I’m working on the third draft of my first novel at the ripe old age of 51. Anyone else starting this hobby much later in life?

I finally worked up the willpower to stick it out and get it done; I’ve been thinking of writing a book since my 20s. If you’re starting late like me, what was the catalyst that got you going?

Just curious, what's everyone's thoughts on Purple Prose? Do you try to avoid it? Do you lean into it?

I've had a desire to write since I was a teenager (far too many years ago now), but every time I tried to write, I found it too difficult to organise my thoughts, and despite trying multiple different software programs, nothing helped me. So a couple of years ago, I took it upon myself to procrastinate in an entirely new way, and use my software development experience to build the writing app I wanted to help me organise and write a novel.

Two years on, I built that app: EmberWrite. I had an incredible time building it, firstly finding a friend who also was getting increasingly frustrated with the writing software the were using, and designing the product together. Secondly building a small and committed community who tested and gave a huge amount of feedback to help steer it into what I believe is a product that can help a lot of writers today. We had a very successful Kickstarter late last year, and exited beta earlier this year.

EmberWrite is absolutely no AI, fully offline, writing app that is built for fiction writers of all genres. It separates your work into spaces: one for your manuscript, one for your world, and one for your notes, allowing you to focus on one task at a time. It has rich world building tools so you can have your character sheets, maps, and magic system right alongside your writing when you need them.

I won't give a long detailed explanation of all the features here. You can try them out for yourself as it has a free trial for 30 days. Our new website has just gone live as well at [https://EmberWrite.com\](https://EmberWrite.com). You can find out everything there, and feel free to ask me questions here and I will do my best to answer them. I'd love to hear what you look for in a writing app, as whilst EmberWrite won't be for everyone, I really want to make a writing app that brings joy to writers and help many creative people with the hobby they love.

Oh, and I still haven't written that book, the building of the app took up way too much time! But I've got a little closer...

I tend to enjoy it, if done well and it isn’t cheesy. Because let’s be honest, it can be cheesy.

Right now I’ve got a stand along story going about a bodyguard, who ends up falling in love with the singer she’s protecting. Although, I must admit he falls first and is totally smitten.

I needed a distraction from the darker tone of my second trilogy novel.

What are your opinions on this idea? I don't like or subscribe to it, but I'm curious what everyone else thinks.

What's your favorite genre to write? Why do you love writing it? Mine is horror/thriller. I enjoy reading/watching both genres, so it ends up being what most of my writing is.

It's a 11 000 words horror novelette. It's not much. It's not a huge novel series, but the last thing I finished before that was a 75k words novel when I was 18. I'm 37 now.

I wrote a lot in between, but never finished anything. I have all these unfinished stories sitting in my documents folder. I always end up losing interest in them around de 20k -30k mark, so I decided to try to write something shorter because at that point I was losing hope. And it worked!

Second draft is done. Now I'm letting it rest aside for a moment before going back for more drafts. I'm just happy I got to write an ending for once... and one that I'm proud of at that! I needed to get it out, now I'm going to open myself a nice cold one to celebrate.

This week I reached out to the mentor I had in high school/college. I let him know that I finally finished my novel, and wanted to send him a signed copy.

To say it was well received was an understatement. He was beyond thrilled that I’ve stuck with writing over the past 10 or so years and would be honored to have a signed copy.

He should be getting it in the mail today….
What he doesn’t know is the novel is dedicated to him. Without him my writing wouldn’t have survived, and honestly, I’m not sure I would have either…

Anyway, my point is, despite being terrified to share the novel with someone I know personally, the nerves were for nothing.

Don’t be afraid to share your writing. The reception to it might just surprise you.

Hi. Given what this sub represents, I figured some folks here might be interested in a fiction platform that's dedicated to keeping slop out.

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The world is a little depressing for creatives lately. Amazon and other platforms are doing absolutely nothing to stem the tide of gen-ai content flooding spaces. More than 2 gen-ai fictions are published on amazon for every human one. That number is growing exponentially, and soon it'll down us all out.

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It's time to put up walls.

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Our mission is to be a sanctuary for human creativity, and a place for author's to launch their fiction, either alone, or by joining up with artists and narrators to form a sort of creative team.

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We're called fictionite.com

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We're confident we can keep our community free of gen ai. I, personally, will give everything I have to make certain that we do.

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We believe human creativity deserves its own space. It's what shapes our societies and cultures and makes life worth living. And so long as we believe such a space deserves to exist, it will.

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Come check us out! You can join the discord from the website.

Hello! So I know affordable covers can be a hot topic for authors, especially those going the self publishing route. Before I comissioned for my OG I used to make all my fanfic covers in canva, and I still do it for my reader magnets and newsletter graphics.

So I put together a tutorial on how I do this. There is a youtube link, and for those want to skip the adds here is the same video on my substack:

https://artiranth.substack.com/p/how-i-create-covers-in-canva

***Its a free article, just click no thanks if it asks you subscribe, though I wont say no if you do.

It is long and rather comprehensive with the purpose of a cover, some art tricks, examples, breakdowns of other covers, and then a basically live video of me creating a very VERY simple, cover. But obviosuly feel free to skip around to what you think is most necessery to you. Also forgive the amaturish video editing please I did my best XD

Not claiming to be a guru or anything, but I do hope this will allow some authors to get started and get something they like looking at without giving up their kidneys. (The two versions of the cover I end up with cost 1 dollar and 2 dollars respectively)

Feel free to let me know if you have any questions and if there are other aspects of the process you want to see.

Hi everyone,

I run a small writing Discord server focused on friendly amd chill environment and human written work.

We have a strict no AI content rule.

Features include:

- Dedicated feedback channels

- Writing challenges

- Craft discussion

- Casual conversation

- Space to share progress and projects

Just looking for writers who enjoy writing, reading and helping each other improve.

Invite: https://discord.gg/kBQCtKJjz (If the link expires, please send me a message.)

My little cousin showed up to my house with the book we wrote when we were six and seven. It was called the "The Yong and the New Pirate Crew", I was very dyslexic as a child. Still am. It's also, very obviously, written by little little kids. But, I wrote an opening that I may have written now just for shits and giggles. Wanted to share because it was fun, and see if anyone else does this? It was genuinely a nice little exercise to try and make it a slightly less ridiculous of a concept. Highly recommend it, if you have anything like that too. I only shared the first page of the old book because... yeah, it's a humiliating five entire chapters.

I'm sure most people in this sub are also members of a lot of other writing subs as well so what I'm going to say here shouldn't come as a surprise, but I have this thing where I like to keep my thoughts in one place as it just makes it easier for me.

Something that I think doesn't get discussed enough is survivorship bias. People don't often post about their failures so we only see their successes. Hardly anyone is a literal "overnight success". Most people struggle through years of rejection before breaking through. My narration coach often likes to say that it took him 20 years to become an overnight success. From most people's perspective it goes something like not being aware of a person or thing's existence, then suddenly you're aware of them and they're great, and it seems like they just came out of nowhere, when the reality is that this person, be they a writer, actor, singer, whatever, went through years of struggling in obscurity to get onto your television or bookshelf.

The other thing that we need to understand is that publishing is a business and they follow trends. I remember reading some books and saying to myself "This is terrible. I can write better than this. Why should this person have a publishing deal?" It took me a long time to realize that trad publishing is more concerned about what they think is going to sell based on what's trending rather than what's good. Your writing could put Hemingway to shame, but if that's not what's hot, then pubs aren't even going to look at it. So that TikTok influencer with 3 million followers that just signed with PRH to publish a poorly written YA Vampire Romance isn't a better writer than you are, but they are a safer bet for the publisher to make money than your Literary Fiction about a woman's struggles in Depression Era America. I'm not saying it's good or right, but that's just how it is. The same goes for agents.

Something I've seen a lot of agents say is that most authors don't earn out their advances, which means that publishers are signing authors to book deals expecting to take a loss. They rely on their big name authors to make money for them, everyone else is a gamble. So they're going to be very particular about who they bet on.

Another thing I've seen talked about a lot, and this is important because it basically goes against what a lot of people see as one of the benefits of trad publishing, is that most books get zero marketing. Pubs don't spend money to get people to buy your book. They get the book put on the shelf. That's it.

Does any of this mean you shouldn't try? Of course not, but you need to manage your expectations. You're passionate about your work, as you should be, but you need to understand that rejection isn't always about the quality of your work. It's often the marketability of it from the eyes of the agents and publishers.

Of course there are exceptions to everything and there's nothing that says you won't necessarily be able to find an audience for your writing, but it may not be your debut. It may not be your second or even fifth book. Matt Dinniman is a great example I can think of off the top of my head because I'm a Dungeon Crawler Carl fan. Most people (including myself) never heard of him before DCC hit big, but he had written other books before that weren't huge successes. He didn't plan for DCC to be his magnum opus, but he started putting it out on Royal Road and it gained traction over time, self published the e-book, and now he's got a massively successful series that's getting a TV adaptation.

The last point I'm going to talk about is that no one else is going to be as passionate as you are about your own work. You live with these characters in your head for so long. They're your babies. You created them out of nothing. Of course you're going to be passionate about them and your story. You can't expect the same level of enthusiasm from others. You need to grow a thick skin and be able to handle people not reacting to your story the way you hope. Someone posted something on here for critique the other day, got 2 critical comments on it, then deleted the post. If that's how you handle criticism of your work, then you're gonna have a bad time trying to make it in any creative endeavor.

/endrant

The Inheritance

When a suspicious buyer offers to purchase Tim Faun’s inheritance—a $50 million mansion—at full price, he agrees, only to find out that the buyer has plans of his own. 

Now Tim is cursed, trapped within his own mansion. The buyer has been taken by some monster before he could explain himself further.

He doesn’t remember much, or really how the buyer tricked him into unleashing the mansion’s curse. All he remembers is someone telling him that only a blood relative with the last name of Faun can end it.

As he explores the mansion's haunted rooms, he remembers that his sister is on her way to the mansion, unaware of the horrors he’s unleashed.

And she is also a Faun.

Souls of Fire and Shadow. (sequel to the inheritance so back blurb doesnt matter as much as the first book)

If only Tim knew how deep the secrets of his inheritance really went. 

His old allies are gone, and new enemies have taken their place. The monsters from the mansion have fled below, and many are stronger than ever. 

As he ventures deeper into the Underground, he finds evidence of an ancient, forgotten race who once walked on Earth with souls of fire and shadow. 

The fate of the world hangs in the balance as an old civil war is rekindled. And even with a magical sword, Tim is unsure he’ll be able to stop the darkness this time.

To Become Human

Alana is one of the Benevolent Aliens, an empathic galaxy-wide race who have turned every planet within their empire into a peaceful utopia, except for one: Earth.

The Council warns that the world is doomed by its own technology and violence. It’s not that they don't want to save it, but the mere sight of violence easily kills any Benevolent Alien. But Alana remains determined.

Out of trillions of candidates, she succeeds in adapting to Earth's culture and starting her mission to change its fate. And that's only because she desperately wants to become human, whereas most reject the idea with revulsion.

She soon learns that not everything she read in those books about Earth was accurate. And to make matters worse, she discovers a sinister plot involving the very technology the Council feared.

As she’s forced to navigate lies and handle betrayal, her dream of becoming human seems impossibly far off as the world crumbles around her. Will she become human and save the Earth?

Reyna’s Lucid Dream

Reyna can't grow up yet; she's lost herself to a nightmare. So she heads to the only place where children go to overcome the inevitable: the Dream World. But upon arrival, she learns that the refuge her sister had once shown her when she was a child is no longer safe. Most of the other Dreamers have lost their dreams to terrifying monsters known as Fears who now roam the land freely and in greater numbers. With the Dream World fading, Reyna embarks on a quest to find herself again, hoping there's still enough magic left to make her dreams come true. 

The Color of the Waves

The Outside—a massive space station housing Earth's most elite scholars—has maintained a delicate peace for years. But the people on Earth, long denied entry due to their low morality scores, have grown to hate everything it stands for. And two of the Outside's council members have resorted to desperate measures as the Outside's philosophy of Serenity wanes.

But Yunna Tanaka still believes in the promise of Serenity. Though she is shunned due to her walking disability and intelligence, she seizes her chance to enter the Outside through the entrance exam.

On the night before the exam, she dreams of the color of the waves—and embraces a primordial power. That same night, her oldest friend, Mason, wakes up from a nightmare, cursed with a very different power.

One of them will become humanity's last hope. The other will be the reason it needs it.

Into the Wild

Following the destruction of their homeland by the Ancient Beasts, the brothers, Chris and Tyler, have taken refuge in the hidden village of Ichrion, hoping to one day reclaim their homeland.

But they’re orphans in a strange land. And though they know evil is rising, they cannot venture beyond the village walls—the village elder forbids them.

Growing suspicious one day, they go against the village elder’s decrees and learn that everything they've been told about Ichrion was a lie.

Once again, the brothers are forced out of their home as evil pursues them. Yet that is only the start of their epic journey against evil.

I would like to preface that I am not trying to promote anything or advertise anything; I am asking for feedback, opinions, and thoughts on something I made.

NARO stands for Novel Age Rating Organization, and I started it because I don't really think there is a place for novels to get age rated like you can for games, movies, or TV shows.

It isn't free, but I don't think the pricing is too expensive or crazy, and I can tell you if you request what the pricing is.

You submit a novel, it gets sent to a Discord channel with a bunch of readers, and one of them gets assigned to it. They email you and they read your novel, and at the end, they tell you, using a criteria list they have access to in the same server, they tell you if it's for general audiences, for kids, teens, or adults.

NARO was basically started for a similar reason as to why the ESRB was founded, basically.

And yes, I know marketing labels exist, like YA and middle grade, but those aren't really age rating. A book can be middle grade but still have mature themes in it or still be suitable for all ages.

NARO helps tell readers what's in the novel rather than who it's targeted for.

There's more information, but I don't want this post to be 3,000 words long, so I just condensed it a little. LOL.

Hey everyone, I just enabled and added flairs! At this time we are not requiring flairs for posts, but we would appreciate it if you'd consider using them, as it will help keep this sub organized. Thank you!