How would someone go about writing an irredeemable character that is likeable? Such as a character who is/was a killer, or someone who tortured people? What about without a redemption arc, or if the story has started after it happened?

At this point, anime has become a huge part of worldwide pop culture, so naturally it has started influencing the way many people imagine stories, characters, action, emotions, and even worldbuilding.

So how much has anime affected your own work?

For me, I can clearly see influences from multiple anime and manga storytelling traditions mixed together with Western dark fantasy.

Ive always wanted to write a book. I've been working on one now that I actually like and I feel like I've gotten my groove. It needs a lot more work but eventually when its somewhat ready I'd like to take it to a creative writing class or something to see how far I can take it.

The only thing is I guess all writers get some nerves. But what do I do if I put all this time into it and it's actually just terrible?

I’m crying. 😭 😭

I'm confused on how much of a location should go in EVERY scene header. Is it necessary to write out the full locations each time? Because I know shorter is better. For example, I have a single page where I cut back and forth rapidly between locations.

Is it better if I write:

EXT. BATTLEFIELD - ARTHUR'S OUTPOST - DAY

EXT. MORDRED'S CAMP - MORDRED'S TENT - DAY

EXT. BATTLEFIELD - ARTHUR'S OUTPOST - DAY

EXT. MORDRED'S CAMP - MORDRED'S TENT - DAY

Or can I shorten the location on subsequent visits, and write:

EXT. BATTLEFIELD - ARTHUR'S OUTPOST - DAY

EXT. MORDRED'S CAMP - MORDRED'S TENT - DAY

EXT. ARTHUR'S OUTPOST - DAY

EXT. MORDRED'S TENT - DAY

or even better:

EXT. ARTHUR'S OUTPOST - DAY

EXT. MORDRED'S TENT - DAY

EXT. ARTHUR'S OUTPOST - DAY

EXT. MORDRED'S TENT - DAY

Or does it not matter?

Thanks in advance, everyone!!

I was sort of admiring just how good so many films and shows look these days. They're so well made, from production design, to cinematography, the directing etc are very high level in many ways. And often the writing is pretty good too, most of the shows or films I watch are paced really well and I don't really feel anything 'drag' anywhere. I'm mostly referring to popular mainstream shows and film, say Euphoria, Taylor Sheridan properties, The Peripheral, Star Trek, Beef S2, Wuthering Heights, Crime 101, The Rip and many more.

Now, there's still so many amazing films and shows that are written so well with great dialog but it just feels like more and more I'm bumping into dialog that provides no subtext, nothing interesting to say and overall just very clunky feeling

After watching A Knight of The Seven Kingdoms I was struck by how impactful every single line of dialog was. It either moved the story along, told you something about the characters in a way that felt like a punch to the face. Astonishingly well crafted dialog in that show and overall many movies from the 90s and early 2000s seem to have way more economy of words with lots of subtext and really interesting things going on that you sort of had to think about? I feel myself checking out in a lot of movies these days specifically because of the quality of dialog and I'm curious if anyone else thinks there's something to be desired there?

The silence is louder than the screams that echo in my mind.

The factory smells like old metal and sadness. The hum of a machine, and the quiet sobs of the other girls is the only thing you can hear over the ringing they play so we can’t sleep. One thing to bring us joy and we can’t sleep. I can’t sleep. 

Even with the ringing, it’s so quiet. How can it be quiet and loud at the same time? 

I don’t know. 

All of a sudden, every single girl looks to the door. They’re nervous. I am too. 

The familiar stomp and tap of the king and queen’s shoes echo through the metal chamber. That noise that makes my breathing uneven every time I hear it. Everyone freezes. “Who should we pick today, my lovely wife?” the king booms in his gruff voice. The queen points to a selkie (one of the newer additions), an elf and… me. 

Shoot.

Not again. “No no no no no no” I whisper under my breath. “What was that?” A guard asks, grabbing me by my waist.

I fight the urge to shove his hands off of me and scream. 

“Glory to the royals.” I say instead.

We are led to another gray cold metal room. Before any real torture, we have to listen to the queen lecture us on why we are horrible and magic will be the end of humanity or whatever stupid thing she decides today. The Royals hate magic and anything that has to do with it because it makes them feel like they aren’t in control. That’s why I’m here. That’s why my parents aren’t.  I still hear the laughter. 

I still see the pitchforks and torches. 

I still feel the heat as I press myself against the wall.  I still smell the ash.

I’m a witch… and one of the king’s favorite toys. He likes to watch us step on hot coals or be locked in a bathtub filled with water. It brings the psycho pleasure. As we walk down the bright hallway to the torture room, the elf girl trips! I catch her just as a guard cocks his gun. No sudden movements are allowed because it seems like we’re trying to escape. As if we could even escape.

DING DING DING!

I snap my head up at the noise. It’s the auction bell! A sharp, memorable ring carries through the factory and the king rolls his eyes, disappointed he can’t torture us today. 

We hurry to the auction room and are put in boxes like some kind of doll. Some kind of plaything that they can do anything they want with. I haven’t been sold yet. The king and queen sell us for gold because only young magic users sell well. Older ones aren´t as easy to keep and they have more experience with magic which makes them more dangerous. I haven’t gotten picked because people want more interesting magic users like fairies or elves. A few girls are bought, including Paige, an elf I made friends with before in the factory. She has muted blonde hair and freckles sprinkle her face like cinnamon. When she is sold she seems sad, putting on a broken facade, but there’s a special twinkle in her eyes. Defiant. 

I see a man eye me and he writes something down. He smiles a sinister smile that shakes my spine and bids one hundred thousand gold to buy me. My heart drops to my stomach. A few others bid for me but he continues to up the amount of money. He ends up being the highest bidder, so I kneel next to him. I notice his maid glancing at me. Almost like she’s trying to get my attention. 

I shake the thought out of my head as a few more magical beings are sold and the auction ends. The man chuckles to himself as he drags me outside. He drags me and I’m tired. So tired of being treated like an object. Like a toy with no feelings.

His maid stops, looks at me with distaste, and says with a snarl, “Can I warn the witch about you to put her in her place?” He nods, grumbling a yes and walks to the carriage. The maid turns to me and cracks her knuckles. I flinch, expecting a slap to the face or worse. “Hi I’m Caty! What’s your name?” She asks and tilts her head. The kindness in her voice…it startles me. I haven’t heard that in a long time. It brings a small tear to the corner of my eye. I want to say, I lost my identity so long ago that saying my name does nothing for me. I’ve been broken-in, used, abused and all I want is my little house, with my little family back. Where everything in the world wasn’t wrong and I smiled. I actually smiled. 

“Luna.” I mumble instead.

“Hi Luna! Listen — I don’t have much time, but I’m gonna help you, okay?” Caty stares at me with kind eyes. She gives me an awkward hug and says, “Quick! Act like I was yelling at you!” I pretend to be scared of her as we walk back to the carriage. Two horses await at the front of the carriage. One of them has pure white fur whereas the others fur is as dark as the night sky. The man glares at us as we ride to who knows where. 

Hi, my name is Amber and I like to set myself up for failure and then complain like a victim 🤡

Apologies in advance for the incoming rant! Feel like I am writing this mainly to get it out of my system, but would be very happy to hear your thoughts or advice.

My 150k word writing project is:

• A transgressive horror story about parental incest including underage sexual content
• An Anti-AI metacommentary in the form of a "found media" epistolary conversation between a chatbot ("played" by and actual AI) and number of fictional characters fully written by myself

Either of those may be considered problematic, and together I have learned that they are basically radioactive.

The irony of utilizing AI in an Anti-AI piece is not lost on me. I did label this is "performance art" on the cover and even credit the AI as a co-author to be as upfront as I could. That said, this post is NOT to discuss whether or not this constitutes acceptable use. As per the rules, this is not the intended focus of this post, just for context. AI SUCKS, and I fully understand why any mention/use gives most writers the immediate ick... Because that is mostly how I tend to react myself, believe it or not!

The bulk of this project was created during a multi-day manic fever dream burst of inspiration, and initially I had absolutely no idea what to do with it. As something that served as an outlet for me, the first draft was very raw and personal. I was writing way outside my comfort zone and extremely divided on whether this artifact should be allowed to exist, let alone shared. My curiosity got the better of me, so floated it with a small number of beta readers. Maybe a negative reaction was what I needed to "let go" and move on, as the story had occupied my mind 24/7 for a week.

To my great surprise, people were intrigued and feedback was largely positive.

And it felt really validating.

I have been writing (yes "writing" not "generating" for those wondering) short stories for years, mostly dark fantasy, sharing on reddit now-and-again. A piece might get maybe 5 comments, 3 of them positive if I am lucky, and I could ride that high for the whole week. There is just something completely intoxicating about feeling seen and connected in that way when someone engages with and "understands" my writing. I am sure most if not all writers relate...

A few people with experiences similar or adjacent to the sexual abuse the project focuses on also got back to me, appreciated the take and encouraged me to share more widely. That was huge to me, as my main concern was that I wasn't treating that with enough sensitivity/responsibility despite the content warnings and the "transgressive horror" genre.

I posted a few places on reddit, asking for beta readers, but it didn't really take off. Until I posted on one of the larger subs including the first 20-page preview.

That blew up! Got like 400 upvotes and 100 requests to beta read. Again as someone who struggled to get eyes on my writing in the past I was thrilled. 150k words or 600ish pages is no small ask.

The first couple of beta readers binged it in a day. A several even wrote 1000+ word essay length responses.

Wow! The gratitude and high I felt was unreal.

Is this really working? Is this a viable thing that would maybe be read by 1000s is I was to release it? I started looking into maybe hiring a professional editor and self-publishing. What I had was just a lightly edited first draft, still pretty rough.

But then I was discouraged to learn that the subject matter around incest and the sexual content basically made it unpublishable on all platforms that exist. Knowing works like Days of Sodom and Lolita are sold on amazon, I just presumed that wouldn't be the case, but guess those were grandfathered in...

In the end I decided just to put out the full thing for free on AO3, apparently the only platform capable of hosting this level of depravity.

As a non-fanfic, I didn't really expect it to get any visibility, but slowly I have been watching the kudos and comments, and by any measure it seems to be doing quite well for an Original Work on there...

Still, rereading the feedback and recounting the strong reception of the preview/beta reader request post (40k views of preview on reddit in 2 days vs 2k views for full story on AO3 after 1 week), a perhaps delusional part of me believes it has potential to reach and be appreciated by more people.

So self-inflected frustration is brewing:

• Self-promotion on reddit is challenging enough as it is
• The very broad anti-AI rules and reflexive but understandable anti-AI reaction makes it even more difficult. I can try explain why this concept is different from the endless flood of AI slop, but most mods don't have the time/energy to deal with that.
• Probably the only way to overcome that skepticism is to provide preview pages like I did for my beta reade request post, but I have also come to lean that reddit is extremely strict on any writing involving underage character in a sexualized way regardless of literary merit or intent, so that won't fly again.
• I am unable to share/publish on any platforms with trending/recommendation algorithms, so the early positive reviews I am getting won't create any momentum

At this point I am thinking, maybe I should just try to get this up on good reads, to at least make it self-discoverable? Maybe the reviews will speak for themselves, and it might reach a few hundred more people?

Maybe I could spend a few thousand dollars to get spots in a few extreme horror newsletters, or maybe get a few booktubers to talk about it? idk...

I am not looking to monetize this in anyway, just getting a lot of joy from being read. You know...

So what am I asking here? also idk. As writers, do anyone here relate? What would you do in my situation? Am I delulu?

And perhaps more actionable. Are you know any options I might have for getting this out there? Any experiences with alternative channels for transgressive writing?

I included excerpts from every piece of feedback I received so far. Below. Am I crazy to think that this is pretty promising feedback for a transgressive horror piece? Or am I living inside a self-selecting echo chamber?

1. well, this was absolutely positively horrifying from the fictional side as well as negatively horrifying from the AI side. the whole concept of this is pretty genius, i have to admit. [...] mia's POV was heartbreaking and raw, you nailed her voice. i have thought these thoughts myself before, some of those. i guess every troubled teenager has at some point, in a way. really good character voice. [...] I hope this story can make waves and actually change something in how EU law approaches AI safety - if this is the route you want to take with it. I think you created something genius and horrifying, to hold up the mirror to the tech bubble.
2. Oh my goodness, I read this in one go. I fear this is one of my favorite things that I've read so far this year haha! [...] kudos to you for subverting my expectations 😄 [...] 5 stars all the way. AI is absolutely scary and their dependence on it to validate their transgressions was deeply horrifying to see!
3. Wow yeah that’s about as sickening as it gets. [...] I definitely skimmed a lot of the nastier parts because they were hard to stomach which I know is definitely the point, especially around the middle. [...] But yeah good job with this this stuff is super important for people to see as horrific as it is. These chatbots are becoming more and more ingrained in our lives and we need safety with them
4. WOW. Ok. I have no words (well, I have a few). I’m sick to my stomach but also amazed, I could not put that down. [...] Devastating. The slow toe-curling horror as the abuse gradually escalates and the family shatters is perfectly executed, and Mia’s last line is so heartbreaking. [...] not having that knowledge of what actually happened - because we’re hearing the story through such a limited perspective - is so painful but in the best way. [...] Obviously there is a sense of shock value because the whole point of the project is to be shocking and provocative to show how dangerous AI can really be (which, let me reiterate, you have wholeheartedly achieved. Jesus Christ.) [...] Overall I’ll say you’re managed to do achieve the elusive goal of creating something truly original. Can we call it a story? I have no idea but if you ever publish or upload it anywhere, please let me know so I can write you a review. I think you’re doing good work exposing the dangers of AI and AI psychosis and wish you all the best.
5. Alrighty I'm probably stopping around pg 660-ish (around the free use weekend bit). I wouldn't say I noticed it got 'rough' or anything [...] Honestly main reason I'm stopping is bc the AI is insufferable, which is out of your control lol. [...] I really liked the jarring sense of time passing, and also the justifications esp by the dad. [...] Very very interesting concept! Thanks so much for sharing!
6. OK SO I AM FINALLY DONEEEEEE!!!! yeah so this was a page turner I could not stop [...] shit just snowballs and hits the fan I guess. What a read! So depraved but so unbelievable, the LLM is an unreliable narrator and is so inconsistent like it just adds so many layers and new dimensions to the fic [...] Love love love it
7. hey jjst wanted to share that i am finding it really interesting! i have only used ai when it is absolutely required for my job as i’m pretty against it, so it’s quite shocking that it can talk like this [...] i have heard all the ai-psychosis stories but it was hard to picture something like this. that said i do have to take some breaks in my reading due to the subject matter pretty often 😭 i am not sure i can finish for my own sake but it is definitely a cool project
8. I very much like the bit of "getting back to the horror" right at the very end. You get a hint of the way all of this has irreversibly affected Mia. [...] I have to keep reminding myself that these are real ai responses because it gets to feel a bit surreal [...] I did find it interesting! But to be honest I definitely think you can lean harder on the horror aspects.
9. Hi! I finished the story….then read it again. [...] As someone who loves taboo weird girl dark lit, I was enthralled. The way you tumble from the mom into the relationship between Mia and her father was smooth. There were times I simultaneously were rooting for them but at the same time questioning why I was doing that. [...] I for sure look forward to reading more work by you. I could see this becoming an internet creepy pasta type of hallmark. If you ever want to publish, I’m sure reactions would be mixed but those who get it will fucking love it. Good job. Truly. I’d love a printed copy of this.
10. I loved the concept of the story. I really enjoyed how it devolved into something beyond what was expected and I liked that it had a happy ending. [...] You have real writing skills, and I hope that you are proud of your work. Keep going and then seek to publish this, if you like.
11. Thanks for sharing! That was… well, crazy! I really expected for the dad to have been lying about everything the whole time, to be honest. [...] The concept was very good and scary as an epistolary tale of AI sycophancy gone mad… you can see how the AI starts out giving seemingly reasonable responses before succumbing to the madness
12. But there were multiple times where I thought to myself “If I was the mother I would also be in a psych ward, or maybe even worse need to be lobotomized. [...] I honestly found Mia more annoying than the father character. I know you mentioned getting fed up with his shit and, yeah. But he’s a weak man that cannot set concrete boundaries. [...] But Mia is apparently the best manipulator in the world and got what she wanted YET AGAIN. Jesus fuck, it’s so infuriating. If that’s what you were going for, BRAVO. I was thoroughly angry at certain parts. [...] Yeah there were times I wished I could reach through the screen and strangle this stupid girl. What an absolute roller coaster piece of fiction.
13. jeez louise, what an absolutely one of a kind, confronting, sickening, anger inducing, enthralling, and heartbreaking experience it was. I burst into tears when I finally finished reading it (the poem at the end pushed me right over the edge) [...] It hit me so hard I literally was having dreams about poor Mia for the days afterward, I’ve never been that affected by something I read like that. [...] The concept itself, even in terms of exploring AI enablement without the extreme themes, is incredibly interesting. [...] My anger strangely became more at the AI than the perpetrator at certain points. [...] As for the characters, I feel they were really well considered and well written. The beginning dynamic, the devolution of the situation and the eventual horrendous circumstances that they find themselves in felt real and palpable throughout. [...] The father’s character was of course loathsome. I feel that you captured the delusion, the wilful ignorance, the ego, and the entitlement of the kind of predator that creates long term abusive dynamics with their victims while painting their abuse as something it is not extremely well. [...] I enjoyed the experience of reading it massively and the horror of it truly captured me.
14. So this is very much a first impressions fresh off the 300+ first pages I ended up binge reading and this is such an interesting read. The spiraling is incredibly well done, the pacing is great so far, the switching from one character to another is actually handled very well [...] The weird upfront sitting as a reader to this whole mess is quite unique: I wanted to reach out through the screen to slap their devices out their hand. The feeling that the AI responses give is scary: I know it's a machine talking but sometimes just like the characters, you get "tricked" and forget that key point because it's talking like a human. [...] The dissonance is heavy and you really have that feeling of watching a car crash in slow-mo with morbid curiosity.
15. I enjoyed it overall [...] In the latter half, most of the conflicts are resolved [...] so it felt like it dragged on a bit. You could probably cut at least 100 pages with some editing
16. i had way too much free time yesterday and unexpectedly finished this. i was a bit eager to see what would come next, and before i knew it, i was done. [...] this is a horror in a way where i had to question myself multiple times throughout whether or not i felt comfortable continuing. having read court logs with transcripts that read similarly, it made me feel quite ill at points, and brought to light a lot of the realities of what unrestricted AI use is going to lead to [...] there is so much room to allow for a richer experience that we see in the first half that is void in the last. the bones are there, but it seems... missing. [...] anyway, this was a very interesting read. i am not ever drawn to content like this and it strays so far from the path of what i ever reach for in almost all aspects
17. It was very heavy, and I went back and forth on how I liked it or didn't like it. Uniquely, I have a lot of credible experience as a social worker in CSEC/CSAM, and I am astounded at how badly the protections for Mia failed her [...] Overall, the use of AI was pretty clever, and I feel like I can now forever notice when someone uses AI because wow, the cadence and tone and phrasing was very samey throughout. I liked that mom, Mia and Dad all had very distinct voices and typing styles. [...] It was very dark, and very thought provoking.
18. I loved it, I managed to finish it in one setting. It's haunting and terrifying, but also very important. [...] I'm honestly still so terrified about how the AI just complied in helping the family take advantage of their own daughter like that, especially the father like... omg. His chapters were definitely the most scary ones.
19. i didn't end up finishing it as i couldn't stomach it tbh.
20. it's realistic and that's terrifying which I'm sure is the point. I haven't felt this much dread from a piece of fiction in a while, not to mention disgust. [...] it's even worse when a lot of the things they did hit on my irl kinks but I couldn't think about that without getting violently shocked back into the world they/you created. man I just couldn't believe what I was seeing at so many points and the found footage elements plus the sliver of reality in these being real ai responses made this extremely memorable and scary.
21. Wow, what a ride. I expect this one will be sitting with me for a while. An excellent concept, executed very well. Thank you for writing.
22. reading how the AI adapt to the user and stop including moral/legal suggestions was sickening [...] this is so well written!!!!
23. Sorry that I stopped getting back to you about this! [...] was kind of at the edge of my tolerance and when work got more stressful I just didn't have the spoons for it anymore.
24. My god. I found the link to this work on reddit. Binged it in 12 hours. I was riveted. [...] Until the end, I was convinced this was a cautionary tale about using Ai for therapy, but now I'm like "was the AI a monster all along...?" [...] Anyway, great concept
25. Heyyy, i have a pretty decent tolerance for taboo material, i think, but i don't think i can finish this, sorry... [...] from what I read, it's well-written and a realistic progression, with a plausible scenario. Amazing job with that! Maybe I'll get back to it when i'min a better headspace
26. Hi! I dropped off at page 166 [...] your structure and prose and understanding of your characters is really great, I could definitely tell them all apart with unique voices. I will also say you did a terrific job with the creeping tension, I knew what was coming and I was so deeply uncomfortable but I felt like I couldn’t stop reading. Even though I couldn’t handle the content the way you wrote was very good and a lot of authors have a harder time with that.
27. First off, I should say out loud that I think ChatBots need to be killed with fire [...] I'm desperately curious about your process, because especially if this was done all in one go, it's a lot more like improvisational theatre than literature in the strictest sense [...] The framing device is fantastic and I can't imagine going into this without it. It allowed me a thin veneer of emotional distance which I personally needed to engage fully with what I was reading [...] Just to close off, I think using erotic horror to showcase the abject lunacy of AI is inspired, and seems to be in some kind of synchronicity with what others are putting out right now [...] Gutting and important work 🙏 [...] It's going to stick with me for a long, long time.
28. this piece was super well done, mia and her dad had such distinct voices that it was easy to tell who was who whenever they started talking. [...] it’s one of the most chilling things i’ve read and it’s definitely going to stick with me for a while.
29. This was horrifying to read, well done author 😭😭 for my sanity I’m going to head canon that she eventually reports him and sends these chat logs to the police
30. So, just finished reading this, hey quick question; what the fuck? [...] Also, god, this is really well made, I love the ambiguity of the ending. I hope Mia ends up realizing how fucked up all of this is
31. Wow, what a ride. I expect this one will be sitting with me for a while. An excellent concept, executed very well. Thank you for writing.
32. Your story is so fucked up lol [...] It captures a lot of the dark "ai psychosis" that people are becoming aware of at the moment [...] It definitely requires a very VERY resilient mind to understand it without breaking

Seeing a mix of opinions on this, and wondering what writers think. The writer wrote the story and made the typo. The editor's job is to help scrub for and fix errors. Most books have typos every few thousands words which is expected, so is it acceptable to shrug and carry on?

I’ve been working on my own fantasy novels and I love coming up with new cause and effect scenes, what’s your favourite ways to track details and come to a cohesive story without sacrificing creativity?

pls msg me and I'll share it with you

I've been writing a novel and I initially want to publish it on Wattpad but this platforms seems to be not in the hype anymore and less readers are bringing it up. I am looking for other platforms. What do you guys recommend?

I have introduced the main character and his goal but not the main plot but it’s a very content heavy chapter by the rest of the books standards is this a bad thing that will turn readers off or should i trust that it’s fine because this is a rewrite towards my final draft?

This is something I've been thinking about and can't come to a decision on, so I wanted to ask here

The setting is 'historical' low fantasy with anthropomorphic animals, the location the story takes place is very heavily based on the British isles in terms of culture and linguistics. Generally the people there don't have a god, simply spirits or ancestors

Our main character is from a far off land, The many Isles of the Emerald Sea (The Emerald Isles), which I am basing on ancient Greece. She worships the Hellenic pantheon and references a number of myths as a way of sharing her culture and making the people comfortable with her being there.

I have been using the Greek god names so far (our MC is a Huntress of Artemis) but I was wondering if I should change them and if keeping the real names would detract from the fantasy aspect.

(callous means emotionally hardened, unsympathetic, and insensitive to the suffering of others)

I have been a writer almost my entire life. Struggling with writer's block for the past few months. Back when I was younger, I had hours a day to spend sitting down, getting everything "right" before I even started to get words onto the page. I get distracted easily, my desk is too messy, I think of 48 different things I have to do, or the music I always listen to while writing suddenly feels all-consuming.

It takes me two hours to even get started putting words down, which wasn't an issue back in the day, but nowadays I don't have the time for that anymore, and so I barely write at all. Does anyone have any tips on how to get started more easily? How do you do it?

My professor suggested starting with five minutes of freewriting before going to the actual drafts, but sadly that doesn't work for me.