Saw this reposted on pinterest and thought i should share…perfectly describes it imo…

I know we get a dozen of these a week but tonight it's my turn. I completed the first draft clocking in at 113k+. I know I've only taken the first step but it's wild to think I did it. I started this book over a decade ago and committed to writing everyday at the end of February. 146 days later draft one is complete.

Sorry I'm rambling at this point. But had to tell someone :)

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!

Okay, this is a general question. What does a writer experience most of the time after confessing or declaring their love? Do they get their feelings rejected or reciprocated? What about your own experiences?

Feel free to share. I would also like to know more as a writer myself that is falling in-love with a close friend!!!

Hi, my name's Federica, I'm 21 years old. This post is written in behalf of my girlfriend, who doesn't use Reddit. Disclaimer: I know nothing about writing, or any industry, I'm a musical education student.

Recently in my small, middle-of-nowhere, third-world country a three-month course for screenwriters for TV shows got posted. It's an open call, so of course I told my girlfriend, who studies Audiovisual Communication that she should 100% apply. You can apply with a show idea or without a show idea, doesn't matter, but what you do have to present is a motivation letter, as well as a curriculum.

In my beautiful country, we don't really do that, ever. We don't do motivation letters or pitches of any kind in any level of education (obviously excluding postgrad), since it is all publicly available and only select things require inscription and acceptance (like the Acting or Performing Musician majors).

So I am turning to you guys with the important question: How can she do that? What are some guidances or advice you guys can offer to write both a show idea (which she already has) or a motivation letter? Literally any advice or comment is welcome, I have no idea what the world of screenwriting entails or wants for a student in this role. It's a pretty long shot since they'll only accept 20 people, but I still want her to have the best chance she can get.

Thank you in advance!

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.

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.

**Fellowship of Crows**

As the saying goes, the fellowship of crows' feathers inked black as shadows, compose a caw cataclysmic to finches. Which is, what fishes once dreamed. Hardly tadpole sized and gained a gleam to one day walk with trees. But the one thing fishes lack is knees.

“No matter for me!”

exclaims the young fishy.

Hardly a task for a fish with no degree yet a plea to succeed may surpass a PhD. Now i know you know a Band comes in three, so may I introduce, a young ducky. Equipped with a body feathery and legs with webbed feet which would soon be the medium for their first meet. A nudge was all it took, a grudge was never booked. Mere luck’s grace, their way crows never looked, hiding in nooks to learn what the world took. Yet one lesson was overlooked, and it was how to spot a crook.

“What happens to you in the snow?” asks the crow

“Same as you, though my limbs don't turn blue” replied the mallard

“though i have heard beyond the herd’s pointed path lay rest a sea. There, a fish may be, having not one but two knees.”

“Impossible!” exclaimed the twain, yet in one that thought remained. With winter on it’s wain, soon even the fish knew little time remained.

but even still, during their last meeting, one last question to the duck could not be missing.

“Feathered friend with lower limbs that bend, won't you tell me before you say bye, to which direction do you fly?”

“Simple enough, though be warned the journey’s rough, if you can beat the heat, you’ll find me in the east”

No further words were deemed required for the exchange.

In the months that followed, Fish began, with his own group, to the east. Likeminded gilded gilled battalions that happen to flatten any seabed unlucky enough to inhabit him or his men. Believed to be guided by the starfish of Bethlehem, yet paradoxically believed there was no god to condemn.

As the saying goes, the fellowship of fishes’ missions of ambition transition into acquisitions. Resulting in entire Coral reefs repurposed as prisons.

At the center of what is essentially an armed battalion,

lies a fish with a vision.

To one day walk with trees. After nearly a year of “travel”, he finally meets a fish with 2 knees, yet when the fish saw the other, he wondered how he could miss, the 2 knee fish he sought was truly a tuna fish.

Tricked by a crow all those months ago, fish’s ambition began to slow. And although he had indeed traveled east through the backflow, He lamented over having not even one big toe.

Huddled below, in an old forgotten borough, our catfish was surrounded by murder of crows.

Hi everyone,

I’m working on a short personal essay about finding an old voice note from someone who is no longer in my life. I’m not posting this to promote anything. I’m only looking for craft feedback on the opening.

I’m especially trying to understand:

• whether the first few paragraphs pull you in
• whether the emotion feels earned or too sentimental
• whether the voice sounds natural
• whether the paragraph breaks are comfortable to read
• where you would stop reading, if anywhere

Here’s the opening:

Is this enough to make you keep reading, or does it feel like it is trying too hard?

Any honest feedback would help. Thanks.

Got a flip phone 2 years ago, got laid off one year ago, spiraled, and wrote a book. After 3 rounds of edits and feedback from 7 test readers, I just got this feedback.

I genuinely don’t know what to do next, besides cold-reach out to literary agents. I haven’t been on Instagram/TikTok/etc. for two years because stepping away gave me the headspace for my creative projects, and I don’t want the pressure of trying to build an author platform. I did use A I (is this not allowed to bring up?) when writing at first, because it started as my DND character backstory so it wasn’t going to be anything professional, and don’t know if that would blacklist me from anything, or turn off literary agents. It has gone through heavy editing and changes since then.

I’m almost leaning toward just putting it online for free, to keep this hobby low pressure/fun, but I have no idea how to get it in front of people who might actually enjoy it. I’d love any advice. Thanks friends!

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!

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)

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 came across The Great Railway Bazaar on my brother's bookshelf a few years ago. He had bought it through a second-hand retailer for closer literary study as part of his IELTS course. While he never finished it, he did something right: let it simmer on that bookshelf until it piqued my curiosity enough to pick it up.

It was the Penguin Modern Classics edition. The cover closely resembled Bandra Station, a station I frequently alighted on for two years during my college days. I would read the book on the train ride; a gentle twist of fate to read a book on railway travel on a railway train.

I was too young to understand the book then, but something about Theroux's literary style riled my admiration. The way he meandered through places and people and experiences, seamlessly moving between dialogue and paraphrasing and monologue and momentum; even if I didn't understand the words, something struck me and stayed with me.

Now, years later as a professional writer, I have returned to his works. And I hold the same awe for him as an author as I did then, only now I understand why. People have called him racist, but it's his candid observations about the world as it was then and not as we wish it to be that animates his works. I rediscovered the same style that moved me those years ago. It's not difficult for the reader to step into his shoes and travel along the routes as he has, forgetting for but a moment that he is in the confines of his home, cozily nestled on the bed, merely moving between line breaks and not railway lines.

But, his significance to literary discourse has dwindled in recent years, and rarely do I see voracious readers mention his name. What do you guys think of Paul Theroux? Which works have you read? What was your experience with his book?

Hi. How do you go about writing your novels? How long do your scenes usually run? I ask because, when comparing my story to others, I notice that a typical chapter has four or five scenes, where as mine has ten or more (despite having the same word count)

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?

Ok so previously I had used my instagram stories to present a episodic story called “POTHOLES”
In short. It’s an autobiography
My instagram followers would see me post cursed images that id taken every so often. This was a way to explain that but it snowballed into basically writing a 9 season TV show about searching for a girl I saw in a dream I had (took a while but I found her)
The series starts out with the time I had made a wish for my life to be more interesting and it had been granted.
In an imgur link I will include a shorter story called “BARTHOLOMEW” which takes place about a year after I had started looking for the girl from the dream.
According to the episode list BARTHOLOMEW is S2 EP2
But the prequel saga was not told in canonically order originally. It was presented like pulp fiction was. Just me all around with dealing with kinda strange adventures like that along with balancing my real life issues as I became an adult

BARTHOLOMEW (Imgur album)

It’s one of the shorter stories. They usually ranged from 25-68 slides at the longest.

But do yall think that was a good way to present that story? Because I was able to include the reference images throughout the series and the cursed things I’d see every so often because of that wish.

Any feedback would be appreciated. My IG followers really liked this specific era of the story which I call “The Prequel Saga”

But also to note, the series wasn’t always like this episode. It eventually got more mature and so did I. I guess that’s why the readers stuck around to see it through.
It also was told in canonical order after season 2.
Where the main story started.
There are also a few standout episodes that folks have told me is their favourites so I figure that I did alr. But does anyone have any idea of what kind of story It would be?
Like it’s done and I wrote it but how would I even categorize it?

Also this isn’t the final draft but this is the version that includes the reference images. The other draft is expanded to include more detailed parts of the story and to fix pacing on parts of the story

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. :)