I let myself feel elated for 20 minutes

And now it's back to work-play. The editing phase begins.

Sorry, my baby. I'm going to have to cut off some giant pieces

The whole point has been lost to me so I wrote the ending/climax first just so I can get that spark back.

My entire awesome idea has backfired and I’m exhausted but I’m so close to the end!….

….then on to book three

Hiii That challenge is really it for me, turns out I don’t need to wait for a wave of inspiration to write !

Some days I was close to 500 words, some other I went up to 3000, it really depends on the day but writing 500 words puts me in the mood and makes me love so fast plus it’s very satisfying watching the words and page counts go up !

I was wondering if some of you were interested in having this challenge together like doing a group or something so we can share our progress with each other every day to stay motivated ?

For me, it’s info-dumping, character head hopping (in 3rd person omniscient pov), and dialogue tags with adverbs (“she said, timidly”).

I usually avoid the big mistakes that craft books are always warning against. Yet I see these same mistakes in published novels everywhere.

A craft question for anyone writing more than one book in the same world or universe.

In my fourth novel, set in 1986, my main protagonist is a teenage photographer. His darkroom walls are covered with time-accurate posters and various photos, including two characters from my first novel, set in the same town and school year.

They're never named as cameos or crossovers, and don't affect the plot. Readers who know the first novel catch it—those who don't do not notice.

Have you done this? In your opinion, where's the line between a quiet Easter egg and something that pulls a new reader out of the story? Have readers ever found one you forgot you planted?

After three months, I had a first draft down. I thought it was perfect. I shared it with betas and got mixed feedback, that was a reality check that I definitely needed. But the foundation was there. I did a huge first edit pass and put it back out there. After sifting through the scammers and bots, I finally found a handful of trustable beta readers. And the feedback I got this time was overwhelmingly positive.

I found a few more people that I knew to love reading and read several books a month and even got a creative writing instructor to read it. The instructor found issues, as I expected. But they weren't insurmountable. I found fixes and discussed them with her until I was confident in them. Then the real test in my opinion, swaying the two people who read more than anyone else I know and doing so when my book is not their preferred genre.

Both of them loved it. Both of them want a second book. They had their feedback and what they wished would be different and what they'd like to see change. I expected it, but I didn't expect them to like it so much. I already have plans to fix what they pointed out and I went over these ideas with them and they agreed, these would help fix the issues.

But these are readers and teachers. Their feedback is invaluable to me, but they aren't inside the industry. So now nearly a year after I started this project, I'm taking a chance and taking this book seriously. So I finally hired an editor and I cannot wait to hear what they have to say. I cannot wait to hear their insight as to what my book might be missing, or what it probably doesn't need.

I just wanted to share this milestone with you all as I work on my next pass so the book is where I think it needs to be before the editor gets his hands on it. Especially since I never imagined I'd get this far with this pet project.

I recently thought about writing a Pinocchio story set in a different region of the world before figuring out that one, I could never stay attached to a different country for long and two, I don't think I was all that attached to Pinocchio as a character to begin with, followed by three, where I learned that something similar had been done by a souls like game called Lies of P so I'm off to play that now.

What do you think, double edged sword of writing or just a gimmick to draw readers in?

There’s an old (apocryphal) story about a newly published science fiction author who was attending an NESFA convention and was asked to help assemble some fanzines. The guy indignantly refused, saying something along the lines of,

“I’m a published author now. I don’t need to waste my time on little things like that anymore.”

Right after he said this, Isaac Asimov poked his head out of the back room door and asked if anyone had more copies of page 54.

Turns out Asimov, one of the most successful and prolific science fiction authors of all time, was back there happily helping staple the fanzines together.

Yesterday I thought I was the second coming of Hemingway and today I feel no better than r/im14andthisisdeep

by cartoonist Tom Gauld

I came to a realization not too long ago; there's no way my writing could impact anyone. From that I realized, that there is a gap between me and the greats. A WIDE gap, that is. There stories impacted people positively, and therefore, are above all of us aspiring writers, obviously. It's easy to say "Eh, I'll just write for myself." But what makes stories beautiful in my eyes is that, you connect with the author's soul through reading it, through understanding it. It helps us make sense of the world.

It's not a saddening realization to me, but it feels weird to know that it's highly unlikely an amateur author's story will end up impacting anyone.

So then I'm asking, even if no one cared about your story, even if it's nowhere near as good as the story that inspired or impacted you, would you still write it?

So, I want to categorize superpowers in my world but I don't know how to group them. I went on research and found all psychic powers (Telekinesis, mind control) would go under the "Psionic powers" and super strength, body enhancement etc. would go under "Physical & Bodily enhancement" and the larger catergory for these two types would be Categories by Function.

For context, the definition of having superpowers in my world is "something you are born with" via inherited or mutation in the womb but strictly, it is being born with since the beginning. Those who implement the "power" to themselves via technology, machinery, human-made tech doesn't count as superpower havers. Artifact users also don't count for having superpowers since their ability comes from the object they use. They are still human, just with a connection to the artifacts.

So, to ask again: what are the names of the categories that superpowers could be grouped into?

I recently started analyzing all these terms, and the most interesting thing to me seemed to be "action" because it is not just part of the plot, but the totality of all the actions of the characters and events in the plot.

But when does it start? I've heard about the "stages of action development", which include the exposition, but not the epilogue.At the same time, no one says that the action strictly begins with the plot point, and this confuses me.

Do you think the action starts with an exposition and ends with a denouement? Is there a consensus on this?

Keen to get a sense of the current freelance copywriting market in New Zealand. What would you consider a typical hourly rate for a contractor writing website blogs, product descriptions, e-commerce web copy and general marketing content?

I’ve come across rates of $90-$150 an hour and am curious how that compares with current market rates. Is it normal or is it on the higher side ?

I've been writing for 14 years. I've published seven books.

Lately, I've spent more time figuring out TikTok Ads, Google Analytics, conversion rates, landing pages, and advertising algorithms than actually writing.

And today it hit me.

I became a writer because I wanted to tell stories. Not because I wanted to become a digital marketing specialist.

I understand that indie authors need to promote their work. Nobody is going to magically discover our books.

But where do we draw the line?

I could spend the next six months mastering advertising and still sell almost nothing. Meanwhile, that's six months I could have spent writing another book.

I'm starting to think I've got my priorities backwards.

Marketing is necessary. But it should support the writing, not consume the writer.

How much of your time do you spend actually writing, compared to trying to sell what you've already written?

Just received news that two pieces of poetry I submitted ages ago, were accepted and will get published. Yay!

🥳

Hey guys, I’m a fairly new writer and I’m about 50k words into my first real project. It’s a dark fantasy story and I have overall had a lot of fun writing it. I feel like I have learned so much about writing and good execution during this process, but feel like I am losing steam and not making as much progress as I was when I first started. Do you guys have any tips on how to regain some traction? Sometimes I feel like I should apply what I’ve learned so far to a new project, but then feel like I would not be doing myself justice by just abandoning something that I have worked really hard on.

I have been creating a fictional world inside my head (shocker, I know) for the past 4ish years, and a story in said world. Since then, it became my obsession to tell this story to the world. I sound all motivated, right? Well, the problem is, I can't write. But no, not the "oh I can't write because my first draft has a lot of grammatical errors" no, I can't even write the first chapter of my first draft. And I've been trying for an awfully long time.

The thing is: since the beginning, my story has always appeared in my mind as sounds, movements, expressions, scenes and images. I can think of a massive, detailed building, or a fictional weapon which I have meticulously designed every single mechanical part of, or a dialogue between 2 characters whom I literally see and hear before my imaginary eyes and ears, and the literal thoughts and feelings they currently exhibit but then... I need to tell ALL of this... with words? Entire landscapes, weird technologies and buildings, quick fight scenes, small expression... with just words? Vague enough descriptions to not make my novel boring? Every line I write I instantly delete, for I feel it is "not good enough".

I have been learning animation since before I started with this story. In my entire life, I was always more of a "visual" type of person. I know that this might be the source of my struggles. Is there anyone here who went through the same thing? What helped? Or am I just not good enough?

Hi, I dont really interact much on reddit so I dont know what the response to this will be, if there will even be any at all. I grew up writing little snippets of stories, and comics on blank white sheets of paper. I'd do these every once in a while, but it never went farther than just a quick "doodle" to pass the time.

However, I ended up deciding to try and actually take it farther when I was going through high school. I wrote the first couple of chapters and ended up asking a teacher I had a really special bond with if they wanted to check it out. Little did I know, they would end up checking it out, enjoy it, and that would become a big part of the driving force that led me to write a first entry, a sequel, and start the third. (Crazy fact: when I was halfway through the book, I had the entire plot and ending of the third in my head already)

The issue is that when I was about halfway through the third and supposedly final entry in the trilogy, I went through something very hard and I lost the pleasure in almost every hobby I had.

I barely wrote throughout this very hard time in my life, producing less and less chapters. I even had to scrap some chapters because it felt like they were just conversations between characters.

2 years later, I have no motivation to write at all. I'm still able to get ideas for the trilogy and even a Google doc full of completely different story ideas. I can get really excited talking to peers about these ideas I get, but sitting down with the computer feels like I'm looking at a stranger (if that makes sense)

Do you guys always write your stories in order? Or do you ever try writing areas you know you want to get to first, then work on the rest? Or does that even work?