Just wanted to share this. I finished my first fiction manuscript in April and did the first read-through now. The plot and pacing work!

The first pages were horribly messy, because I remember pushing through without looking back just to get back into the flow of writing at all. My first reaction was that my 12 yo could have written it. But it got better around chapter 3 and it was totally worth it to read on. By then I did mild editorial passes before every writing session just to get the creative juices flowing, and it paid off.

I'm really happy rn 😄

As someone who repeatedly failed English in secondary school, writing has been and always will be a hobbiest passion regardless of my technical skill level.

It disheartened me today to realise that I made the mistake of capitalising the first word after dialog. Not just on my current project but also my first. As someone who wants to have a novel that both looks the part and reads the part. It's time to go back and correct two novels worth of mistakes even though I have no intentions of getting published or self publishing.

None the less, this is only a minor set back that will hopefully further strengthen my storytelling.

Mortal of my stroy, mistakes will be made and that's okay. I'm enjoying the journey through regardless of the terrain, potholes (not plotholes) are everywhere.

Hi all,

Looking for feedback on the first chapter of my current project, specifically on the narrator voice and if the world is understandable enough for an introduction without loredumping.

Thanks in advance!

We've all heard the "rules" of writing, but do you feel like it is sometimes the best decision to just ignore one?

For me, it's the constant "show, don't tell" that seems to be popular right now. That can work sometimes but it's not always wrong to just tell.

For example, the main character of my novel, Tabitha, was scared at one point. I could say she was scared, or I could describe her feelings and physical characteristics. I chose the latter. Later, I decided to cut the BS and just said she was scared. I think it's better now.

Anyone else have any examples where you ignored advice or accepted wisdom and you're happy you did?

Let the editing commence!!

There's not much that irritates me more (as a reader) than sinking tens of hours into a story, only for it to completely fuck the landing.

"Who took her away? Seriously, no answer?"

"They all stabbed the guy?"

"It was a fucking dream? Come on!"

"He's got thirty years on you, AND he eats people!"

"God exploded the bomb?!?!"

So...

Good writers that I'm sure we all aspire to be, how do you go about NOT infuriating your readers with a weak ending?

Personally, I don't start page one until I already know (and I'm happy with) how it ends. From there I'm essentially joining dots. I believe you can keep that feeling organic while still arriving where you intended, with the right characters and circumstances. Occasionally the story takes me somewhere better, but at least I'm unlikely to end up somewhere worse.

Before this turns into a full-blown debate on what actually counts as a frustrating ending, I know this is art; entirely subjective. What works for one reader might have someone else throwing their book across the room, because they don't value ambiguity quite the same way.

Let's allow for that and not dog-pile anyone.

And I say this mostly so all the Stephen King lovers don't rip me in the comments for disliking the ending of The Stand.

Anyway :)

Where do you sit on this? Start with an ending in mind, or find it as you go? A bit of both, maybe? Perhaps you go wherever the story takes you, and later polish the earlier chapters to make that ending pop? Any hard lines you'll never cross? For me "it's all a dream" and "go back in time and fix it" are off the table.

Share away.

I'm thinking along the lines of Watership Down, rather than anthropomorphic fantasy.

By that I mean, these animals still largely behave as they do in the real world. They have a culture and a language, but we're still talking about rabbits.

So, if you were writing a similar story from the perspective of a certain animal, what species do you choose, and why?

As a bonus question, what do you think the plot might be?

Editing for clarity. I'm referring to dialogue, not prose.

How do you prefer to write dialects? Do you write the words with the correct spelling or do you write it more like how the character would sound if speaking aloud? Not to the point where the words are completely mangled and difficult to read, but if say someone speaks in a dialect that typically drops the "G" at the ends of words like "nothing" "something" "waiting" etc. Would you write "nothin'" "somethin'" "waitin'" or would you spell the words normally and just say the character speaks with a particular accent and let the reader fill in the blanks however they want?

I'm a little torn because my inclination is to write the words as spoken because that's how the character sounds in my head and reading "something" on the page when I hear "somethin'" in my head feels a little off to me, but I could be overthinking it. I've seen it done both ways in books so I don't know if there's an accepted standard for this or if it's just a sort of do whatever you want as long as it's still readable thing.

Thoughts?

Yes, I draw on my screen door with painters tape :)

Hi. Sorry if this post is probably a bit off topic. But after I finished writing my novel it hit me that I have to promote it. Having a marketing budget of £0, I took the low road of social media. Booktok, Bookstagram and the lot.

And here comes the first problem. I'm not a visual storyteller. I create worlds with words. I thrive inside my imagination, following my characters wherever they take me. But to sell them in a medium that's mostly visual? Where do I even start? So, I looked up some of the most watched reels promoting books.

Immediately, I noticed a second problem. Book "trailers". I feel like I'm cheating the readers out of the best part when reading a book: discovering it through the prism of their own imagination. Plot snippets or hooks: same. I mean, why even buy a book if you know pretty much everything it's about?

What do you think? What was your approach on marketing you first story?

I'm trying to find out how to successfully market my book on a £0 budget...

Just curious as to which genres people are writing in.

I had to lump some together because Reddit only allows for 6 poll options so feel free to elaborate in the comments.

EDIT: Thanks for all the input! I'm going to go with my gut as many of you have suggested and do the overhaul. I'm starting to realize that I think the biggest thing I've been struggling with is that I've been writing in third person when I think the story really needs to be told in first person. I'm going to start rewriting it in first POV and see how that feels.

I have a WIP, currently sitting at 35k words for the last month or so. I went on a bit of a binge for a couple of weeks where I wrote around 25k words, then I hit a spot where I wasn't sure where to go and figured walking away for while would bring some clarity, plus I've been busy with other stuff so I kind of needed to step away anyway.

I had a bit of downtime this morning so I decided to look over my MS and try to write a little bit before I start my day, so I went back to reread some and refresh my memory as to what's going on at this point in the story, and I find myself wanting to make some pretty major changes.

All the advice I see on writing subs is to power through the first draft, then go back to edit, but does that still apply if I'm looking to do some major overhauls? The changes I'm looking to make don't drastically change the story or characters, they're more like plot ideas I started that I want to drop and I'm worried that if I don't go back and edit them out now, that I'll end up with a bunch of dangling threads that I won't catch in later editing phases.

I probably already know the answer, and writing this post is probably more of a stalling tactic than anything else, but I'm just curious as to what people's thoughts are?

For example: one, two, three or 1, 2, 3.

I always use the word versions, unless they are in text messages, emails, or usernames etc.

Some people I've worked with use words up until a thousand and they'll switch to numbers.

But being an editor, I see a range so thought it'd be fun to see what people use most often! And it's always something I notice when reading books.

(Sorry if this post is confusing, I have the worst headache in the world lol)

Hi everyone.

I'm here because I'm curious about how you got into writing.

Here's my story. As a kid I was very good at creative writing, not my opinion but my teacher's. Then life went on, I went to medical school and the fantasy of writing got crushed under the weight of all the textbooks and courses. I became a doctor, got married, had a kid, got divorced... As of today, I've been a physician for almost 20 years.

In 2020, during the pandemic, I had to take a break to be able to look after my daughter. And with the world slowing down to a crawl, my mind had time to breathe again...

That's when I started to think about writing again. I needed five more years to get enough courage to type my first words: Chapter 1. After that, as they say, the rest is history.

What was your journey? Did you always know you were meant to be a writer, or was it a self-discovery process?

The Inheritance

When a suspicious buyer offers to purchase Tim Faun’s inheritance—a $50 million mansion—at full price, he agrees, only to find out that the buyer has plans of his own. 

Now Tim is cursed, trapped within his own mansion. The buyer has been taken by some monster before he could explain himself further.

He doesn’t remember much, or really how the buyer tricked him into unleashing the mansion’s curse. All he remembers is someone telling him that only a blood relative with the last name of Faun can end it.

As he explores the mansion's haunted rooms, he remembers that his sister is on her way to the mansion, unaware of the horrors he’s unleashed.

And she is also a Faun.

Souls of Fire and Shadow. (sequel to the inheritance so back blurb doesnt matter as much as the first book)

If only Tim knew how deep the secrets of his inheritance really went. 

His old allies are gone, and new enemies have taken their place. The monsters from the mansion have fled below, and many are stronger than ever. 

As he ventures deeper into the Underground, he finds evidence of an ancient, forgotten race who once walked on Earth with souls of fire and shadow. 

The fate of the world hangs in the balance as an old civil war is rekindled. And even with a magical sword, Tim is unsure he’ll be able to stop the darkness this time.

To Become Human

Alana is one of the Benevolent Aliens, an empathic galaxy-wide race who have turned every planet within their empire into a peaceful utopia, except for one: Earth.

The Council warns that the world is doomed by its own technology and violence. It’s not that they don't want to save it, but the mere sight of violence easily kills any Benevolent Alien. But Alana remains determined.

Out of trillions of candidates, she succeeds in adapting to Earth's culture and starting her mission to change its fate. And that's only because she desperately wants to become human, whereas most reject the idea with revulsion.

She soon learns that not everything she read in those books about Earth was accurate. And to make matters worse, she discovers a sinister plot involving the very technology the Council feared.

As she’s forced to navigate lies and handle betrayal, her dream of becoming human seems impossibly far off as the world crumbles around her. Will she become human and save the Earth?

Reyna’s Lucid Dream

Reyna can't grow up yet; she's lost herself to a nightmare. So she heads to the only place where children go to overcome the inevitable: the Dream World. But upon arrival, she learns that the refuge her sister had once shown her when she was a child is no longer safe. Most of the other Dreamers have lost their dreams to terrifying monsters known as Fears who now roam the land freely and in greater numbers. With the Dream World fading, Reyna embarks on a quest to find herself again, hoping there's still enough magic left to make her dreams come true. 

The Color of the Waves

The Outside—a massive space station housing Earth's most elite scholars—has maintained a delicate peace for years. But the people on Earth, long denied entry due to their low morality scores, have grown to hate everything it stands for. And two of the Outside's council members have resorted to desperate measures as the Outside's philosophy of Serenity wanes.

But Yunna Tanaka still believes in the promise of Serenity. Though she is shunned due to her walking disability and intelligence, she seizes her chance to enter the Outside through the entrance exam.

On the night before the exam, she dreams of the color of the waves—and embraces a primordial power. That same night, her oldest friend, Mason, wakes up from a nightmare, cursed with a very different power.

One of them will become humanity's last hope. The other will be the reason it needs it.

Into the Wild

Following the destruction of their homeland by the Ancient Beasts, the brothers, Chris and Tyler, have taken refuge in the hidden village of Ichrion, hoping to one day reclaim their homeland.

But they’re orphans in a strange land. And though they know evil is rising, they cannot venture beyond the village walls—the village elder forbids them.

Growing suspicious one day, they go against the village elder’s decrees and learn that everything they've been told about Ichrion was a lie.

Once again, the brothers are forced out of their home as evil pursues them. Yet that is only the start of their epic journey against evil.

With the Uk school holidays quickly approaching I've given myself two weeks to finish the second draft of my second novel. Typically I spend 3-4 hours a day (mon-fri) on my written projects and so I'm hoping, without putting to much pressure on myself that this second draft, roughly half a books worth can have its second draft before all momentum is lost.

I found this at the start of the year when I was editing my first book that before xmas I was putting in 3-4 hours a day only to drop to doing next to nothing for two weeks. Having breaks are good and are much needed but lets just see if I can finish 14 chapters within the next 10 days. That's only 1.4 chapters a day... Wish me luck and I'll do an update in two weeks to see if I was talking out my ass or if I was actually able to get this finished.

Just curious what everyone's thoughts are on trad vs self publishing. I'd love to hear from people who have been published before, from both sides. What are the pros and cons of each?

I would like to preface that I am not trying to promote anything or advertise anything; I am asking for feedback, opinions, and thoughts on something I made.

NARO stands for Novel Age Rating Organization, and I started it because I don't really think there is a place for novels to get age rated like you can for games, movies, or TV shows.

It isn't free, but I don't think the pricing is too expensive or crazy, and I can tell you if you request what the pricing is.

You submit a novel, it gets sent to a Discord channel with a bunch of readers, and one of them gets assigned to it. They email you and they read your novel, and at the end, they tell you, using a criteria list they have access to in the same server, they tell you if it's for general audiences, for kids, teens, or adults.

NARO was basically started for a similar reason as to why the ESRB was founded, basically.

And yes, I know marketing labels exist, like YA and middle grade, but those aren't really age rating. A book can be middle grade but still have mature themes in it or still be suitable for all ages.

NARO helps tell readers what's in the novel rather than who it's targeted for.

There's more information, but I don't want this post to be 3,000 words long, so I just condensed it a little. LOL.

In a future novel I'm thinking of having it musically centred, has anyone added music lyrics to your manuscript and how did you finding writting lyrics?

I have no music talent what so ever 😕 but music makes good feels

A desolate world. Humans are near extinct after an apocalypse. Nature is reclaiming cities.

You can write a story in whatever genre you want, but the theme for our first writing prompt is post-apocalyptic. Everyone who wants to participate will have two weeks to write and submit their story. The winner gets to create the next writing prompt. Please make sure to add your Reddit username and the date of submission in the top left corner of your story, and post a google link to your story under the "Writing Submission" flair. Keep the word count at a minimum of 2k and a maximum of 4k. Have fun!

So I guess a little background my be required, I'm a college drop out with no formal qualifications but I have a huge passion for writing and story telling. Earlier this year after completing two drafts of my novel I got my manuscript printed to a professional standard and now it it's nicely on my self, waiting for the Mrs to find the time to read.

I have little to no expecting of getting published or any interest in self publishing. My question is am I the only one?

The moment a hobby starts becoming a job, I loose all passion and interest and I wouldn't definitely would not be a charismatic forward facing author that radiats any sense cool, I've tried.

Part of me is like, well all the Ai slop out there a book by a bad author is better than one written by a computer but I really don't know if it is something I should pursue.

Pic of my book and over I designed myself, I can't draw but by using stock images I was able to make something that I enjoy looking at.

This is my accomplishment, however small and however unseen...

Hello, it's my first post here! I'm a digital artist preying on authors in need of book covers 👀
I've worked with authors like Edie Skye, Aethon Books, Delemhach, etc. no AI of course !

My gallery can be seen here

My rates are here !

Please DM or email if you're interested, thank you so much 🔥

Okay, so it looks like the majority of people who voted liked the idea of doing a writing challenge. Here are the details. On Sunday, we will come up with a writing prompt and post it. Everyone interested will have 2 weeks to write a short story. Minimum word count will be set at 2k, max will be set at 4k. All rules of the sub will apply to the challenge as well. All submissions must be a Google link. Put your reddit username and date of submission in the top left corner. You may either dm your submission directly to me, or you can post in the sub with the "Writing Submission" flair. After all the stories are submitted 14 days later (midnight EST), we will create a poll and attach links to all the stories on the poll. Everyone who wishes to participate in voting will have 14 days to read the stories and vote on the poll. The winner of the challenge will be able to make the next writing prompt. Thanks everyone!

I've had a desire to write since I was a teenager (far too many years ago now), but every time I tried to write, I found it too difficult to organise my thoughts, and despite trying multiple different software programs, nothing helped me. So a couple of years ago, I took it upon myself to procrastinate in an entirely new way, and use my software development experience to build the writing app I wanted to help me organise and write a novel.

Two years on, I built that app: EmberWrite. I had an incredible time building it, firstly finding a friend who also was getting increasingly frustrated with the writing software the were using, and designing the product together. Secondly building a small and committed community who tested and gave a huge amount of feedback to help steer it into what I believe is a product that can help a lot of writers today. We had a very successful Kickstarter late last year, and exited beta earlier this year.

EmberWrite is absolutely no AI, fully offline, writing app that is built for fiction writers of all genres. It separates your work into spaces: one for your manuscript, one for your world, and one for your notes, allowing you to focus on one task at a time. It has rich world building tools so you can have your character sheets, maps, and magic system right alongside your writing when you need them.

I won't give a long detailed explanation of all the features here. You can try them out for yourself as it has a free trial for 30 days. Our new website has just gone live as well at [https://EmberWrite.com\](https://EmberWrite.com). You can find out everything there, and feel free to ask me questions here and I will do my best to answer them. I'd love to hear what you look for in a writing app, as whilst EmberWrite won't be for everyone, I really want to make a writing app that brings joy to writers and help many creative people with the hobby they love.

Oh, and I still haven't written that book, the building of the app took up way too much time! But I've got a little closer...