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.

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

by cartoonist Tom Gauld

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.

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?

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 ?

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?

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?

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?

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.

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?

"twerking" was supposed to be "towering"

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

I'm at the point where my book is actually FINISHED-finished, like the editing is DONE, and I'm ready to publish it TODAY.

But whoops, I've spend 100% of my energy writing and editing, and 0% of my energy learning anything whatsoever about how and where to publish. And while the best time to start that process may have been yesterday, the second best time is today! So I'm doing some preliminary research, and would love any help or insights from any of you marvelous creatures who have successfully self-published.

-I've seen conflicting statements about KDP—do they require exclusivity, or no? What are the actual benefits, and risks/drawbacks, of KDP vs things like Smashwords?

-Has anyone ever used www.selfpublishing.pro for anything? Seems like it's either super legit or a SUPER scam.

-In general, what services are best to pay for, and which are best handled myself? Things like formatting dimensions and file type, getting an ISBN, optimizing metadata and tags, etc.

-I have zero social media presence. I never planned to write a novel; it just kind of happened. Now I'm sitting on something I think is great, but no one knows I exist. On a scale from 7 to 10, how big of a problem is that? And how can I mitigate it?

-What am I not asking that I don't even know to ask?(??[???])

I think writers sometimes put too much pressure on themselves to make something dramatic happen immediately because they're afraid readers will get bored.

Don't get me wrong, a strong opening matters. But I don't think every story needs a fight, a shocking revelation, or a major plot twist in the first few pages. Sometimes the most interesting thing you can do is introduce a character whose ordinary life feels real enough that readers want to understand it.

The key is that something still needs to be happening beneath the surface. A quiet conversation can build tension. A character avoiding a particular subject can create curiosity. Even an ordinary day can establish a desire, a conflict, or a relationship that becomes important later.

Slow pacing isn't the same as having nothing happen. A story can be quiet without being aimless, just as an action-packed opening can still feel empty if readers have no reason to care about the characters.

Personally, I'd rather read a slower opening that makes me emotionally invested in someone than a chapter full of exciting events involving characters I barely know.

For me, action becomes meaningful when there's something at stake beyond the action itself.

I pretty much can write dialogue, emotions, scenes pretty well. I've already been writing many things and practicing and improving it on a daily basis. But I struggle so much with setting description, or a battle scene/action event. And this isn't even limited to writing, even when I am reading a novel, I tend to zone out during heavy setting descriptions or action scenes​​.

But as a writer, I desperately want to be able to write setting/action/environment scenes pretty easily. I can write them now but I need a lot of resources like I need to research war, action words to be able to write a simple fight. I've read this book already called Characterization and sensory detail (writing active setting, #1) but it didn't help much in improving my vocabulary or flow of writing settings, descriptions though it did make me aware of some other imp aspects like how to make the setting a part of the story and the character's story/background.

Any books, videos, guides or resources that would help me improve is appreciated! Thank you ❤!​

I've noticed a problem in my own writing. When I write dialogue, I tend to place a lot of focus on the facial expressions (specifically the eyes) of the characters. And to express emotion, my characters can be quite loud. I tend to empathize disagreements and conflict by having character raising their voices.

Here's an example:

"You didn't show up," he said, baring his teeth like an angry dog.
She raised her eyebrows, unconcerned.
"So?"
"We had a deal!" 
He was red in the face. The people around them were probably watching. She felt embarrassed.

The problem is that this becomes pretty repetitive and one-note. I recognize the issue, but I don't know how to solve it. For me it feels natural that a dialogue should focus on the drama and the emotion of the characters. So I just don't know what to do.

How do you think a great writer would solve this?

I have written and published three books. First two were novellas. Was easy to write and frankly less stressful but the stories did not have a proper development, ending arrived fairly quick and characters development was bleak.

Third book was a full Novel with around 105,000 words. Was a significant amount of work, although I had a very good idea to the story. I had 13 vital characters in there which made writing and development a pain (I wanted the reader to be able to remember each character well enough to keep up with the story). Plus it had a timeline element (keeping track of it was significantly more difficult than I presumed). It was fun but not always.

My question, which is more popular with readers? Is there a sweet spot on the word count (range)?

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.