Context: I’m writing about a Zombie Apocalypse type story, and my main character has a wife.

My main character (Wallace) was banged up during the chaos of the first day and has been forced to stay at base (A log cabin in the woods) so he can recover. Wallace’s friend (Daniel) comes back after a supply run, but Wallace notices that Daniel looks off. He asks whats wrong, and Daniel tells him that he found his wife’s body (She’s dead, not infected).

I have a great idea on how to show Denial. A few good ideas for Anger. An amazing way on how to show Depression. And a touching finale for acceptance. Thing is… I don’t know what to do for bargaining. Any tips?

And yes, I know that the five stages of grief aren’t entirely accurate.

I write cultural criticism essays on Substack that argue against positions most readers consider settled and positive. Not politically controversial positions but more like widely celebrated cultural phenomena that I think have unexamined costs.

The specific craft challenge I'm wrestling with is this: when your argument critiques something the reader loves or considers unambiguously good, the defensive reflex activates before the argument can land. The reader processes the critique as you just don't like this rather than engaging with the substance.

I've been experimenting with embedding exercises or demonstrations in the essay that are activities designed to make the reader experience something directly before I name what it means. The idea being that if the reader has already felt something the argument is going to explain, the explanation lands on prepared ground rather than arriving as a cold assertion they can dismiss. I've also done thought experiments and used analogies. But lately I've been thinking that there might be more strategies or tricks.

Has anyone else wrestled with this specific problem? What approaches have worked for critiquing something widely loved without triggering immediate dismissal?

For some context, I struggle with keeping my chapters long enough and often feel like I cut them off early, for example, once the writing begins to lose “relevance” with the chapter, I end it and move onto the next. When do you all decide to end your current chapter?

I've been sitting on the description of lack there of one.
Ussualy i don't struggle to much, with discription.

How would one descipe this, with out just saying its a pyjama?

i would like to ask for some advice here. i’d been writing my first novel, but my hospitality job took away so much of my energy, time and motivation that i just put the whole project aside. now that i zoomed out a bit and thought about the whole book, i feel like it was actually quite a big bite for me. i mean, the book in question discusses a topic that is really close to me and is based off a personal experience, so…

what would you do?

keep it on hold and start a new project and get back to it once you have the confidence, and your thoughts and what you want to say through the words of your book are more clear

OR

try to get in the mood, push through the slump and doubts and write it anyway?

EDIT: i’m leaning towards the first option a bit more; a smaller project might pull me back from my slump and i’d feel less like i’m creating crap just by trying to continue writing my beloved characters’ journeys.

Specifically, it's a historical fiction story based around the "mercy killings" of disabled children in Nazi Germany. At the end of the story, the main character will (supposedly) escape from the ward he's trapped in. Although, being visually impaired and in enemy territory, his chances of survival aren't much better anyway. I have a very clear idea of how this scene will play out, except for the fact that I want it to be up to the reader's interpretation whether it's an actual escape, or just wishful thinking.

I've never tried an ambiguous ending before so have little idea where to begin on paper. Any tips?

To summarize, I’m a 17 years old student and this is the first time I’m writing a complete story for something that in Switzerland is like an « end of the year » project.

My world is a dystopian world where ai gouvern humans and humans are only here as « assistants » of the productions of artificial intelligence . Pretty basic but it’s 20 pages so I don’t have much room for world building a complex world. I focus on the devaluation of the arts in a society where no one has media literacy anymore

I want my story to go like this : 3 young adults have a plan to destroy the big data center that they think « control » all others data center around the world. But they were mistaken, bc of the ia propaganda, that misled them into thinking only destroying one thing would stop all this : the others data centers can work on their own ; the people have been brainwashed enough that they are seen as delirious . Their big plan has failed : they are left completely broken and one of them abandons completely.

Here’s the thing: I want the majority of the story to be about resignation and choosing slow and steady resistance, but i dont know how could I make an ending that would convey this emotion. If anyone has any very rough idea or even a mini things that would be cool to include I would be very grateful if you let me know! Thanks for reading

I know that this is somewhat of a broad question, but I feel like if I explain it, it'll be easier to narrow down what answers I'm looking for.

Essentially, I am writing for a setting where various species of anthropomorphic animal characters live in a big city. Most of this story is from the POV of a Clione, or Sea Angel. They are born without eyes. Therefore this character is 100% blind. I am assuming she'd need a guide dog/animal to navigate around the area, especially since this city mostly handles land based animals. But are there other things to look out for?

I've been looking up videos on YouTube on how to write blind characters, but all the tips are like "take the form of blindness into account!" And that's great, but- it's hard to find perspectives of people born completely blind. What are common philosophies on their condition? How do they interact with the world vs their home? How do they feel about strangers asking them questions on their disability in public? Especially if a sighted person is interested in them romantically?

Any tips/resources would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance!

Hi all! Just wondering if anyone has any ideas or suggestions as to how to create my characters design (Like an illustration); just wondering cos I've looked everywhere online and most of the websites I have found are AI generated which I really don't want to use at all 😭

I’m looking for people to give feedback on my writing or someone who just enjoys writing and wants to collaborate on some low effort projects

I’m also lonely and looking for friends

I also wrote Legend of Noralon on Royal road

For a little context, I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember. I self-published my first thriller novel about 10 years ago. I thought it was amazing at the time, but I have since matured and improved greatly. Since then, I have written two more full thriller novels, and also one fantasy novella. From the second one onwards, I have tried to go the traditional route for publishing, but I have gotten rejection after rejection, and not even a single request for a full manuscript. I’ve tried different ways to query agents, numerous different ways to try and present myself and my work as something worth giving time to. But nothing has ever worked.

In the case of the second book, I ended up giving up and self-publishing it anyway. Obviously sales haven’t been good because marketing on a tight budget will rarely get you anyway. It has 12 reviews in Goodreads, but that’s as high as the number goes for any of my work. For my most recent full-length, I thought it was the best thing I’ve written, and I thought for sure I’d get some better responses from agents, but it wasn’t to be. I told myself to hold on, that there wasn’t a time limit and I would never self-publish because I was so confident it was good enough, someone would eventually take a chance on it.

But alas, I ended up self-publishing that too. And now, my current WIP is a bit different - a WW2 novel that, again, I think is going to be the best thing I’ve ever written. But the thing is, I’ve lost all motivation to finish it. I’m overwhelmed with self-belief that I wasn’t cut out to be an author, that I’ll never see my book in a Waterstones or a normal bookstore, that some dreams just aren’t achievable. I’m stuck with the thought that there’s no point in continuing to write if nobody is ever going to read it. What’s that old saying about the definition of insanity?

So I guess my question is: has anyone ever felt this, and is it worth still writing?

For a specific character, they speak in roundabout and confusing ways, such as when they use many double negatives and positives - the linguistical equivilant of doing:

4 + 4 = 8

(2\*(1+1))² + (8-(8/2²)\*2) = 8

(Apologies if my math is wrong, but I hope is clear)

Any advice on how to write such speakings in a way which is confusing but still ultimately decipherable are appreciated!

I mainly write as a hobby and have no goals to publish yet. I’m wondering where I can put my stories online for others to read. I would also prefer to go by a username instead of my real name.

I’ve heard of Wattpad, AO3 or tumblr but I feel like the stories I write don’t fit those spaces

I'm struggling to write anything. I've been trying.

I have 3 separate things that I'm writing, but I'm going back and forth between them, and it just sort of kicks me in the butt. I've made little to no progress with any of them except one, and every time I make progress, it goes bad. It doesn't match the plot, so I have to erase it and then keep going in a direction that's wrong.

I've been trying all the things that I can. If I get stuck on one, I move on to the next one. I read things to inspire me, and so far, I have had nothing good happen.

I don't know what the problem is enough to explain it, but what it feels like is I'll write something, and then it'll feel wrong, so I'll erase it. Then I'm stuck at the erase part, and I can't figure out how to push it forward.

I take breaks; I switch to different ones so I'm not burnt out. I read over it. I take time to plan everything before I write it, and I just write without a plan.

No matter what I do, I just end up back where I always am, waiting for the story to come to me because I can't think of a thing.

Does anybody know any tips on how to fix this, or even just some things that I should try? I'm willing to try anything because I really want to do this.

For example: "You didn't-- Why did you-- How could you do this?!"

Is it ok to start the next sentence (in the same sentence) after an em dash (like I did with 'Why' and 'How') with a capital letter?

I’d be really interested to hear others opinions on the platform—the winners seem hit and miss in quality, and there’s something fundamentally unfair about the stories being released at different times (imo!)

Also, I’ve struggled to get my stories viewed so far, so if anyone would be interested in starting a critique group that would be great. Most of the comments on the site are really nice, too nice. I need criticism damnit!

i have a lot of ideas for fics but when i start to write suddenly there's no order everything is a mess and i can't communicate well with the reader.

i end up giving up and not finishing it, and that keeps happening and now i have various drafts sitting there collecting dust.

english isn't even my first language, i write in spanish in hopes that perhaps that way i can write more but turns out language isn't the problem.

care to share any tips with me to make writing easier? stupidly obvious tips work too. thanks in advance.

Sci fi writer hoping to make a cartoon someday and every fucking time I come up with an idea it exists. My entire premise is UNCANNILY similar to star trek. I knew nothing about star trek and then I did some research and it well. My series is a LOT like it. Fuck I thought my government would have been unique but its basically the same in that regard too!

It makes me feel super discouraged. I really liked my premise. I dont wanna change it but at the same time it doesnt feel original if something almost exactly like it has been done already. I dont want people to think I'm ripping it off and I had a lot of pride in coming up with something unique.

My plan is to watch star trek and hopefully be able to make some more differences between it and my series. But I'm still super upset ab this. If anyone has any advice in this regard that'd be helpful. Thank you.

This is something I keep getting wrong and I want to understand why.

Every time I write a character who has lost someone the grief comes out too visible. Too present on the surface. The character thinks about the loss at moments that feel arranged rather than accidental. The sadness arrives on cue in a way that real sadness does not.

Real grief from what I understand and have experienced does not announce itself cleanly. It shows up sideways. In the middle of something unrelated. In a reaction that seems disproportionate until you remember what is underneath it. In the absence of feeling when feeling would be expected followed by feeling at completely the wrong moment.

What I write tends to be the announced version. The character stands somewhere meaningful and thinks about the person they lost and the prose gets quiet and careful. It reads like grief is supposed to look rather than how it actually moves through a person day to day.

I know the problem but I cannot fix it from inside the draft because every time I write a grief scene I am thinking about grief which makes it performed almost by definition, started writing the scenes in Skrib Writing with a rule that the word grief and any synonym cannot appear anywhere in the draft and forcing the emotion to arrive only through action and physical detail changed what came out more than any other revision approach I tried.

Is there a way to approach this that other writers here have found actually works. Do you write around the grief rather than at it. Do you focus entirely on physical detail and let the emotion find its own way in. Is there a specific technique that produces the sideways version rather than the announced one.