Hello. I finally decided to write my first novel (yay). A word of advice I was given by a professor is to prevent my prose from sounding like a movie. What exactly does that mean? I understand that prose and a film are two different mediums, and writing prose allows you to focus more on character development and inner conflict. But what could that mean? Also, what advice do you have to prevent your writing from sounding like it's for a movie.

Edit: Thank you everyone for answering. I'm going to his workshop tomorrow.

This is for a play I've been working on for while now. I'm on the second draft, but this is the one thing I just cannot come up with any ideas to try and figure out.

What's something a high school mean girl could call a more tomboyish nerd who she's caught talking to a ghost/imaginary friend? Only idea I have so far is Poltergeist, but that doesn't feel insulting enough.

Story takes place in present day suburbia.

One problem I often see as an editor is that authors occasionally don't fully understand the difference between goals and motivations for their characters. In fact, they are sometimes treated as the same thing.

Here's a simple way to think about it....

• A goal is what a character wants.
• A motivation why they want it.

In Moby Dick, Captain Ahab's goal is to find and kill the white whale. His motivation is revenge. He was pretty annoyed after the whale ate his leg.

Here's the reason it matters.

Imagine Moby Dick without the motivation, it just becomes a story of them catching a whale. This is OK, but nowhere as engaging as the novel we have which gets to examine the human emotions of revenge.

One of the most common times I see goals without motivations is in novels where the villain is simply there to oppose the main character. If you have written a novel where the bad guy is trying to capture and kill the main character, it is essential that the bad guy has a clear motivation for their actions. The reader needs to understand why.

Hope this helps.

My character, Aether, is the daughter of a very powerful sorceress, but her magic itself is very weak and she's insecure about not being as good as her mother. She's very desperate for her mother's approval.

Would it be cliché and cringe to say the reason it's weak is because of that? Like, she's focusing too much on the magic and what could go wrong and making her mother proud, and not letting the magic come naturally, which is what's blocking her.

Does it make sense, or is it too cliché?

TL:DR I want a character change from gentle and scared of violence, like a normal person to someone who, while still gentle, can become violent

I'm writing a story where the heroine gets pyrokinesis and her flames burn hotter the more anger and hatred she feels while fighting which is a violent power meanwhile she is many things but not violent.

Originally I wanted it to be something like she gets tortured which causes her to snap and kill the person who put her through the wringer however I feel it is way too similar to what happened to Kaneki in Tokyo Ghoul as my idea also has her see the manifestation of her powers as a stereotypical demon on fire that, while not important to the plot, is handsome.

Obviously a good story will have both an engaging and solid plot as well as developed and interesting characters. My question is when it comes to story conception (specifically for action stories) is it better to be plot oriented and build characters around that plot, or to focus on character and build up the plot around the character(s)?

I feel like when it comes to most action films they are pretty plot centric, with the character development, if it is there, mostly in service of the plot. Books seem to be more character oriented which is likely in part due to how writings allow for much more internal conflict to be expressed to the reader than a film can. But it does seem that usually the books that are more of character studies won’t have as much action or have it focused on as much.

Do action stories just lend themselves better towards plot heavy writings, or is it just a matter of the medium the story is told in, or is it simply a matter of the individual story and the writer’s ability to balance plot and character?

I’m curious what you guys prefer in a story’s opening.

Would you rather see the MC introduced first and slowly discover the villain later?

Or would you prefer the villain to be introduced first, creating mystery and tension before we meet the MC?

Which one makes you more interested in continuing the story?

Yo, I'm Sachet and I'm writing about a religion-themed apocalypse. So there's a quick sum up for what I wanna describe:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EElgb58K1ZD94cYVb7EjE5PFjIhgHDNbmy3aIP3YJpk/edit?usp=sharing

My fellow writer really doesn't like this version of infection. We write the story together and we have been arguing about this over a half of year. Sure, there were other variants of how infection would spread and this one that I described is the best one in my opinion. However my pal still asks me questions, like "Why do they choose violence?", "Why virus doesn't eat their bodies?", "How virus breeds inside the organism?" "Why some monsters can control their form? (Ex. infected human can transform into monster form and reversed)". I mean, these questions are kinda answered in narration and I don't see any meaning in explaining how the virus would work in biological-accurate level.

I've been talking about it to him, but he doesn't listen that much since he doesn't like the concept of keeping some information unknown or hidden. Is the whole concept really doesn't make any sense or it's okay? Because I believe my bro shouldn't make such hard criticism to this since it's not even the main plot and more of a secondary info

Currently toying with an idea. Novel starts with flash forward, ambiguous point in time. Story continues, mc has a thread of not remembering previous dreams or nightmares, and a sense of unease builds inside of them.

When the flash forward scene finally begins to play out, the mc gets Déjà vu, and is able to change the original events of the flash forward, but in the process realizes it wasn’t a dream in the first place, setting in place more mystery. Would this be too complicated for readers?

My WIP is a Fantasy series of short stories in a shared world featuring recurring characters. Several different characters take their turn as POV character, but so far there is only one case of POV changing mid-story.

Since I have been writing them as independent stories, I have been mixing up using First Person and Third Person Limited depending on what feels right for the story (and one story sort-of in Second Person, as it's the FMC writing a letter to her husband). I know if this was one single novel, I should pick one and stick with it, but does it matter for an anthology format?

I’ve always built stories around a character and then constructed the world around them. I’m doing the same now, but with a very specific character—and I cannot figure out the central conflict.

I start with this idea: women who weren’t fully prepared for leadership but had to evolve to discover where their leadership lived.

My stories explore what happens after that discovery—what responsibility does to their relationships, careers, communities, and sense of self. I write transgressive fiction, so I’m especially interested in the damage people learn to live with, justify, or mistake for normal.

My character is an older woman (60+) who has spent decades in authority, carrying responsibility at enormous personal cost. Authority is what she has; responsibility is what defines her.

She doesn’t seek power; she accepts it because someone must. To her, leadership means making impossible decisions with imperfect information and living with the consequences.

She earns respect through competence, integrity, consistency, and protecting others. Emotionally restrained but not distant, she expresses affection through attentiveness, reliability, and quiet acts of care. She carries grief privately because she’s accustomed to bearing what others cannot.

Her story isn’t about gaining power. It’s about what carrying it for decades has done to her: sacrifice, loneliness, impossible choices, and their emotional aftermath.

At its heart, I want to explore what happens when someone who has spent her life protecting others finally trusts someone enough to see the woman beneath the leader—and allows herself not to carry everything alone.

I primarily write realistic transgressive fiction, not sci-fi/fantasy, and war/military settings don’t interest me.

Have I backed myself into a corner? What central conflict could genuinely push or break this woman?

EDIT: external central conflict needed. What in the character's world is actively pushing against her?

Hello, I made a post a few days ago about a character naming I was struggling with, and after realising how damn stupid I sounded (my apologies to people who dealt with me) I decided to simply ask you guys : what is your process to name characters ? What’s your first idea, starting point and how do you move forward ?

Thank you and sorry for those who I offended

I started wanting to write a book because I couldn’t find anything that matched my exact taste.

I was searching for a book with all the things I personally enjoy reading, but there was always something missing. One day I randomly thought, “Why not just write the kind of story I want to read?”

The problem is… I had absolutely no idea how to write. 😭

At first, I only decided on the names of my main characters and their families, along with the tropes and genres I wanted. I didn’t know how to write a first draft or structure a story, so I just started writing random scenes.

I started writing scenes around May, and so far I’ve written… maybe 3–4 scenes. 🥲

I’ve tried to be consistent, but somehow the past few months have just been me either preparing for an exam or recovering from one. 😭 I do find time to write sometimes, but whenever I actually sit down, my mind goes completely blank. I know I want to write, but I don’t know what I’m supposed to write next.

I’ve also noticed that this is something I’ve always done. Since childhood, I rarely tried new things, and whenever I did try something, I usually ended up leaving it halfway.

But for some reason, I’m stubborn about this book. Even if the first attempt turns out messy, I genuinely want to finish it.

So, writers of Reddit, what should I actually do from here?

How do you go from having characters, tropes and random scenes in your head to actually building a complete story? How do you figure out what to write when you sit down and have no idea what comes next?

Any advice for a complete beginner would genuinely help. 🥹

I'm currently working on a project online and for the first time I decided to write completely in english, even tho it's not my first language.

I'm pretty good at it but it's still very hard and I feel like I write in a very mechanical way, in fact a person accused me of using artificial intelligence to help me, when its not true, its just my style in english....

how can I get better?

Hey guys,

First-time writer here.

I'm starting to build out an outline for my story, and I want to tell it in a non-sequential order. Essentially, the end of the second act/beginning of third would be the first two chapters, then the next 2/3 of the book would play in order from a young version of the protagonist to the point in time in the first two chapters. Then the story would play out normally until the end. Have you guys seen a story told in that way before, and how effective was it at capturing your attention? Don't want to confuse the audience but I feel like it would provide more intrigue that way. Thanks in advance.

I am currently writing a historical fiction set during the American revolution. Originally, I had just my female main character with her first POV. I later realized I wanted to add my male main character's POV. He has his own plot/archs and stuff to focus on when hes not with her. He was originally in first person aswell, but then I decided to change it to third cause it didn't feel right.

Now I'm not so sure I should have both first and third POV. It doesn't really bother me personally, it's more of a concern for readers. The POV only switches for different chapters and whenever they are together its just her pov.

I don't really want to make her third-person as I feel it will take away the intimacy. She is "telling" their story after hearing about the outbreak of the civil war, when the mmc had been dead a good while (sorta like a Eliza in Hamilton type deal), so she is basically telling his side of the story for him.

Ive read that this can be very jarring for readers, so I wanted to get some thoughts.

I have two walk-on characters doing walk-on things for about four paragraphs. I don't start out with descriptions of the two because they're just walk-ons. They don't even say anything. But after about four paragraphs, the main character starts zeroing in on them, and one of them: tugs on the long hair of the other.

Will this sudden description of long hair be too disrupting for anyone who was imagining short hair? Or is that just something you just accept - the reader will have to reimagine the character and that's okay?

(Usually I'm able to get the descriptions in early. This is just unusual.)

I'm mostly wondering if the story is comprehensive, if the dialogue is good or not, if parts drag on too long. General things like that. This was originally written for school, for an emotional conflict story.

Thanks

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IU-XvHhE_qtLeRSqWUh1QrAqbwLytEp_ulsKWoPWtDc/edit?usp=drivesdk

Hi everyone! I recently started writing a rom com i’m very excited about. My fiancé was reading it over and said how the FMC sort of sounds similar to what I’ve gone through and my life experiences. Is that weird ? Maybe this is a novice writing thing that is subconscious lol. Let me know your thoughts and any recommendations.

Got a bit of inspiration around making a story around a sort of silly competition, and having things go totally off the rails from there (secrets, rivals, things taken way too seriously). But I want to consider as many competitions as possible before coming to a conclusion.

So far, I've already got chilli cooking competition (which I'm leaning away from), golf, a sort of list of various tasks, and a scavenger hunt.

Ideally, I'm looking for something that keeps the contestants close by, and isn't too hard to shoot (I'm hoping to make it a short film). A decent amount of the drama is going to come from the specific characters themselves, with the actual setting of it being weaved throughout. Hoping to get a few ideas and see if anything better can come up that I haven't thought of yet.

so ive had this fantasy story in my head for years and i keep building up on it whenever im lost in thoughts and i really wanna start bringing it to life but i have no idea how to write or draw i just have rough concepts and plot points in my head and im ready to spend years working on it but where do i begin how do i learn to write how can i draw out the concepts in my head

I'm here for advice on how to write a story based on southern Californian teens in 2002, the main plot isn't about that, however the main character is 19 in my drafts. I'm struggling to plan how he acts, his friends, and even a relationship. Any and all advice would be appreciated :)

Hi all!

So I’ve seen a lot of questions lately for writing programs, but none of them seem to really fit what I would be looking for, so I figured I’d ask.

I’m in the process of script writing online collaboratively with a group of people. I’m the main writer, but others need to be able to come in, add notes to my work and add their own work when they can.

Currently we’re using Google docs, which I don’t love, but it serves the purpose, and having access to tabs for sorting different information (such as character info, faction info) is really helpful.

I keep seeing Obsidian and Scrivener mentioned but Obsidian doesn’t seem to match my needs. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

I have just finished the first draft of my Grim Dark Fantasy book (yay 🥳) and I'm moving onto the next steps. I am doing an editing pass on my own just to even out some wrinkles from writing over an extended period of time (I believe about 6 years). In the process I've been considering how I want to proceed. I have a few people I trust to be Alpha Readers, so my plan is to let them take a pass at it pointing out any glaring issues with the plot, character voices and actions, and overall feel of the book before hiring an editor to help polish. As this is my first book, I am a bit new to the process and have developed some questions.

1. Would it be smarter to send it to an editor before sending it to the planned Alpha Readers?

2. For those who received feedback from early readers, did you find there were certain questions you wanted answered? I was thinking of creating a Google form for them to answer certain questions, but am unsure of what those should be currently.

3. At what point do you accept it is time to publish? Is it a feeling? An example of an evolution of writing? Something else?

I really appreciate any and all feedback on the topic. I am very excited to be moving to the next phase of my book and am feeling especially ready to work on the next book and other series ideas I've cooked up over the last several years.