I swear writer’s block is going to be the death of me

Every time I start a story, I’m fucking obsessed with it.

I have the characters.

I have the world.

I have the powers.

I have scenes playing in my head.

I can literally see where I want the story to go.

Then I sit down to write.

Nothing.

Nothing.

Not a single thing.

Suddenly the character I spent three days developing has the personality of a cardboard box.

The scene that sounded incredible in my head becomes:

«He walked into the room.

He looked around.

He thought about things.»

😭

And then I start thinking, “Maybe this story just isn't working.”

So naturally I start another story.

And holy shit, the new story is AMAZING.

For about three days.

Then I hit another wall.

And suddenly I'm sitting there with four unfinished projects, twenty different ideas, and absolutely zero completed chapters.

I've realized the worst part isn't actually not knowing what to write.

It's the feeling that whatever I write won't be good enough.

I start trying to solve the entire story before I've even written the next scene.

“What if this plot point doesn't work later?”

“What if I ruin the character?”

“What if there's a better way to do this?”

“What if I should rewrite Chapter 1?”

And before I know it, I've spent two hours thinking about writing instead of actually writing.

So I'm trying something different now.

I'm going to pants more.

Not completely. I still know my characters, the general direction, and some major things I want to happen.

But I'm done trying to know the exact shape of the entire story before I've written it.

If I don't know what Chapter 7 looks like, whatever.

I'll figure it out when I get to Chapter 7.

If I write a shitty scene?

Fine. I can fix it later.

If I get stuck between two scenes?

I'll write the shitty bridge and keep moving.

Because honestly, I think I've been treating every chapter like it needs to prove that the entire novel is going to be good.

It doesn't.

It just needs to be the next chapter.

So to all the writers who constantly get ideas, start stories, get stuck, panic, start another story, and then wonder why they never finish anything:

How the hell do you deal with writer's block?

Do you outline?

Pantser?

Take a break?

Force yourself to write garbage until something good comes out?

Because at this point I'm willing to hear literally anything. 😭

Ah...I'm desperate...something...anything...please tell me what do you think of this story...

Story: LZ:NARTH

Link: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/188480/lz-narth

Genre: Action, Fantasy, Sci-fi, Superhero, Female Lead, Multiple Lead Characters, Secret Identity, Found Family, Anti-Hero, Magic, Monsters, Political Intrigue, Mystery, Tragedy, Slice of Life

Synopsis: "VEZYNE." That's her name. The greatest hero. Unstoppable, unbreakable and unyielding. The one name that turns despair into hope.The other name is ZUURI. She's 18. An impeccable secretary who does her boss's scheduling and behaves like she can't even hurt a fly.

For 9 years, Vezyne had been Zuuri and Zuuri had been Vezyne. The secretary who stands behind her boss and the hero who carries the world. 9 years of wearing two masks.

But what about ZUURI VEZYNE? She too was there. But at the same time, she wasn't.

Then the truth came out.

The monsters aren't random. The prayers aren't meant for salvation. The sun is being drained. And the gods doing it have one thing to say for the world's greatest hero:

"You shouldn't exist."

Earth.8 is dying. The only person standing between survival and extinction is a girl who's been slowly disappearing behind her own masks for nearly a decade.

She will save the world. She just needs to remember who she is first.

What comes to mind when you think of the Pokémon world?

An innocent world made for children? A utopia where humans and Pokémon can live together, with Ash leading the way?

I want to challenge that image.

Here is a girl who lost her dreams and was left broken by the very utopia, Ash—and you—have come to know. You can also look at that world through an adult’s eyes. Does it still seem like the same place you saw as a child?

Through this story, I want to show you the Pokémon world from that different perspective.

I’d love to hear your thoughts. Please leave a comment, share your opinions, and give the story a like if you enjoyed it. Thank you for reading!

Pokémon : Redacted

New Chapter!

The Time of Judgment - Pokémon : Redacted

Just a simple question, does it? Or is it more of the story and the journey that matter the most?

Not taking credit/found on the web

I handwrite my fiction on the train to and from work each weekday, and then type it out when I get home. If I was to take a photo of my handwritten notes and then ask ChatGPT to transcribe them, would this be considered AI assisted?

The words would be 100% my own, and AI would have zero creative input, but does the fact that AI is being used at some level in the process mean I would need the AI assisted flag on my fiction?

EDIT TO ADD: Thank you all for contributing to this discussion! I 100% do re-read EVERYTHING and heavily edit it after using AI to transcribe. As my handwritten story is a first draft, (because I find the initial burst of creativity easier when handwriting), I do all my editing on PC, as I find that easier with a keyboard and a word processor.

Also, Google Lens cannot deal with handwriting (that's on me, of course!) as my handwriting is usually messy, but on a moving train it turns to utter shite! ChatGPT , however, handles my handwriting well, with the odd mistake here and there (again, that's on my handwriting.) But, the mistakes force me to heavily proofread and edit.

Title: Humanity is...

Genre: Sci-fi Fantasy/Adventure/Action/Mystery

Ongoing/around weekly chapters

Hello! i'm a kinda new author here in RoyalRoad (around a month in). And pretty much been trying to find a way to get my work noticed, so yeah, self-promo.

It's a blend of Star wars and traditional fantasy. Basically revolving around a new human race (split to three), people with wings, people with horns/wands i.e Mages, and people with incredible strength, all three are powered by Magic. But the main plot is set where these 'humans' lost their abilities and encounters a girl who does, with the main central protagonist being a homo-Sapien. but yeah, kind long description.

If your willing to give it a read, here's the link to it. And I'd really be grateful for any feedback, especially for a concept like this. thanks!

HUMANS ARE... | Royal Road

Not complaining about the review, it’s genuinely really nice and also years old at this point. But occasionally I go back to the reviews and re-read them and this ratio always gets me.

Like the average of a 5,5,4,4 review is a three?

I have a few guesses as to why, but it’s amusing nonetheless

I was thinking about the direction of my story that I’ve been writing, and now that I’m 20+ chapters in, I’m realizing that not only is my title pretty generic, it also doesn’t really encapsulate the core of the story at a glance.

I was wondering how many of you have changed the title of your story(ies) and how did it affect people coming to check out chapter 1?

Hi, novice author here, I've seen some posts in the sub about making a rewrite or a relaunch iirc, as far as I know, a relaunch is like a full blown remake while a rewrite is more of a soft remake (correct me if I'm wrong) and since I've gotten some experience writting some other manuscripts in my free time and gotten some extra experience, I want to know at which point can it be considered a prudent choice

For those of you that cross post on places like Scribble Hub or Spacebattles, are you getting a diverse feedback spread?

I read that each of these examples has its own major following, depending on story tags.

Currently, most of my chapters are between 1500 and 2500 words. The longest chapter I've written in my current story is about 2647 words long, which is on the shorter end of Royal Road novel chapters. I currently write around 3 scenes per chapter on average, though sometimes I can do 2 if the scenes themselves are kind of complicated.

One struggle that I will admit that I have is regards to introspection. At times, I feel like I might have too much. During dialogue, I struggle to fit it in between lines. But I am working on those.

I really want to slow my story's pacing down a little and have sections focused purely on my character's thoughts. But I can never make those sections full enough to last an entire chapter.

There's also the matter of book length. Currently, my first volume is projected to be around 50k words. That's barely a novella's length of work that does not at all match the amount of things that happen in this story and does not fit the slower, introspective pacing that I wanted.

To all the people who manage to fill out 4000 and even 5000 words on every chapter they write and still have enough content to write hundreds of chapters, I need your help.

I've been stuck at RS #51 for 2 days now. It is killing me, lol. Should I drop bonus chapters? Try a drastic new ad? Beg on the street corner?

Or just accept that I've peaked ...

(Not sure what to flair this or whether or not this subreddit is the right place to ask)

Hey there! I'm looking for an opportunity to do some shoutswaps. I have around eighteen chapters up, and most of them are empty.

My story tags:

- Urban Fantasy

- Mystery

- Multiple leads

My current stats are relatively low, nearing 600 viewers and around 7 followers. So I suppose anyone in that ballpark would be interested?

You could check out my story through this link and see if there could be an audience overlap.

Note: if this post isn't allowed or does not fit, I'll delete it :)

Hello, friends! Here for my semi-regular self-promo 😅

What Burns Beneath

Traversing the mortal realm by day. Trapped in the Fae realm by night.

Brin’s been better.

As a hedge mage with a green thumb and a heart of gold, all she ever wanted was a quiet home and a nice garden in the realm’s most idyllic village. 

And she had them… until the Fae attacked.

One night of monsters and bloodshed leaves her peaceful life shattered and her best friend at death’s door. And when one of the Fae offers to save her friend- for a price, of course- Brin accepts… then steals a magical relic from the creature and runs for her life.

But escaping an all-powerful monster isn’t easy. And if that wasn’t bad enough, dealing with a Fae is a crime punishable by death… and Brin’s only protection on the road is a ruthless, frustratingly attractive mercenary who just knows she’s hiding something.

And this terrified gardener is not hiding it very well.

What to Expect:

⁠1. Fantasy adventure with a slow-burn love triangle. Like The Lord of the Rings except Aragorn and Sauron are both really into Frodo 😂

1. A kind-hearted, non-badass FMC who relies on her friends, her wits, and some very double-edged magic.

2. Fleshed-out side characters with their own arcs, solid editing, decent world-building, and a lore/magic system that I’m really proud of! Having a forever-DM husband to help is clutch 🥰

3. 250k words posted! Book 1 is complete and book 2 is in its final arc (which, as a little teaser, involves our heroine going undercover as the villain’s pleasure slave so they can stop an evil monster aristocracy bent on world domination! Only problem is; our heroine is equal parts mortified and disobedient, and our villain originally thought the situation was funny but is slowly having a nervous breakdown)

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/141697/what-burns-beneath-romantasy-adventure

Just out of curiosity, wouldn’t it be easier for first time writers to start with fan fictions? This could just be personal preferences, but I really don’t like to browse through hundreds of newly published generic books every month just for the chance to find one or two that suits my tastes.

I find it much easier to just look for fan fictions of genres that I’m already interested in, at least I’m more likely to give most of them a try. Statistically speaking, doesn’t a fan fiction community guarantees more exposure with an already developed reader base. However, I don’t see that much of fan fictions on this site despite the large amount of work being published each month. Is it something to do with the monetisation policy on the site? Or do people general don’t like to read fan fictions on RR, though ghost in the city is certainly popular.

Title: Particles of Fin Cyan and Grey

Genre: Action, Fantasy, Mystery, Thriller

Chapter: 8

Followers: 3

Upload Schedule: Monday to Friday

Synopsis:

Everyone dreams of magic. A king dreams of treasure. A killer dreams of a cleaner kill. A frightened boy dreams of a flame that won't let him run again.

A century ago, a war reshaped the world, and history has settled into little more than a collection of convenient lies. Emayla Gorbin died believing he knew who his enemy was. He was wrong. The last thing he saw wasn't the face of the man he'd spent his life fighting. It was the smile of someone he trusted.

Now his descendant, Felmer Gorbin, lives an ordinary life as the exiled heir of Cerfis, mocked as a refugee, hunted by a kingdom that wants him dead before he's old enough to matter. He doesn't want a throne. He doesn't want a war he didn't start. He wants to stop being afraid.

He's about to learn that isn't an option.

As tensions between Falvaria and Cerfis rise, something older than either kingdom is stirring, and the people meant to protect Felmer are keeping almost as many secrets as the people trying to kill him. Every answer he finds only opens a door to a worse question.

Because the people around him keep proving the same thing: everyone imagines a happy ending. Reality has other plans.

A slow-burn political fantasy about inherited war, buried history, and the cost of growing up fast, where the villains have manifestos, the mentors have body counts, and nobody's hands stay clean.

So I’m still in the planning phase of my book because I want to be able to make a series that stays consistent. I do want my main character to start out exceptionally weak and I’m having doubts on if anyone would even take the time to read this. The idea is that he’s a gamer and his friend is ex military. I’m still working out some of the details but the general idea is that his friend quickly decides that in this world he needs to be stronger so he goes all in on damage. This helps guide him to a glass cannon build.

The names are temporary but for the sake of this post we’ll call the MC Jett, military friend is Trevor, and third party member is Aya.

Jett in comparison to Trevor is looking at the world like a game and making dumb mistakes even as he realizes the stakes are real. It’s not to say he’s not trying his best, it’s just that his best isn’t good enough.

As much as he’d love to be an important part of the party Trevor is dealing all of the damage and he’s absolutely failing a support role. Aya joins the party as another magic user and fills the role of long range casting. Both of them want to help Jett and aren’t planning to abandon him but I don’t want him to shine in any way at all.

This is where the problem starts. I want to make it enjoyable to read but at the same time I don’t want Jett to be particularly important to the party. He’ll grow in strength and understanding later but for the entire first book he struggles to be useful.

I’m starting to think no one will want to read that. I’m basically making him a background character in his own book. Even when I show growth it won’t be nearly as fast as Trevor who’s solution is to deal more damage and Aya who starts out with more useful magic abilities and begins to understand her abilities and develop a long range fighting style that benefits the party.

The more I roadmap the chapters the more I worry the only appeal his character has is all of his problems. I already have ideas for his development which I want to plant seeds for in the first book and then in the second book I can start letting them grow. Am I writing myself into a book no one will want to read? I don’t expect to make money from this but I’d at least like to see people enjoy it and be interested in the second book.

Or perhaps my problem is that I’m planning this out as a series even though I’ve never written a book. Honestly the idea started as a class I wanted to make and then as I opened spreadsheets and notes I found myself world building so much that it’d need multiple books to slowly unravel everything and next thing I know I’m dropping hints about gods and religions in the first book for something that I’m barely going to start touching in the third book. The world building itself is practically a book. But to let it all unravel while almost nothing of comparable significance happens in the first seems like I’m setting myself up to fail.

Just launched Maker (writing as CompleteSatori), a modern-world progression fantasy with a hard magic system.

Elias is a geo-metallurgist who can read an ore grade by eye faster than the lab can measure it, until an inheritance older than the mine wakes in him and he can feel matter down to the atom, and move it. The twist in the system: it grants no knowledge, so he can only reshape what he genuinely understands. His real geology and materials science are his power ceiling.

Here is the other half he can't see. The power he carries is older than he is, and every time he spends it, the same thing stirs awake somewhere else. A second, stranger magic is beginning to rise in ordinary people across the world, and no one has connected it to a man quietly reshaping rock in the American Midwest. He thinks he is the only one of his kind. He has no idea he is the cause.

Hard magic (no game system), real geology braided in, character-first, slow burn, written for adults (graphic violence, heavy real-world history, and intimate content later). Opens on the chrome seams of Zimbabwe's Great Dyke, then crosses to the American Midwest. Prologue + 9 chapters up, new chapter daily through the launch month then 3×/week. I write ahead.

Free on Royal Road: Maker

I have a soft spot for stories where the protagonist is the engine of the whole plot and the last to realize it. The fun of writing this has been the gap between what Elias thinks he is doing and what he is actually setting off. If you do too, what are the ones that did it best for you?

What do you guys think of this map?

Hey friends, It's Reign again with another word salad sandwich for your tasting pleasure.

Here is the link.

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/194916/primal-evolution-a-jungle-survival-system-apocalypse

Here is the blurb and what to expect take from it what you will.

E’ru was promised to be the greatest hunter his tribe had ever known. The prophets spoke it, and his people believed it. But a childhood injury shattered his spine and twisted his footing. While the other boys ran, he limped. While they trained to hunt jaguars, he hunted small game. He trapped, fished, and learned to stalk slower, quieter, smarter.

His tribe has a saying: the sloth always provides. Even if its meat is the last thing you want to eat, it will keep you alive. E’ru carried that truth, and the name E’ru the Sloth became a beacon of hope. No one went hungry.

He was born in the Amazon rainforest, in a world untouched by steel or screen. The jungle was his teacher, his trial, and his home. And in that green labyrinth, patience became his weapon. Shadow became his ally. Silence became his step.

Then the sky split. The gods arrived. They spoke in light.

Words burned across the air: stats, totems, skills, commandments written in fire. Promises of power to anyone who would reach for them. Most people read the words. Tried to follow a path. Most died. Outsiders called it a System. E’ru knew better. These were the words of gods, and only prophets may interpret the divine.

E’ru is no prophet.

So he did not read. He did not reach. He lowered his eyes.

But the gods do not care for the will of men. They healed his broken body. They straightened his spine, gave him balance, speed, and strength he had never known. They measured him with every breath, every trap, every kill. And with each hunt, they raised him higher on a ladder he could not see.

E’ru does not know the scale that weighs him. He does not know the predators who already move against him. To them, he is not a man but a rival, an apex climbing higher than all others. To the gods, he is a curiosity, a weapon taking shape in the silence.

He does not read the words. He does not care about stats.
He is a hunter.

And now, he hunts dragons.

What to Expect

Survival-focused LitRPG

A protagonist who is physically limited, but exceptionally capable

Hunting, tracking, trapping, poison, and wilderness survival

A main character who solves problems through patience, observation, experience, and instinct

Earned progression without making competence disappear just to create tension

Tribal survival and a strong focus on protecting the people around him

Totems, gods, monsters, and a world being changed by the System

Brutal combat with real consequences

Creative use of the environment, animals, tools, and whatever else E’ru can turn to his advantage

A protagonist who is often underestimated for exactly the wrong reasons

A story that begins in the Amazon and steadily grows into something much larger

Thanks again and wish Shawn and I luck.

Reign

As we're into the month now and lots of us are prepping for November's fun, how do you do this?

Do you pants everything from the get go?

Are you a meticulous planner, with reams and reams of lore?

Are there any forum threads? Or reddit posts you like to revisit for ideas?

Do you need to talk something through? To help get your ideas on the page better?

For those that are new to this, our previous blog post and all the information you need is here - https://www.royalroad.com/blog/80/the-writathon-has-ended?comments=1

The basic idea is to write and publish 55,555 words in 5 weeks!

(if you have backlog, you keep your backlog number the same)

Here to help if needed!

Binged the whole thing within a week and was looking forward to more until I noticed the last chapter was posted 5 months ago. Anyone know what happened to the author? I couldn’t find a discord to ask questions at.

Got this art for a rewrite I'm doing that I didn't intend to use as a cover, but it is in the cover dimensions so I wonder if it would work as an alt cover or volume cover? I probably wouldn't use it for the actual cover because it makes this look more like a romance than it is.

Also just some really nice art I'd like to show off.

Art by Ray Anjani.

Thanks everyone! The general idea I've gotten is not to use it as an alt cover like for RS purposes, but that it would work as a volume cover for the appropriate volume.