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.
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?
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?
At what word count do you usually start sharing your writing for feedback? I’ve currently hit 16,964 words, but I can't shake the feeling that it might still be a bit too early to show it to anyone. What do you think? The story is already established, but I feel there are many things I'd like to include in the first draft. On the other hand, I could keep the entire draft as is and never share it because there will always be something more to add.
I really want to make a manga but I believe these two are over used. I seek for people who have experience and tell me how I can make this work.
I also have multiple stories but this specific story I had in mind for a while now really is bothering me because i’m afraid that most people wouldn’t like it and yeah I understand the reason.
But I hope to have some advice on how I can execute this perfectly!
Do you prefer first or third person? Does it depend on the genre? Is there something you hate about either of them? I‘m trying to write a book and I have no idea what perspective to write it in. Both work for what I‘m writing but I actually don’t know what I myself prefer and I don’t really have any friends who read so I thought I‘d ask here :)
There's a specific kind of hell where you've read the same scene so many times it stops making sense as language. you change a sentence, then change it back, then wonder if the version from three days ago was actually better. i used to think this meant the scene wasn't ready. Now i think it just means i've been staring too long and need to walk away. Curious if other people have a system for this or if everyone just kind of accepts the uncertainty and publishes anyway...
I’ve been writing poems and short stories for as long as I can remember, even having some published! I’ve started writing the first draft for my novel but I’m really struggling to get through it.
I’ve barely scratched the surface of the plot, and already there are plot holes and character issues. Realistically I know I need to just get everything down and then do a rewrite with a bit more structure, but I’m struggling to get to that point.
How do you cope/motivate yourself?
I'm curious about any books that do this. My thoughts are that it would obviously be jarring. I know first to third gets done a lot. I feel like third to first would feel like pulling a rug out from under a reader, though; they get used to reading a passage in third person, then switch into first. Especially if they—like many people seem to—prefer third person.
On the other hand, though, I'm thinking of prologues (which I know are divisive) that might be told from another character's perspective, before switching into the main characters. Or multiple storylines, like The Martian, which is the only one I can think of off the top of my head, and I think it was done very well.
I even remember when I was a kid reading the Percy Jackson series, the transition from being first person with Percy to seeing his name in third person in the Lost Hero series onward tripped me up. I almost couldn't finish reading. I can't imagine if it was the other way. And that was even in separate books.
Have you seen third to first done well? How did you feel about it?
Whenever I do an editing pass, I make sure to have a small list of things to focus on. But as I get further along, some of those focuses have become kinda funny and unexpected.
For example, one aspect of my book that I'm trying to improve is "indirect communication". There are scenes and dialogues where my characters express their feelings and goals quite directly. While that works, I personally prefer dialogue that doesn't wear its purpose on its sleeve.
What about you? What's something odd or specific that you've dedicated time to improving during editing?
Everyone always says to “read more” if you want to improve your writing (sound advice). But I’ve heard some people say to specifically read classics, because obviously most of those books will be well written (hence being called ”classics”). But what if the genre you‘re writing about doesn’t remotely relate to how classic books sound? Or what if simply don’t like reading them?
Curious to what you guys think about this advice🤔
I want to write a philosophical novel. I’ve been observing philosophy and literature, and my favourite work is Paradise Lost by John Milton. When you read it, you can arrive at many interpretations of its core meaning; the story itself is philosophically and intellectually rich.
Now I’m ambitious and want to create something that is intellectually intricate, but I don’t even know where to begin.
I haven't really read any novels that don't wait until at least two or three chapters into the book before the inciting event. I want to start my disruptive incident at the end of the first chapter, after I've explained the very basics of the magic system.
I'm way too early in the writing process, and am not really sure if starting my high fantasy novel with a "regular day in the MC's life" is going to work out for my book, because it's just that. A regular day in the MC's life. I wanted to build my world as the MC explores it, but am not really sure if I should. It might end up being too confusing if I accidentally info-dump, but too vague if I only show and not tell.
Should I push the inciting event further back to chapter three or four or keep where it is, at the end of chapter one?
Deci cartea mea E planificată complet și gen am lovit ceva. M-am apucat de editare puțin din moment ce sunt undeva la 90% gata cu toate capitolele scrise ( spoiler sunt 34 de perspective/capitole ale celor două personaje principale) iar eu la perspectiva 6 din 34 am 32k de cuvinte nu știu dacă îi dau overshot numărul Maxim de cuvinte și acu habar am ce fac pentru că toate scenele sunt importante 😭. Dați mi o idee vrg.
So, I'm writing a romantasy, and basically, there's a 5-year time jump, but I'm not sure if some readers will hate it or if it's the wrong decision.
Basically, my character will move to another city, establish her life, and then a 5-year time jump will happen after that. How do you think writing this will be considered "bad" and how to avoid it?
Copying out your favourite works by hand is a great way to improve your writing. Especially by hand rather than typing it out I find.
What other techniques do people find useful?
Other obvious ones would be reading, and writing a lot, morning pages.
I’m desperate to get advise from marine biologist students for my book but my posts keep getting removed from here and the marine biology Reddit… Where is a good place to ask specific questions for anything, for research for my book?
I’m putting the cart way ahead of the horse here, but while writing a current YA series I’ve gotten way too distracted with plans for a prequel trilogy focusing on the main character’s parents and two of their friends. A key thing about her parents is they got married when they were 18 and that the wedding ended up being a contributing factor in her mother’s estrangement from her family and one of her childhood best friends. So currently the plan is for the third book in the trilogy to cover the parents being separated and writing letters to each other from the ages of 16 to 18 with a time skip (it’s a fantasy world so no phones) and then having the proposal halfway through the book and the second half is about the wedding planning and how the cracks began to form in her relationships. But while YA technically goes to age 18, a wedding is obviously not an experience most teens in today’s world relate to. Can it still be marketed as part of a YA series if it culminates in a wedding? Should the first two books (when they’re 14-16) be YA and the third marketed differently, is that even possible? Again I know I’m way ahead of myself since I’m still writing the original four book series and this prequel would be seven books down the line, but I’m just wondering if it could work at all.
I write purely for the fun of it. I have no plans to publish, no audience in mind. It is just me and whatever idea grabs me.
I have got a lot of unfinished stories. Every time I get a new idea, I abandon the old ones and I jump to the new ones. It sounds chaotic (and honestly it is) but I have made peace with it. The joy is at the beginning , building the world, figuring out who these people are, seeing where the first few chapters go
Will I ever finish something? Probably not. Do I care? Not really. Writing scratches an itch, and that's enough for me. It's always fun and I love what I do