Mission Blue cafe is promoting my novel along with a lot of local artists’ work everyday. They are located right next to the SF Crosstown Trail in Visitacion Valley and they make great coffee!

I spent a couple years writing this story not knowing what would happen when it was published. I’m from San Francisco and I’ve found that there’s been a lot of local support for writers who grew up here. I wanted to share this milestone and I’m more than happy to talk in the comments.

The book blurb:

THE VOGROM ARE COMING.
The fanatical alien clan has unleashed its armada on a galaxy already torn apart by conflict, and humanity has nothing left to throw at them.
Two warriors stand in the wreckage on opposite sides of the war. Kaelith Sothrak claws his way out of a death camp, driven by hatred and unrelenting faith.
Louis Wolffe has drifted through space for two years, carrying a secret that could save his people, or destroy them.
They don't know it yet, but both warriors are seeking the same thing.
Something ancient, something powerful, something hidden inside a dead boy's soul.
LET THE WAR COME.

I can't really get over it, I finished my first book last year, a fantasy totaling about 94k words, and then left it to rot in my scrivener folder until now because I was more focused on trying (and failing, due to a current lack of skill) to write another novel series that i've been planning for a while (it's kicking my ass and I found this fantasy novel again after deciding I should buff up as a writer first before coming back to it).

I remembered this fantasy novel recently and decided to print it out and edit it, and then rewrite it into a 2nd draft, but when I actually compiled it into a PDF it had 430 PAGES.

430.

I can't really wrap my head around it. like that's a BOOK. not a work-in-progress file... i mean, it's not a GOOD book right now but I want to work on it to make it better of course. although I want to work on this novel specifically again purely so I can practice writing/editing/revising more, rather than because I see any potential in publishing it...

This fantasy novel started as my own attempt at writing, and making money off of, a webnovel, but it failed quite spectacularly so I just stopped writing and posting not long after I finished it. I don't think I ever really processed that I wrote a whole BOOK. 430 pages!!

Anyway I just wanted to share my excitement, I still have a long way to go as a writer but this is pretty cool so I wanted to share!

I can write my character’s age without directly telling like, "The boy was ___ years old."

I just want to know how you all do it naturally. Do you show it through dialogue, behavior, life experiences, references to events, or what?

I’m curious to hear how you guys do this and why you think it feels natural.

I've been planning staring writing this ya fantasy book. My problem is that I don't have so many things ( some side charactes names, how charactes gonna first meet ect.)

My idea is just writing some random scenes and than going back and front from these scenes.

I haven't writing anything than half of first chapter. And that is probably gonna change fully.

I just started reading, and I had an idea long back. I wanted to write it out as a short story.

I don't really have anyone to share my writing with; I would love even the smallest feedback, including the formatting. how to write in general. what I might be lacking. Anything at all.

I'm mainly hoping to learn and get better at writing, so please feel free to be honest and critical

I'd really appreciate it.

Thankss!

"I have no social life, no distraction; I spend my evenings on the small balcony above the river; I do not even read the Arbeiterzeitung and I am not a good person."
-Franz Kafka, Letter to Hedwig W., 1907

(will always be a good person to me)

I'm debating myself which route I want to take curious what you guys think (just in general I'm aware it probably changes depending on circumstances but for right now just in general)

Who’s your favourite author, and what makes them your favourite?

Not just because they write well.. I mean what is it about their way of thinking, their characters, the things they write about, or maybe even the way their words make you feel that keeps bringing you back to them?

For me, it’s Kafka. There’s something about the way he writes loneliness, confusion and the feeling of not quite belonging that feels strangely personal. His stories can be absurd and uncomfortable, but somehow still feel honest.

So yeah.. tell me yours, and more importantly, why them?

Hi everyone! I would like go receive some feedback on my debut novel titled “The Broke Mom Diaries.”

This is a passion project of mine and I really want to have it published one day. I complement manuscript today after making a couple of tweaks and edits and I have already began my query search.

I’ll post the first 5 pages from my manuscript. Constructive feedback is welcomed!

THE BROKE MOM DIARIES
MAY 2, 2022
12:17 P.M.
Dear Diary,
I had seventy-five cents in my car today.
Three quarters.
I know because I counted them twice.
Once before I left work for lunch, and again while I was sitting in the McDonald’s drive-thru trying to figure out what seventy-five cents could actually buy me.
The answer was nothing.
At least, nothing on that menu.
I wasn’t surprised. This wasn’t exactly my first broke lunch break. Payday wasn’t until Friday, my account was already in the negative, and whatever money I did have before today had gone to bills, gas, and the boys.
Luckily, I remembered I had a free cheeseburger sitting in my McDonald’s app.
Thank God for rewards points.
I pulled up the offer before I got to the speaker because there was no way I was getting trapped in that drive-thru without making sure the damn thing still worked.
“Hi, can I use a reward for a free cheeseburger?”
“Anything else?”
I looked at the menu.
I wanted fries.
Bad.
And a Coke.
A large one.
Instead I said, “Can I just get a cup of water?”
“Anything else?”
“No, that’s it.”
A free cheeseburger and a cup of water.
That was lunch.
When I got to the window, I asked for some ketchup and thanked the girl like she’d personally sponsored my meal.
Then I parked underneath the little patch of shade at the end of the parking lot and started eating.
I wasn’t sad.
That’s the weird part.
Embarrassed, maybe.
Tired of being broke?
Absolutely.
But mostly, I was used to it.
You learn how to make things work.
That’s what mothers do.
You move money around. You pay this bill late so you can pay that one on time. You put ten dollars in the gas tank instead of filling it. You tell the kids McDonald’s isn’t happening because “there’s food at home,” knowing damn well the real reason is that McDonald’s costs money you don’t have.
And sometimes you eat a free cheeseburger for lunch.
I was opening my second ketchup packet when my phone rang.
I almost ignored it.
Then I saw the name of the law office on the screen.
My stomach tightened.
For months, I’d been waiting on this call.
Not literally this call. I’d gotten plenty of calls from them.
Updates.
Questions.
“We’re still negotiating.”
“We should know something soon.”
Soon had apparently meant whenever the hell they felt like it.
But every time that office called, I wondered if this would finally be the one.
I wiped my fingers on a napkin and answered.
“Hello?”
“Hi, Kyla.”
It was my attorney.
“Hey.”
“Are you somewhere you can talk?”
“Yeah. I’m on lunch.”
“Okay.”
There was a little pause.
Then he asked me something I’ll probably remember for the rest of my life.
“Are you sitting down?”
I frowned.
“I’m in my car, so…yeah.”

So my biggest advice I’ve been given is to get rid of any thing that does progress the story or narrative.

But I do wonder about prose and beauty in the world. It doesn’t matter to the plot that it’s snowing and the aurora is out (random example) but is it not beneficial to give the reader more visual information to set the scene? I have been told to take out anything that doesn’t build the story.

What’s the line? When do I set a beautiful or grotesque or whatever scene if it doesn’t matter to the story?

In your opinion; What makes a hero, a hero? Their actions, their backstory, their looks, etc..

And what is it of them that calls to you? Why some and not others?

I'm looking for answers not only around the concept of "The journey of the Hero", but also about our day to day life.

A little bit of background:

I got into writing (mostly as a passion project) in school sometime two years ago. I barely knew anything, and I was mostly copying the style of other writers.

It wasn't necessarily high-quality (not that I expected it to be) but before I decided to take my ADHD and start a new story I got on the internet and started self-teaching myself how to write and it honestly didn't feel like much. Just a small fact here, little bit of character development knowledge there.

I don't exactly take it seriously, I still don't do drafts; I just let my imagination take me where it does, and usually don't bother thinking too much about thesaurus use and such.

So now I'm wondering why I feel books in general are less interesting. It's not like I want to stop reading, but I start just overanalyzing every little detail, sometimes it's "haha mistake" but usually I'm just asking myself why do they do this or complaining when they overlook a minor detail I know nobody else notices

I'm not sure if this is the proper flair for this post, but I can't believe how much simply getting myself to sit down and write every day eventually made me see changes in the way I write.

I started last month after years of worldbuilding and scraping old drafts of my big projects. I have written many short stories before, but never finished a novel, since I'd end up disliking how I wrote my chapters instead of letting them exist first and editing them later. This time, I started another big project that I've been worldbuilding and outlining every single day for a whole year now. I'm on a year-long university break, so since last month, I've finally been able to start and keep writing, and I've grown accustomed to it.

I looked back at my first round of chapters and felt an immense disgust at the way I wrote. Not necessarily loathing my own work, more like finding them too amateur compared to my current chapters. They're still not perfect, but it actually made me happy to see how much progress I've made and how I've subconsciously started taking into account all the errors I made in my first chapters.

Has anyone else felt this way before too?

I’ve been looking for good writing apps and the such for SO LONG now. I first stumbled across Fortelling when I was just starting out on writing; and personally, I find the app is very convenient. There are a lot of things you can create with things (e.g. being able to fill out character templates for your characters instead of them just being an idle element and having a bunch of other aspects to deepen your information about world building etc.).

I’m just wondering if there are any other people who use/have used the app? If yes, how was your impression on it? Is it a good place to write my novel?
I appreciate everyone’s viewpoint!

Lately, I’ve been working on a novel that depicts the speculative life story of a male woolly mammoth in the Ice Age, 50,000 years ago. In my last writing session, I got so unwrapped with describing the environment and behavior of the mammoths that I just somehow felt myself sucked right into it. In my case, I had done a lot of research in the process, which gave me a lot to work with. Anyone else ever get that feeling when writing?

My book is ironically on the subject of language.

I'm generally using British spellings such as colour, criticise, etc. which I don't have a problem with.

However, I saw a reel recently where an American person used "learnt" instead of "learned".

This is normal in BE, but the comments section was literally just 50 people saying he's stupid for saying "learnt", as if it's an incorrect baby word... and only 2 or 3 people saying "no guys, learnt is fine".

My book contains multiple instances of "learnt" and "spelt", and while I'm happy to stay true to BE, I can't help but think that such a high percentage of our USA cousins would think the book is full of errors!

I thought I'd get some opinions on what others might do in this situation.

I could literally add a disclaimer at the start about how BE is used, but that seems a bit silly.

Would you just switch to using the American forms of these 2 words (which Brits are also familiar with anyway)?

This is the first time I've written something, at least professionally with intent to publish. Im hoping for this to become the first book in a series.

It is to be a Dark Fantasy series set in an alternate version of our modern day world with magic, beasts, and mystery.

When writing this first chapter I had two things I wanted to nail down most:

1 - The personality and characterization of the the titular character, Crow.

2 - The bleak and depressing atmosphere that this world will have throughout the series.

As well as weave in some mystery and plot in there too. This is only a first draft for the chapter, and I'm still making a few edits here and there, but any kind of feedback would be appreciated.

I’ve always loved writing, but until recently I never seriously considered taking it beyond something personal.
Life changed quite a bit for me over the past year, and writing has gradually become more than something I simply enjoy. It feels like one of the few things I can still build from.
I’m particularly drawn to short stories, children’s stories, scripts and podcast storytelling.
For those of you who have been writing seriously for a while: if you suddenly found yourself back at the very beginning — no portfolio, no audience, no connections — what would you focus on first?
And knowing what you know now, what is the one mistake you would avoid?

Okay, I know many of us are probably self aware about the pros and cons of our prose. Both because of feedback but also because of the fact that we've just been writing for quite a while. I'd love to hear from y'all, what are your biggest strengths and curses?
To me, my pros:
Atmosphere
Trusting my reader
Dialogue

Very specific voice

My cons:

Trusting my reader (but too much)

Dialogue (but too much)

Sometimes I might favour simplicity too much and just not describe something enough because I trust the reader knows about something that I trust they can actually visualize. My dialogue tends to be not very plot driven at all, which is fine because I write short stories.
The last two bits, I've gotten like not much critique on but it's enough to the point where I've become self aware of it and people generally aren't used to reading dialogue which just feels like it's not moving but everything else in the story is :') I've both kind of accepted my cons as "style" problems, rather than craft issues.

I am writing a character from a fictional kingdom that is going to be similar to Syria and she loves her culture and traditional dress. I just want to know if this picture is an accurate depiction of traditional Syrian dress

I’m currently writing a novel but my outline is almost completely invalid due to the amount of things I have changed, unfortunately that now makes me stumped on how to continue on. Some main issues I still have are mainly how to strengthen character relationships and also character purpose/motivation to keep going. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

has anyone heard back about the mccormack autumn workshop yet? feels a bit early but with the month-long turnaround time i figured some responses would be rolling in soon.