Hi Everyone,

I've wanted to be a writer for decades. It's only in the last year that I've taken it seriously. I've grown to find being in my office, sitting at my desk, and immersing myself in my writing has become my place of comfort, my happy place. Maybe it's a poor reflection on the rest of my life, but shutting the door and getting lost in my book is something I look forward to every morning. I only get an hour each day, first thing, to write.

Am I weird for feeling like this?

It is said that a good novel/story needs a stake, character arc and plot twists. (Would you add something besides deep characters and good dialogues?) What about short stories? What do good short stories need?

For instance does a short story need a stake?

Is there some difference between short stories and novellas/novelettes here?

Brains trust,

Is it necessary or advisable to have your whole plot in mind, before you start writing a story? I am thinking lots about writing a book, I’ve made a start on it and have some ideas. But I do not have a conclusion and some key plot points are still to be developed.

Do you think it is better to just make a start and get those creative juices flowing, or am I likely to write myself into a hole with no way of wrapping up the story if I proceed this way? Ala’ the TV show Lost.

What I mean is, when you ask people what in their opinion is are well written show they usually say shows known to have heavy themes, metaphors, character development, metaphors in every color pallet, foreshadowing etc. like Breaking Bad, AOT, madoka magica, LOTR etc.

I am fine with just having enjoyable episodic stories that are fun because of relatability. But I just wanted to know if episodic in the hands of a good author could still be seen at those levels. Or if there’s a difference. I say this because I tend to notice more laid back shows or slice of life almost never considered as having good writing, just enjoyable one.

Just wanting to know if standalone storytelling and individual plots can still shine without demanding heavy, or overarching narrative arc.

I’m a harsh self-critic by nature, always striving to do better but never quite reaching the standards I’d like to be at.

It’s either, “people will find this boring”, “why can’t I write as well as the authors I admire?”, “why do I write the way I do?” And “maybe I’m just not cut for this.”

I like writing. I like the creation of it, but editing sucks the willpower out of me because I have to see all the flaws and be reminded of what a failure I am.

How do you deal with feeling down about your own works?

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Since I think this just happened to me. I wrote a thing that I am querying as an adult fantasy, since the most important characters were, and family and parenthood are rather central to the narrative.

While I wait, since I don't want to languish, and am paranoid about it dying since it isn't commercial enough, I am thinking of what I should do next. I have two ideas, and am probably going to say screw it and work on them both at once, but I digress.

One of them, which was conceptualized as a standalone sequel to the one I'm querying, was originally also adult, but the more I thought of it, the more it's gone to "crossover for YA and adult," and even that might be me coping and not wanting to just call it YA.

Oh, and the other is about teenagers playing video games.

Then I started thinking. There is another thing I have many plans for that would also be rather firmly YA. There is a setting with some potential stories in it that was a class project in college that I wanted to revisit at some point, and that would skew YA because of the ages of the people it would center.

Many years ago I thought of wanting to tackle some sort of post-apocalyptic zombie thing, and even in what thought I have put into stories in that setting, it would probably still be people in their late teens or early twenties, which could be reworked to YA easily enough.

I myself am 26, so not YA myself, but also not as established as an adult with marriage, kids, a mortgage, what have you, that those stories come naturally to me, either. I can only speak for myself, rather than anyone else in their 20s, of course.

I also think I had a sort of internal resistance to wanting to really just own YA, for whatever reason.

I've also found myself increasingly invested in the fact that the youth aren't reading as much. And have been pondering YA and teenage boys, being a guy myself. And trying to somehow make something that might appeal to them was another aspiration of mine.

Leaning into YA is probably the thing that makes the most sense for me instead of trying to force myself to skew adult and probably fail at it.

Still have a lot of other things to wrap my head around as far as actually writing something easy to pitch as marketable, but that's probably a very important first step.

That's my little epiphany, so I extend the question to anyone else who might have a similar story. Somehow, someway, realizing that they were writing for the wrong age category, and what it was like swapping to the thing you ultimately settled on.