from an unknown number.

"You weren't supposed to look."

I froze.

Another message arrived.
"Now it knows what you look like."

I can't help it I've been trying to write a novel for years but I always hate everything I write I don't even know why. I know I would read it if it wasn't mine and I know my writing style is pretty good all my teachers always loved my short stories but I hate what I write. I don't if I'm afraid nobody will like it or if I just gave better in mind.