As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a published author. However, I was discouraged by my mother, who said that nobody would read my stuff and I was too brief blah blah blah and so on.

My main question is, can you develop your writing style later in life? I'm an older gentleman, and I'm seriously thinking about putting pen to paper. I'm going to start off small with short stories and work my way up to a full-length novel or whatever.

Are there writing programs that help me get started? I have been using Grammarly with Microsoft Word for quite some time, and I think that I may need to begin exploring other options.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Edit: Sorry if my preamble sounded too much like the beginning of Goodfellas. No plagiarism intended.

Welcome back, my fellow creatives! We’re at that interesting bit of genuine early summer in Wisconsin. I finally packed up the snow gear. The lakes have (almost) been warm enough to kill off the swimmer’s itch. The air is perfumed by all the neighborhood grills and veterans serving up brats outside grocery stores and gas … Continue reading

How do you people genuinely start writing your first chapter or your first paragraphs? I have a sort of outline on how my story would play out but when it comes to the specifics (world building, dialogues, character intros), I find it hard to write it out.

Writing a book is a remarkable achievement.

Building a writing life that lasts? That’s something different entirely.

Over the years, I’ve learned that success as an author isn’t about a single breakthrough moment. It’s about consistency, growth, and a willingness to keep showing up—on the page and off.

Whether you’re just starting out or several books into your journey, here are ten practical tips that can help you strengthen your writing process and sustain your momentum.

Hey! I’m a writer who loves thriller and psychological novel and I’m currently (re)writing my first book.

I have so many ideas and scenes I want to write, but I have one problem with starting a book…

Like, I have the whole scene planned out but why do I feel like my 100% is only 40% while reading back on it? I’ve been struggling with continuing my journey to write it because I don’t want to write a mediocre start then suddenly become better when going through my plot because I want my hook to intrigue people, not make them feel like the rest of the book is going to be bad.

Maybe that’s just me, but i want to say thank you for everyone who chooses to give advice! x

I know this isn’t what this sub is mostly used for, but I think I’m in the right place. I am getting a Florence + the machine tattoo soon, and I want to paraphrase a quote from my favorite song. The original quote feels too long and wordy, even though I’d love to get the full thing as it’s my all time favorite line of hers. Any ideas on revising this but keeping the message and those key words would be really helpful!!!
“And I’m learning so I’m leaving and even though I’m grieving I’m trying to find the meaning, letting loss reveal it.”

I just finished writing my first novel after nearly a decade of working on it--off and on--and was wondering if anyone could offer me some opinions on it. One of my friends called it compelling but they're biased.

It's a semi-autobiographical novel about repeated failing relationships while I struggle to come to terms with my own identity. Part choose your own adventure novel, part fiction, part truth, it blurs the line between what happened and what could have happened in an attempt to make the reader feel what I felt during each of my failures.

If anyone's interested, I'll DM them a link.

Early chapter books are 4,000- to 15,000-word short illustrated novels written for newly independent readers aged about 6–9. They’re most often published as series. In complexity, the category sits between illustration-heavy early readers and text-heavy middle grade novels. It’s tricky but rewarding for an author to break into early chapter

I've got started writing a story recently but got a bit stuck trying to figure out where to go from this point. I originally started writing this based on one of my dreams but woke up before I could progress too far, and the part I was at in the dream was so boring it isn't even worth writing. I've linked the AO3 post if you want to take a look at the story, as it would be too long to post here. I'm open to writing suggestions and am hopefully going to get a good number of chapters but I'm struggling a bit to form a cohesive plot and world. This is my first story where I have to build my own world (aside from a DND campaign I ran, but even the players would tell you that my world building is pretty bad.) So anything whether it be a plot idea, a character suggestion, any world building, or if you just want me to add a funny bit in leave a suggestion. If you want me to add a character in give me any details you have, the more I'm given the better I'll be able to write them in. I won't be able to add all the suggestions. Anyway I look forward to seeing everyone's ideas. Thank you!

Hello! So I'm trying to write a short story set in the 50s, centered around a girl from a Sicilian family bringing her Polish American boyfriend over for dinner to meet them. (She was forced to by her mother, though her father isn't too happy with it.) I'm not sure were I want it to go, but I know I want it to touch upon cultural divides and progressive vs. old mindsets. Please give me feed back on what I should fix/change and maybe ideas going forward for the story.. It ends very abruptly because I've been in a creative flunk. Thank you!

Clattering silverware against her nonna’s prized porcelain plates was all that Simona dared to focus on. Johnny sat right across from her as he calmly ate his food and gave her a reassuring smile. Bless him, he didn’t know what was coming, no, he definitely did, he was smart enough. She just hoped that whatever Papa threw his way, Johnny would be able to handle. 

She couldn’t even *sit* next to Johnny. Her father was always head of the table, and Manny had practically jumped to the seat next to her before Johnny could take it. She was sandwiched between her worst nightmare. Carmine sat  to Johnny’s left, twirling his fork and  wearing his usual smart-ass smirk that she wanted to smack right off his face, Nonna sitting right next to him, and finally, there was Mama, (Papa’s first mate), sitting at the other head of the table.

“This is delicious, Mrs. Lanzano, what do you call it?”

   “Ah, yes! Caponata. It’s…ah” mama turned to her second eldest “Carmine, comu si dici milinciana ‘ngrisi?”

“ Eggplant, ma.”

“Yes. Eggplant, roasted, cu, ah, peppers and celery, onion….  it’s stew.”

“ Well, it’s incredible, I can tell you that” Mama smiled “just you wait for  dinner”

“More food, huh? You spoil me, truly Mrs. Lanzano.”

Simona didn’t think it was possible, but her mother’s smile grew even more, making the matching dimples on each of her cheeks pop. She reached over and pinched Johnny’s cheek.

At least Mama was won over. Johnny made eye contact with Simona and put on a smug smile as if to say, see? Simona just rolled her eyes. Her mom was the easy part, but he still had no idea what was coming for him next. 

“So tell me John-” Manny started as he began picking the olives out of his plate and leaning across the table to  transfer  it on to Carm’s plate to which he rolled his eyes.

“Please, call me Johnny” Manny let out a snort at his request. “John,  what is it exactly that you do?”

“I paint”

“Paint?”

Johnny nodded “I always wanted to be an artist when I was little, but my Pop always said that art couldn’t pay the bills, so I became an investment banker. Bout’ a few years later I got laid off, so I started painting again.  I remembered how much I loved it. Now I spend most of my time painting, I pick up a few shifts at the diner here and there to make ends meet, but I’m hopin’ to make it into a full time gig.”

Has anyone here applied for law school and needed to write their personal statement as part of the admissions application? I want to make sure what I turn in is the best that it can be, but I'm not sure of the best way to make sure that happens. Do I show it to other writers? Do I find current law students that I can show it to? Do I hire a law school admissions consultant to review it? Something else?

I'm currently writing a non-fiction book that involves a lot of research, interviews and real stories from people on a specific subject. I guess it's more like an academic paper in that sense

As it's not a creative non-fiction work (telling non-fiction through fiction techniques), would it still fall under the typical non-fiction word count goals of 50k minimum?

Basically what the title says. I've just discovered Kurt Vonnegut's 8 writing rules but I don't really get rule 5 - "Start as close to the end as possible." Hoping that some of you lovely people can explain this one a bit.

So I'm developing a short story idea with a married couple as the MCs. One of the characters is named Elroy and I thought that his husband could call him sometimes by the nickname of 'Ellie'? Does that make sense or is it too feminine? I also don't think I can spell it in any alternative way.

Basically, the story I’m writing has some history that is important to the plot, but no one would go around just talking about it even though its common knowledge. Kinda like how WW2 is common knowledge but we don’t go around talking about it.

Only difference is the history in my story happened several hundred years ago, so its not like it’s fresh on everyones minds. Also, the main history about the events is well known, but there was some other shady stuff going around that only a very few people in high power know about that completely change how people would see that history, so I’m also tryna figure out how MC would find these secrets.

I was thinking that maybe it’s introduced through statues or maybe the MC visits a museum or library that has info about it. I dunno, what do you guys think?

I’m writing a story about a post-apocalyptic world. The history of the world (the past apocalypse) plays a heavy role on the plot but I’m unsure how to explain it without info dumping.