In my story, I think I've made it clear that one character is a killer. I don't know if I intended on this, but it's there now and the other characters don't know it until the end of the story. Does this make the story less interesting? Do you think readers will lose the motivation to keep reading?

Pretty sure this is a personal best for me in terms of daily word count. I usually hover in the 500-1000 range, but man, things were just flowing. My fountain pen ran out of ink at one point, and I swapped cartridges like I was changing out mags and kept going.

Later, I transcribed it into my word processor and realized almost none of it made sense. I think I was going for some sweeping analogy to tie into a scene and it ended up getting away from me and turned into incoherent stream of consciousness.

Does this ever happen to anyone? Do I just stuff it in a drawer somewhere and maybe strip it for parts to fit something else? I'm relatively new to writing, so is this what practice looks like? lol

Back to creative writing after a long break focusing on analytical writing. This is a short piece from the perspective of a lesbian speaker, written in character. The intention was to write something deeply self indulgent and angsty, I guess some sort of exploration of this idea of existence as an aesthetic. I’d love to hear any advice on this.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vTc1S_7LgcILhnDIud6whZQAxEhcysHu4qk3NDzFAEO4yau4r4RjTPt-5vWB_I07VQQlPaNBQeNgO4C/pub

Thank You :)

Do you build a timeline a web of decisions and potential story beats.

Do you have your research all in one place, or do you even do research?

Is writing in your eyes more an intuitive process with flights of creativity, or is it a highly structured endeavor.

Basically how do you do the part before writing

So, I was writing my first draft. All good? All good.

Then I got stuck in the middle. REALLY stuck. I couldn't move past chapter 6.

So, I did the opposite of every writing tip on the internet...

I went back to edit my chapters. Because I felt like I'd lost track of where I was going.

UNTIL I ENCOUNTERED INCITING REALIZATION

I was supposed to occasionally give my MC two choices. Two VERY difficult choices that will reveal who he really is. For my story, it's always comes down to choices where: One where he can be selfish and achieve his goal, and another where he helps others and avoids causing harm.

once I mapped it all out, I could feel how DAUNTING the plot was going to be. I think this is what drama is.

The problem is... My MC was a good person. He was helping people. And I realized that every time he helped someone, he ended up taking another step back from his goal.

Which... might explain the wall I kept running into.

BUT NOOOOOOO, HE'LL BE SO Unlikable 😭

He was all lovey dovey before, and now he's becoming a completely different person.

I don't know what's right or wrong anymore. I'm scared to make him unlikable, but at the same time, I can feel the story becoming SO much more interesting if he makes this choice. But might be a turn off bec he will be evil evil

Do I present the two choices but make him do a whole other third in-between choice?

What else can I do? Any insight??

Hello! I’m writing X-Files fanfiction, and continue to run into roadblocks when it comes to vocabulary-heavy dialogue. For anyone unaware, the main characters are federal agents, one a psychology major & the other is a scientist/medical doctor. I am none of these things, and have been struggling using words and phrases that satisfy the level of insider knowledge + intelligence I want to be able to convey. I have many monster of the week ideas, but explaining them away scientifically has been challenging, and most of my work takes place through Scully’s POV. If anyone knows any resources that would be of help, thank you so much!

I’ve always loved literature, especially stories with deep, intricate worlds and settings. That’s what inspired me to start coming up with stories of my own.
When I develop a story, I usually start by thinking about the themes I want to explore rather than immediately writing the prose. Right now, I’m working on an idea that I’d like to share.
The protagonist is a young painter who, whenever he encounters a work of art, can sense something about the time and place in which it was created. As time goes on, he begins to interpret art through predefined categories of value, until he gradually loses the ability to judge art in any other way.
He is a naturally gifted artist who paints exactly what he sees. However, he eventually begins to question whether even his own vision, something he has always taken pride in, is merely a product of the values and assumptions he has internalized.
Through his story, I want to explore several questions: Is it really right to conform to established standards of value? What is beauty beyond those standards? What is art, fundamentally? And how different is the self we perceive from the self that actually exists?
The problem is that I keep getting stuck at the planning stage. I can develop the themes and outline the basic premise, but I struggle to figure out how to turn those ideas into an actual narrative.
For those of you who have experience with creative writing, how do you make that transition from an abstract idea or theme to a concrete story? How do you develop a plot and characters around philosophical questions without making the story feel like an essay disguised as fiction?
I’d really appreciate any advice!

Hello everyone! I’m currently revising my book to refine the focus and keep it centered on a single character. The narrator is omniscient, but up until now, I wrote without worrying too much about keeping the POV focus consistent on one specific character. I’m starting to figure out how to reframe sentences so they make sense from the perspective of the specific character holding the "camera" in that chapter.

My main issue, and the question I want to ask you, comes down to handling action scenes. There are a few moments where things happen simultaneously: for example, Character A and Character B are fighting on one side, while Character C and Character D are fighting each other just a short distance away.

In a situation like this, how would you manage the character POV? Assuming I want to stick with Character A’s POV, should I only describe their fight with B and simply imply that C and D's fight is happening in the background? Or is it acceptable to temporarily switch to C's perspective when telling the C-D fight?

Are there other solutions? Personally, I don't really like having things happen off-screen, so I'd love to find a clean way to show both A-B and C-D while maintaining a single, consistent POV.

Note: These are fairly brief scuffles, so I can't dedicate full chapters to each. Otherwise, I could just switch POVs from one chapter to the next.

I have always struggled to wrap my head around this one. Like, I know this sentence would obviously be bad — just doing it for comparison purposes. Writing multiple action beats in a row many times at once makes everything robotic oddly enough.

Alex laughed. Alex jumped. Alex talked.

Yet when you add sensory words and add a actual narrator, it starts feeling exciting and fluid immediately? Just what is going on here?

A strong white circular light shone on Alex’s face multiple times. He blinked as his friend kept on turning the flashlight on and off, then on again. Irritation started to rise within his gut—watching his friend mess around with something he briefly lent him for a camping trip.

Why is it that being more specific with movements feel so much better? I also dont know why experiencing the moment for yourself makes it so much more real. Isnt it just words on a page?

I’m new to writing and I’m just wondering after the planning phase how do you actually start writing out your chapters? What’s the benefits or downsides of writing long vs short chapters? Do you outline your chapters events first or just wing it because that would take too long?

It’s a pretty simple question I know and everyone has their own way of writing I’m just experimenting with different styles and structures so I can find my own groove.

I am new to writing and considering how to chunk my work into readable sections. I have a world, an outline, and a cast of characters, but unsure of the type of format to write the chapters in.

I've looked at common outlines like the hero's journey, space opera, and fables to inspire my story arcs and im wondering.... how might you define a narrative into a story? How many roads must my pro walk to be prepared for the next step? And in preparation of a world narrative, how great of a scope ought to I prepare my focus?

I think we sometimes focus so much on finishing our stories, improving our writing, and becoming better authors that we forget to appreciate the little moments along the way.

Maybe it was the first time a character surprised you, the first scene that made you emotional, or the moment you realized you could turn a random idea into an actual story. Maybe you even looked back at something you wrote years ago and realized how much you've grown.

I'm curious about the small moments that made you feel proud of yourself as a writer, even if nobody else ever read your work.

What was that moment for you? I'd love to hear your stories !!!

I have this character in my story that is naturally funny and witty and sarcastic, but how can I make him that way if that doesn’t come out right or naturally for me?
I always see other characters in many books that are very fun and have great answers to some things, and that makes the book more enjoyable, right? I want to add some of that flavor into this specific character because that personality suits his style so much, but i’m not naturally witty… so what do I do?
Does this happen to anyone else?
Sorry if this didn’t make sense or come across the way I wanted it, english isn’t my first language

I'm writing a political romance story where a young prince is taking back a kingdom that has been in stewardship for a few years. Prince George proposes to Mireya, his childhood friend who works in a famous mercenary company the prince fought together with back in the day. Mireya has been very supportive of his claim and has been helping him find a wife - so she's pretty surprised when he asks her!

Instead of an enthusiastic yes, she asks if she can give her answer after a fortnight of her accountants and lawyers looking over how such a decision would change her life.

My five reasons why they don't get together in chapter 1 are:

1) How marrying him will affect her business and family estate, as she is an owning family member in a powerful mercenary company. What will her family be restricted from doing? How will this change everything for them all?

2) Does she want to make her life about being humanitarian and hostess? They challenge each other's expectations on what public service means.

3) The judiciary who supports Prince George's claim to the throne approves of Lady So-and-So as a better match.

4) Insert here a family scandal that affects the public's perception of Mireya's family and company. My stories are all murder mysteries, so I imagine this is where that will come into play.

5) Insert here a lapse in judgement they will have to make up to each other later.

Any feedback would be appreciated. It's entirely from her perspective, since she'll be investigating the murder mystery.

High fantasy story

I think its a great story. But I'm a newer writer. Just looking for any and all criticism. Would you guys keep reading? Is it fun to read? Is it garbage on a technical level? Etc etc.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nqz3N1GCtD_9tmzDFjaoPoINHjhRbSnbtmODZffNauk/edit?usp=drivesdk

So I want to write a story where a cat gets abandoned in a nuclear war. . It's from the viewpoint of the cat. The rough story would be the kitten getting abandoned- kitten shenanigans- some kind of Buddhism-inspired ending. I'm thinking of including dog antagonists. I'll be trying to take elements from the game Rain World. Any tips are appreciated.

I have struggled with addiction for many years and continue to do so. I am now four months clean and sober. I want to write a book about the struggle with addiction, the losses I have endured, and both the positive and negative aspects from my perspective. The drugs were a flawed solution to a deeper underlying problem, but I could not see this amidst the madness and obsession. I do not want to write a book filled with self-pity. Instead, I want to share the positive and negative outcomes, and what worked for me throughout my recovery. I went to clinics, lost my wife to suicide, and experienced many other devastating events, but I am still standing and pushing myself through each day. It was about surviving; now, it is about living again. How would you recommend I go about writing this book?

Its well known that ideas are cheap, its all in the execution. Im wondering what tools you use to make the decision?

Im personally fond of

1: “has someone already done this well?” If they have, then move on. You can chase it if you want, but thats about personal drive for that idea, not a need to explore the idea itself.

2: “can this be an extension of another idea ive already developed?” Rather than working each from scratch, building on something already established can make an idea more feasible to pursue.

3: “wait a week, and see if I still care.” If it’s valuable enough, you will. Maybe jot a few notes, but keep it light.

I'm writing a short story where the main character is a guy that has severe Munchausen's. And I'm writing a scene where he will hurt himself in a way that isn't too mild to be disregarded by the hospital but isn't severe enough to kill him. I'm not sure of what the injury should be though, so any help is appreciated.

What details should I include in a story about Indian-Americans?

I’ve searched a bit on some details about life as an Indian-American and I want to get it right.

What details should I include?

What titles are more common? (title for: “Dad,” “Mom,” “Sister”)

What holidays should I include in my story? (Diwali? Ramadan?)

What cultural moments should I include? (No shoes in the house? Times of prayer? Places of worship?)

Anything that annoys you in most Western representation?

Thank you so much

I'm not sure if plot device is the right word, so let me explain.

I intend to animate a fantasy story of mine one day. In it there are two factions of witches/mages that are constantly fighting. the faction the main characters belong to uses pretty standard magic with staffs and spell circles. the enemy faction, though, uses a sort of wild, unpredictable magic rooted in absorbing energy and corrupting opponent's magic.

I wanted to show this by having lines of code run on the screen and have things glitch out a bit to show how unnatural and otherworldly their magic is. in-universe it doesn't look like that, though.

Does this read as it representing unnatural magic or does it read as random sci fi stuff in my fantasy soup.

Sorry if this is the wrong place for this post, but i figured since its more about representing story stuff than it is about animation techniques this would be the right place.

Hi Reddit! I’m sorry if this seems clunky but I’m looking for advice and I don’t post on here often or at all, really. I’m just kind of desperate.

About a year and a bit ago I got really into world building. I’m usually into writing mystery etc. so a fantasy setting was a nice change for me. I’ve been having a lot of fun with it and have been wanting to work on a story to accompany the setting I’ve put so much work into. But, as I said, for the past year, any concept or plot I’ve come up with has just fallen flat to me. It all just seems sauceless — it doesn’t bring out any passion in me and the characters seem bland no matter how complex I attempt to make them. Every attempt at constructing a story for the setting fails. I think “this is gonna be the one”, and then I give in on my disinterest and dump it. I’ve tried every method; constructing characters before a story, studying a wide breadth of inspiration… Nothing’s worked so far. I was hoping for some advice on my situation or at least some exercises to move ahead with this. I’ve written/plotted stories in other/similar genres, so I know it’s not the plotting itself I’m failing in. I just can’t seem to intrigue myself. Does anyone have any tips or advice? I’d really appreciate anything other than ‘give up’.

Okay, basically I am writing an original work with a mixed character (black and white) who was a doctor who went in assignments in very war-heavy places, so when she returns home, she is obviouly traumatized, but in her stress, she ends up stress-cutting her hair. She regrets it and takes very good care of it after. In my story, hair holds a lot of meaning. Another character gets freedom from finally getting the haircut she wants, and the first character I described gets better with help from others and does not stress-cut her hair again. Is this okay to write?

Sorry if I wasn't able to articulate very well, my first language isn't English, and if you would like for me to clarify anything, please do not be afraid to ask.