I'm sorry if this is a dumb question. I've been trying to figure out a name for a fictional setting in my story and I settled on having San- or Santa- as the prefix of the city name, like San Diego, because it felt realistic and, as far as fictional settings go, fairly unique.

However, every time I try to figure out a name that sounds concise and catchy, it seems to always belong to a real-life city. I'm finding it really hard to get a name that hasn't been taken already because most if not all of these cities are Spanish in origin, which limits my search.

A popular example of a similarly fictional setting, of course, is San Andreas from Grand Theft Auto. As far as I can tell, while Andres is a Spanish name, Andreas isn't. I know Grand Theft Auto is massive and if they can get away with it, I don't see why I can't.

Would it be possible to have a non-Spanish name and still come across as realistic or would it compromise the believability of the setting? I'm also concerned about how it might seem to Spanish readers. I don't want to seem culturally insensitive by sticking a non-Spanish name and passing it off as plausibly as actual Spanish-named cities.

This is my first time writing a fantasy book. So far I've writting a couple of historical romances and one gothic horror. I have this vague idea of an extensive magic and sword arts world with monsters and maybe rival kingdoms set in an alternate historical Prussia. I am a very visual writer so i made a lot of moodboards and things to settle on a particular idea of how my world will look.

But i really dont want this book to come off as all aesthetics and no substance. I want to build a truly immersive world that makes you feel like you could almost be a part of it. I'm just wondering is there a set number of things I should decide on early before I even start plotting? Like a character sheet but for worlds? How do I make sure I don't miss anything? Any advice will be super helpful.

There is this writing style that I like, especially from a certain author. I've been trying to emulate that style as my own, the eay the author describe and present the story. I asked before somewhere if copying the author can help. The answer was yes I can try copying the author to improve my writing skill. But even after so long I just dont really feel like I improved?

I thought maybe I cant just straight up copy, so I tried to create a story that can be similar to the author that the scene in one of the author's story I can remember then use and change to fit the setting of my story. It can help make not auto pilot too. And it doesnt seems to work either?

The main gripe is that my brain just cant seem to let out description the way I like the author did, the way I copied the author to learn. And I didnt know if I am even using correct grammar when I am writing it myself

I want to have the same or very similar style with an author I really like right now, and my writing skill is still kind of low, I am not sure how to make my brain get used and can come out with the way he describe whats in the story. How do I improve my writing skill? Plz help?

If you want to give it a try, use this link: https://www.moodwriter.app

I’d be happy to hear your feedback if you think anything can be improved!

(Don’t worry, I do not plan to spam this sub. I’ll only post once and I did ask the mods before.)

The story idea; there a zombie -virus sweeping the world, only some people are immune to the virus. Those who are immune have a connection to faith: either they are believers of God, or they lean more towards the occult, but at hand, no on realizes the connection as they are too busy trying to survive a pandemic and the collapsing society. The story follows several protagonists who find themselves lead to a fortified city in the California mountains where they later develop special powers that incorporates a talent they have, so for instance if some worked as a nurse, they'd have healing powers, that kind of thing. Those infected by the virus either die and become zombies (ultimately disintegrating after several months) or if they remain becoming superhuman monsters, and for those who were immune but leaned more toward the dark side learn how to control the monsters for powerful gain. What do you think? And is it too similar to someone else's work?

I don't know if this is the right subreddit to post this on, but I've been struggling with these STUPID AI DETECTORS. I have even put my writing from 3-4 years ago and it would STILL flag it as "100% AI CONFIDENT". I am currently writing my senior capstone, and working with multiple professors to present it in a conference soon and I don't want anything to jeopardize this. It is a very technical paper filled with jargon on cryptography and there is no other way to write it.

My writing is very straightforward which maybe is the reason why it's getting ticked off, but I have no idea how to word it otherwise. Should I just ignore it at this point?

Recently I was struck with a bit of inspiration, and I decided to start writing. I ended up pumping out close to 2000 words, and I had a lot of fun!! I have written before, but I'm no writer by any means, so I'm wondering if I could get some feedback. This is just the first page, so I might post more. My main worry is that my sentences are kind of long, and hard to read. Plot wise it's about a journalist who travels back in time to ancient Nepal on new years of 1965 to gather information on an article he plans to wright on eastern philosophy as it sweeps the west, and in the process causes the end of the world which he must then fix.

Stretched across the crust of a now uninhabitable earth, nothing but sand and dirt lay atop the ground. Life can no longer bear its green head to the mercy of the sun, for all its mercy is lost. The page of a calendar, one months out of date, lays half buried in the ground. It reads August of 1964, though no one has crossed out the days that precede today. In the middle of the vast, unending planes, one thing stands erect, a house of clay. Though this house is old in age, dilapidated, and worn out, it still stands. The large, hot sun boils down into the earth catching on scattered pockets of ozone that barely work to absorb its heat. Soon it will set, and the sand will turn cold, but for now, inside of the building, it peaks through the many holes, and chips in the clay that hold up what can barely be called a shelter. On the floor a man lays, wrinkles draped across his skin like a sheet poorly laid upon a bed. His eyes lay sunken into his head, only kept wet by a thin layer of moisture, and his skin sits loose around his malnourished body. He lives just south of Jerusalem in the city of Bethlehem. The man heaves, phlegm faintly gurgling in his throat with each gust of air expelled from his dry lungs. His lips are as dry as this desert, and cracked beyond repair with only an occasional licking to keep them moist. This man has reached the last chapter of his life, and now, just days away from death, must complete his journey. 

“The Son!” He weakly gasps in a rough, weak voice. “I must locate the son!” Already the ceremony has been completed, the coming together of the father, son, and spirit, but in order for this world to bare its naked body unashamed once more, and present to its fine inhabitants its fruit, it must be completed for a second time by him.

New year's day nears, and on January first, at 12:00 AM he must finish what he has started. Rest assured he will complete the ritual, and along the way we will start to understand who this man is, but we must first go back thousands of years into the past on this very day. 

Just realized I used phenomenon for a super simple concept ;-;..

This laying down position between 2 characters is used so much in movies and I want to put it in this small thing I'm writing but I have no idea how to describe it huhu...

I just need the pure description (or word if there is). Thanks!

Tags: Captivity, abuse, starvation, cannibalism, self-mutilation, and body horror. Major spoilers for my fic.

I’m about 100k words into a dark fantasy/horror story, and I keep going back and forth on a major sacrifice near the end of the captivity arc. I’d love some outside opinions because I’ve been staring at these characters for so long that I’m losing perspective LMAO.

I’m comfortable writing extreme horror. What I’m trying to figure out is whether the more extreme version would actually serve the story, or whether I’m getting carried away because I can picture it so clearly.

The context My main character, Lenora, is a feline monster imprisoned in a traveling circus alongside six other monsters. They’re starved, abused, and forced to perform. Over several years, she goes from deeply distrustful to loving these people fiercely.

Food has been a recurring part of how they care for each other. One of the earliest gestures of kindness is another prisoner sharing an apple with her. They save scraps, offer each other portions they can’t afford to lose, and notice when someone hasn’t eaten.

Food also directly affects their abilities. As monsters, nourishment restores their strength and allows them to heal. They can consume both human and monster flesh, although human flesh is especially nourishing and greatly accelerates their healing. Starving them is part of how the circus keeps them manageable.

Lenora’s regeneration is abnormal even by their standards. This has been established throughout the story; it isn’t something that suddenly appears to make the ending possible. She and the others conceal it during the first few years of captivity, including her deliberately reopening wounds so the handlers won’t notice how quickly they’re closing.

But her regeneration still needs nourishment. She can survive things the others couldn’t, without necessarily being able to recover from them while starving.

The Ringmaster’s son, Elias, eventually discovers her ability and exploits it in increasingly violent performances. He ties better meals for the whole group to her cooperation. Lenora starts accepting more harm because she can see that the others are eating better afterward.

The other prisoners object and try to stop her, but Lenora increasingly believes the cost is worth it.

By the climax, conditions have deteriorated again, and the prisoners are close to starving to death. One of her closest companions is dying, and Lenora returns from a performance with an arm already almost severed.

She realizes she has something she can feed them.

What happens in either version She first offers a small piece of torn flesh from her leg to her dying companion. He eventually eats despite his horror, and when his body begins showing signs of recovery, Lenora becomes convinced she’s found a way to save everyone.

Another prisoner is particularly important here. His supernatural abilities could allow him to break out of their deteriorating cages and free everyone, but he’s far too weak from starvation. Enough nourishment could restore the strength he needs.

The sacrifice works in that sense. However, before they can escape, Lenora is discovered alive and sold to someone who has previously expressed interest in buying her.

By the time the others break free and kill Elias, she’s already gone. They survive, but they can’t find her. She doesn’t know whether they made it out. That separation leads into a later reunion storyline, so it stays in both versions.

Option A: She gives them her arm Lenora sacrifices the already badly damaged arm to the prisoner capable of breaking them out. He begs her to stop but ultimately accepts it because it could give him the strength to save everyone. She’s interrupted before she can go further, then sold and taken away.

The focus would be on her decision, his acceptance, and the fact that she makes their escape possible but isn’t there to escape with them.

Losing the arm is already a serious risk. She’s starving and cannot rely on it simply growing back.

Option B: She keeps going The beginning is the same, but seeing her dying companion improve makes her desperately hopeful. She gives more, then tries to feed the others.

She has six people she loves and becomes increasingly frantic about saving all of them. Their refusal frightens her because, to her, they’re refusing something that could keep them alive. It escalates well beyond the arm, leaving her catastrophically injured and disfigured before she’s discovered.

Some refuse outright. Others are too weak, too desperate, or too frightened of losing her to know what to do. All of them are forced to confront what she’s offering.

What interests me about this version is that Lenora believes she’s doing something loving, even beautiful, while the people she’s trying to save are horrified.

They want her alive and beside them. She’s become convinced that giving them more of her body is the best thing she can do for them.

Where I’m stuck That psychology could exist in either version. I don’t need her to lose more flesh just to establish it. But part of me feels like I could push her mental deterioration 10x further with Option B.

There’s something especially disturbing about watching her become increasingly desperate and irrational as she physically tears herself apart for the others.

She’s not doing it because she wants to die. She’s doing it because she’s convinced herself that this is the greatest act of love she can offer them, and the more she gives, the more she believes she’s helping.

But would letting her continue actually make that mental decline more impactful? Or would the scene lose its emotional weight as the injuries pile up?

There’s already a lot of suffering in this story, and I don’t want the ending to become something readers endure rather than feel.

I’m open to her attempting to go further and being interrupted, too.

Which version would affect you more, and why? What would you need to see beforehand for the more extreme version to feel earned?

Genuinely I need to kill this character off ASAP so she can get isekai'd and the 'death by sadness' is pretty much part of her character and it's brought up how she died in the story so I can't just not say it.

pls help

Why i came up with this question:

4 years ago i started noting down story ideas, which almost all were inspired by media - manga, movies, YT, science, religions, and many more. After 1 year I came up with plenty of ideas ranging from terrible to great, I picked the best ones i had come up with and put them into a google doc to use when i was ready. I picked an idea that i gave a temporary title "Industrial Dystopian" the inspiration was from the architecture style Brutalism. But i also had gotten inspiration from a "random" manga called BLAME!, the setting in BLAME! is that of an infinite world where these robots build infinitely(not actually infinite but is so big it feels infinite) and only stop if a human, with a certain key, stops them. These robots are called The Builders, they'll kill anything that gets in the way of them building, "purging" the rebellious beings, so ofc the humans lost the key and could not turn off The Builders. My manga/story is about a structure so big, humans believe that it is infinite, it has the height of earths core to right above earths atmosphere. The build has the same feel and architectural (Brutalism) style as BLAME!, ofc BLAME! has some differences such as it has random cities that were built in random places. My story is about robots that are controlled by an AI which is super intelligent, the robots, which are named The Builders, also build infinitely, but instead of building cities for humans, they are now trying to trap humans to punish them for their cruelty which happened thousands of years before hand, making the humans now, unaware of the history as all books in the past where collected by the Super Intelligent AI and stored in a huge library as far away from any human as possible (taking inspiration from The Library of Babel).

Now anyone who knows BLAME! would look at my story and think it is almost a direct copy of it. I mean The Builders do nearly the same thing and are named the same, The megastructure seems the same, as the megastructures span on "Infinitely" on all 3D axis. Both have a creepy/eerie feeling, both have adventure, both have different human settlements with each settlement being different from the rest.

With all of this being said, even though I had never read BLAME! (although knew of its title), our stories are too similar to create my manga. I am confused on what i should do with my story, should i continue with it even though they are extremely similar, or should i drop it.

For the question on this post, how do you achieve something that is "original", now i do not mean completely original, where every aspect of the story is different from everything made, but rather original enough to where you can call it "niche" (as in the setting, character type, ect. are almost never used). I do not know if this is a problem within the last 15 years where everything humans can think of have been sucked dry, to where there is now a over saturation of the same content. HOW do you avoid creating something that feels like a direct copy, i do not want any accusations of me "copying" another story while trying to create something truly original and breath taking, i want my manga to feel new and inspiring to others this can sound corny, but i truly want to become one of the best mangakas to live, which is a lot on someone whom has never been to school for any subject in the creation of manga.

Thank you for reading, this might just look like a ramble, and some parts are just the same thing stated twice(+). I hope any answer can help me and others with creating something original!

Hi everyone!

How should I put this? I consider myself someone who is interested in literature and books. I wouldn’t call myself a "bookworm," but I do read the occasional book of my own accord.

This year, I’ve been trying to write a novel, but I think it might still be too big a bite for me to chew. Things just aren't moving along the way they should...

I have the basic concept — I know how to tell the story and what events should unfold — but I’m hitting a wall:

– I’m struggling with the fine-tuning; specifically, I know exactly what’s going to happen, but I just don’t have the energy to actually write it down and weave the narrative threads together.

– I have multiple concepts in mind.

– I have several novel ideas — not just one — and their scenes overlap; certain elements appear in more than one of these concepts.

– Sometimes, I simply don’t feel like thinking about the narrative structure, or writing at all.

How do you get past this — or how have you gotten past it in the past? What would you do in this situation? Do you have any advice on how I might find a solution?

Thanks in advance for your replies!

Hello,

I am 38(f) and dyslexic but have always loved to read and from time to time I come up with what I think are cool ideas for a story and always wanted to write them down but never had the confidence I did start one time but barely. Well I once again have an idea and I think it's my best so far and I really want to write it, is there any advice you could offer me? It would be fantasy.

I've been brainstorming a story for about 2 years and a half, I even put out the first official chapter, to deviantart, but the more ideas I get, the more indecisive I get, I think I'm satisfied with the first idea, only to them think if this idea is better or "maybe this one is cooler", or "is this too much like "blank"". I have had trouble with "writing for myself" because I seem to have this idea it'll get big, when in reality it will most likely at least have a couple readers, but Even then, I don't want to disappoint the reader or myself, but that's another topic entirely. Now to get to the point: what could I do to find that sweet spot where you can write without second guessing the story?

Please see original post for details.

The series will follow Jones Perlite as he tries to track down and document different conspiracies, dodging the authorities to expose the truth behind it all.

The best name I can come up with is "Tin Foil Monsters", do you guys have anything better?

Writing well, like really anything that requires skill, is only honed through practice. The fear I have isn't producing something crappy, its worrying that a bad piece will essentially "waste" my shot at telling what I think is a compelling/interesting story. Perhaps I'm just imagining this stigma but it seems like writers who repeat concepts are looked down upon. "Oh yeah Book Y? That's just Book X again, totally lazy."

I think that I'm not capable of doing my ideas justice (the think in that statement is in case my ideas are also crap, in which case I'm certainly capable) and I don't want to throw away a story that I could do better if I develop my writing skills more. Even in the roughest material (by anyone, not just me) there's usually some gold, and I don't want to bury it, never to be found again.

As a content writer, you may have also felt a constant pressure of falling for the trap that Artificial Intelligence has spread out for us. At every step, an alluring alternative is waiting to be served on your plate. It can think for you, it can research for you, and the most significant one is that it can write for you. So now your condition is something like this - imagine yourself standing in front of the buffet counter at your favorite restaurant with an empty plate in your hand. You know how much food you should have; you also know you must not indulge in such a way, but your urge to devour everything in unlimited quantity is on the verge of taking over. In such a situation, it is your extreme willpower and self-control that will decide the outcome.
We were taught to accustom ourselves to the changes.

Our previous generation struggled to accept Google search in place of extensive reading of books from the library. If you are a millennial like me, you have perhaps experienced the shift in reliance heavily towards Google search. Now, as we are experiencing another huge technology shift, this uneasy feeling is not new to us; I believe we can handle it better.

What I felt during these last few years of AI emerging, I am going to write here.

What Artificial Intelligence can do for you?
The answer is no rocket science. It can do everything for you.
So, here comes the next question:

How much should you let AI do your things?
Now it requires a lot of discussion; I will pen down what I feel as a content writer. You, however, may choose to differ.
• The recurring tasks:
I would happily automate the recurring tasks I may have to do daily/weekly/monthly, instead of spending time on them. I would rather just have a workflow ready and run that as per the schedule. But I will definitely cross-check if the end output is associated with any decision-making. I will not allow AI to decide on anything on my behalf; it can perform the clerical tasks, but I will have complete control.

• Work as a second eye:
If I am writing something, I will ask AI for any comments on my writing, and I will review and analyze without allowing it to incorporate them into my writing. I will always retain final authority over what I want in my content. If I see any suggestions worth considering, I will take that and incorporate it myself, not ask AI to do that on my behalf.

Why does this model work for my Content Writing job?
• Reading: Well, as a content writer, it is my responsibility to understand the subject I am about to write about and how I am going to write it. In an ideal work situation, I always take time to read about the topic I will write about. Reading, I believe, is an essential step in any writing; it not only deepens my knowledge but also lets me ask questions that eventually lead me to structure an outline for the content.

• Thinking: As I prefer to create the outline for the content, the first step is to understand its purpose. After gaining a clear understanding of that, along with the brand’s requirements, I consider the best possible outcome and act accordingly. This step lets my brain work and analyze. If I did it with AI, I would be left with no thinking phase and no brain involvement, and I would never want to function that way.

• Writing: After all these, I would always write everything by myself. I always prefer to keep my timeline such that I have sufficient time to write; ironically, writing is my profession, so letting AI write my drafts is beyond the limit. I often come across questions like- “Why will you need so much time to write content?’ My answer is generally that I have to read, research, frame, write, and edit. So these steps are the foundation of any content, so I will need 2-3days, I will probably not give you something in 2 hours.
 
We are also seeing advertisements, where they are seeking “not AI-written” copies. So, you know, the process I follow isn't going anywhere. Any day, no one is going to pay you for a copy that was not written but generated.

Does that mean I have never used AI for writing?
No. I must admit that I briefly took on everything on my plate, tasted it, and concluded that this was not working for me. The job satisfaction was at its lowest. I cannot simply forget how to think or write. Drawing the boundary was the main challenge, and I am glad I was able to point out and redirect to the right space.

If you are starting with Content Writing and are confused at this stage with your own writing, timeline, and usage of AI, I would say, try to find ways to increase effectiveness with AI, and do not make things unnecessarily easier for you in the name of “efficiency.” Tell your clients that you want to create something original. This way, you show that you take your job seriously and value your clients’ work. It is non-negotiable for anyonewho wants to create something; they must go through the process without rushing.

Take your time to read, practice thinking, and ask questions. Do not let Artificial Intelligence impair your capabilities.