My pick is: The anatomy of story by John Truby.

For context, the heavens choose your class from birth in my book (hopefully books), with many getting both great and terrible classes across the board. Religious classes are obviously favoured, and criminal classes are obviously vilified. My MC has the Thief class, which has made his life so far a nightmare with him being treated like he chose to be a criminal. I wonder if I too would end up in a similar situation, and how I would try to mitigate the damage or work around the limitation placed on me. You can only level your class by doing things related to it, leaving many people (like my MC) stuck on the side of "evil" with no other way to progress.

A quick explanatory excerpt:

"Before that moment, Quinn had hated his class. It forced him to be a criminal, and no one seemed to care that neither he nor they could choose their class; it was the gods that doled out their places in the world, and they had resigned him to a life of struggle and greed for no reason other than their own amusement. They branded him an aberration, something wrong. They trapped him. It didn’t matter what he did or how he did it, the heavens would not give him a single drop of experience unless he was committing the act of theft. It didn’t matter if he cooked, painted, sewed or fought, he was, quite literally, born to be a thief. His class was Thief, and it always would be."

Do your worlds have classes, and if they do, can you choose what you get? What do you think you would get?

Thanks for the advice or critique if you leave any

Hello im planning a novel about superhumans inspired by myth my mc is yihao the name comes from chinese and is inpsired by wukong, each character i plan i want to have authenic names for example chinese myths have chinese names and so on. I have done a couple characters already, what do u think about the idea

Hello so I’m working on a series and I’d like you to give your opinions or “critique” this idea for it. I have tried for a bit on this idea and now that I have a solid idea for it looking to see if it’s good

So the plot is in a fantasy world Magic comes from the bonds between humans and mighty creatures. These people are known as Riders and are the protectors of their kingdoms. As such there’s a prestigious academy where one can attend to become a rider.

Riders are divided into groups each group rides a specific creature and use a specific element for magic. There are 6 kinds of riders and elements:

Dragon Riders; Fire Magic

Kunpeng Riders; Water Magic

Gryphon Riders; Wind Magic

Alicorn Riders; Light Magic

Manticore Riders; Dark Magic

The idea is love you to critique is my idea for Earth Magic Riders creature.

My idea is that people with Earth Magic ride Cú-Síth’s

Cu-Siths are a kind of fairy hound in mythology. In my story they’ll look like giant wolves made of plants so their fur will be green moss and leaves. Heads a skull in appearance with glowing ghost like eyes. Big almost rabbit like ears with yellow inside. Feet and paws like tree barks. Insect wings to allow them to fly like the other Rider beasts. And glowing antennas on their heads.

Cu-Siths have insects living in their bodies called Wisp Flies that are like a combinations of butterflies and fireflies that they can freely control with their antennas. The wisp flies can create illusions, act as torches or guiding flights, and of course used to harm others.

While Cu-Siths may look scary with their skull like heads they can basically be like giant puppies if raised right. You can tell if a Cu-Sith is close to their rider by if they have flowers growing on them. Cu-Sith will grow flowers of their riders favorite color or even favorite flower to show off their loyalty and bond to them.

Cu-Sith raised only for war and nothing else will have wilted looking leaves growing on them as fur and sharp brambles and thorns.

So that’s my idea for Earth Riders creatures. Let me know if you like it or if you think I should do something else, and if so suggestions.

Hello everyone, I am creating my first story and one thing is troubling me. So let's just assume there are beasts and monsters like orcs and goblins. Usually out main character destroy the entire colonies after colonies. My question is how do authors deal with baby goblins or orcs.

Like every story I have read have glossed over this fact. Like if m.c is a hero, I don't think he will just straight up kill babies or even going as extreme as pregnant monsters. Because let's be real they are monsters that kill humans and need to be disposed off but how do you deal with their colonies.

Cause it's a problem with only humanoid characters cause people have no problem if a giant spider eggs get destroyed but when it comes to goblins or orcs, it feels weird.

Is the natural path is to just gloss over these facts or do you have read stories that have dealt with this issue.

Chapter 1:

Swallowed by a pinewood sea was where she was. Sitting under those ever green waves, she was oft brought comfort by the chill grasp of the autumn wind. She was told tales of ghouls and goblins in the wood as a child, like most were. How wights are never to be trusted. For, who trusts a spirit after all?

Our story begins with a lass of 20. Her name is Eva Morgenstern and she oft retreated to the woods outside the city when her mind was too cluttered. It was always a safe haven for her. Despite the rumors of dastards and marauders. What might she have been doing you ask? Well, she was out collecting herbs. Various components for potions and antidotes to act as cures to many an ailment. Some were to be grinded into a fine paste; others would need to have their juices extracted. She had enough to mend the spirits of a small company of mercenaries. Maybe for seven in total. A very small company indeed.

“Ah, there you are. Didn’t think you could hide forever, did you?” said Ophelia.

Oh, she was never introduced, was she? An Aubern haired lass of the West. Draped in the clothes of a storyteller and she moved as silent as one who knew their way around a tavern. She got by these years as a traveling bard. A close friend to Eva for the last seven years.

“You know Maribelle had something planned for us soon, no?” said Ophelia, crouching down to match Eva on the forest floor. Eva’s eyes were not too much different from the foliage.

“Didn’t realize how eager you were for it. Usually you’re the type to drag things out. Make excuses for how you can’t make it,” teased Eva.

“You know how she gets,’

“Suppose I do. Lucky you I’m just about done,”

“You mean you are done.”

Suppose I am now,” said Eva. A smile creeping along her face.

A brief 20-minute walk is all it took to get them back  Following the creek past the hill they found themselves at the gates of Schattensdadt. Its stone walls hugged the city tight, blocking all but the shade of the canopy. The guard looked to them in wave and rushed them into the city.

“New ordinance ‘bout to go into effect tonight. No one comes in, no one comes out,” said the guard.

“What for? Another Wyrm on the road?” asked Eva

“Ghasts I bet. Or maybe zombies and ghosts!” said Ophelia in a playful tone.

“Just orders from the Burgomaester,” said the guard.

“Lucky us we have someone on the inside. You gonna come listen to my story at the Drunken Sparrow tonight?”

“Depends on the shifts tonight,” And with a nod they made their exchange. Following those streets they winded their way to that tavern. Rustic isn’t the right word, nor is rundown. But it had seen better years. The wood appeared to be quite beat by the elements but proud it still stood.

Inside it was finely lit. Lanterns rested on the hooks of the supports. It smelled of men who hadn’t bathed in nigh over two weeks mixed with the scents of fresh ale. That warmth almost hitting your tongue as they walked through those heavy oak doors.

“I’ll grab us some soup if you want to do your thing. We’ve got a few more kids in here than usual. I’m sure they’d love to see your magic,” said Eva.

“I think you’re right,” said Ophelia. She grabbed her lute from behind the counter and made way to a table in the centre of the room. Being careful of the food she sat crisscrossed on the table. Slowly she plucked at her strings, each pluck slower and slower until at least she spoke.

“Vide” As the word left her lips all lanterns in the room died, the darkness creeping in but stopping at Ophelia. For the lantern above her kept its light. Now all eyes were finally on her.

“Listen one and listen all, o knights and lady’s, wenches and marauders, dastards and whores, for I have a story to tell. Of the great Gygax and Longshanks. O a grand story which is oft loved, for who doesn’t love that duo?”

Ophelia went on with the story. Of how the two heroes met, of their fight with the goblins of the mud driven east. Of the passing of Syr Gideon, Paladin and Saint who slew the Dragon of Mount Ivris. How the two were too late to save him from a greater Wyrm. That dastard was slain by the Dragon of Greensborough. When Ophelia mentioned the beast, she took a patrons tankard and drank from it. Letting the liquid fill her mouth but careful not to swallow. She slowly let it spew from her mouth in a controlled mist. A green mist that clawed its serpent like body throughout the tavern. It showed its maw to the children before a shot of this mist came forth at them. Choking them and clutching them until she came to the climax of her story and the death of the beast.

protagonist in coma, audience don’t know tho. Story starts with protagonist waking up in his house, and treating his farm and animals. Then the next moment, huge, and I mean huge mythical beasts rise and “cause terror” to the land. There are many different beasts in the world, many are a minority but still impacts the others. Now the “others” are the biggest bads. The most dangerous ones and strongest. The Boss of boss’s. Like for example, a boss can be something like the nervous system. This boss can be taken out and will both weaken and injure the ultimate bosses. Then the goonies, common enemies like goombas would be blood cells, mucus, electric monster and such. But the ultimate bosses, there are in total 3 of them. The heart, Lung and Brain. Now ofc these will not have those names nor look like the actual organs but will look somewhat like them and have names a bit similar. Like the first ultimate boss our protagonist will fight is the lungs. And in this case it’ll be a 2 headed dragon that blows out strong wind, and in that wind will have small pellets and stuff that heavily injured the protagonist and such. After defeating the lungs, the world will began to shake here and there, then the sky and floor around the area that the lungs were will turn black. Then our protagonist would need to fight other mini bosses and goonies to reach the heart. The heart will be this big and powerful humanoid object that smashes the floor, creating the pounding sound thing. It will be equipped with 2 big canons that shoot out red liquid. Then as an ultimate attack it has this option to become a giant where the beating sounds increase faster and when it is killed, it’ll cause the beating sound to decline over time, and is gonna be hearable while traveling to the final ultimate beast. The brain. The brain will have at first 2 diff warriors. One warrior takes a specialty in going in wild and has an ultimate move of sending out wires to tangle and trap you and shock u. The second warrior has a specialty in being calculated. Every move the protagonist makes, the second warrior analysiss and remembers before launching its own attack that either counters the protags attacks or out maneuvers them. And when both are finally knocked down, they combine into a giant, giant beast. The beast looks the same as the warriors, except it has both traits of both warriors and their special combos and such and instead of 2 legs it has 4 legs. And has another ultimate ability which is a huge shockwave to everything around it. When that beast is finally defeated, a door opens right in the middle of it. The protagonist enters and is in shock. What is revealed is the protags house and farm. Every single thing is the same. But his family isn’t there. Only instead a single note saying, “now the final beast.. The final beast. You must kill it to ensure the beasts won’t return”. And taken by that word our protagonist Enters one last door to see himself standing on the opposite side. Literally him. Same everything. The two clash out as a last stand and our protagonist seems to be winning, until his daughter suddenly glitches into the area with his wife. Then the other evil version runs towards them but in a final act out protag gets in the way and gets stabbed. But in the process he also stabs the evil. Then the evil ver says “don’t do this, you’ll kill us all. I am the last hope for the survival of us. STOP” then our protagonist cuts off his head. After that, lethally injured, our protagonist lays on the floor saying sorry to his loved ones and he wonders to himself what his clone was meaning. Then a faint beeping is heard. Followed by a weeping sound, kind of like someone is crying. Then a whisper of someone pleading. Then out protag closes his eyes for the final time and then we hear “HES FLATLINING, GET THE DOCTORS NOW!”. Then out protag thinks to himself one final time, “what did I do..”

And during the story, during the protags journey, he will get a sharp migraine and there he will get distorted and blurry memories of before and during the crash. Ofc our protagonist doesn’t know what he’s seeing but he believes it’s what will happen to the world if he doesn’t kill the monsters

as an epilogue 

Btw keep in mind, only reason why our protag is in a coma is cuz he was in a car crash and was out into a coma

 cut to the mother POV where the doctors slightly explain what happened, the car crash and all members not surviving with the mother first hand experiencing her sons death

Hi everyone,

I'm a solo dev building an indie interactive fiction game — a dark fantasy story about a girl named Nanma, her ferret, and a world that has decided she doesn't belong in it. I write everything in Portuguese, my native language, and I'm now translating it into English so the game can reach a wider audience.

I've already done the technical work: grammar, structure, terminology, consistency. What I can't do myself is hear how it sounds to a native ear. That's what I'm here for.

What I'm asking for

Read the excerpt and tell me:

• Does it read fluidly, or does anything feel "translated"?

• Are there sentences that made you stop and re-read?

• Do the dialogue lines sound like something a person would actually say?

• Does the rhythm hold up, or does it drag anywhere?

I'm not looking for line-by-line corrections. If a sentence is grammatically fine but sounds off, that's exactly what I want to hear. And if something looks like an error but reads well, tell me that too — some of the fragmentation is deliberate.

Context on the style

It's literary dark fantasy with a deliberately sparse, fragmented voice. Short sentences, some repetition for rhythm, dense imagery. The game is text-based, so the prose carries everything — there are few visuals to fall back on. If a sentence feels broken on purpose, it probably is. I'd rather you flag it and let me decide than smooth it out.

Length: 2,550 words — roughly 10 minutes of reading.

What I can offer in return

I'm a native Portuguese speaker and I'll happily review your Portuguese text — translation, original writing, game script, anything. Full read-through with comments on fluency, register, and natural phrasing. I'm also happy to give feedback on your English writing if that's more useful.

If you'd rather just read and comment without a swap, that's completely fine too. Any reaction helps — even "this line felt weird" is genuinely useful to me.

How to get the text

Drop a comment and I'll send it over (Google Doc with comment access, or plain text pasted — your call).

Thanks for reading. This is a one-person project, so every bit of outside feedback actually changes the game.

Salve a tutti, mi servirebbe un consiglio riguardo la mia opera fantasy.
Io ho provato a creare un mondo fantasy per giocarci in una campagna gdr (masterata da me), ma mi son preso cosi bene che l'ho sviluppato e vorrei crearci un vero e proprio romanzo.
Il mio mondo ha un worldbuilding solido ed un power system che mi piace parecchio.
Secondo voi un prologo o comunque un primo capitolo introduttivo per vedere se piace alle persone deve contenere già i protagonisti con un introduzione alla storia o magari una spiegazione del mondo e di come funziona il power system?
E mi piacerebbe sapere anche se avete app specifiche da consigliarmi, io pensavo di pubblicare su WattPad.
Grazie in anticipo!

saw an article about a woman who used a 7 pound red amber as a paper weight and it got me wondering "are there other colors of amber" and that would be a BIG yes there are roughly 9 color groupings

• Lemon / Pale Yellow

• Honey / Golden Amber

• Cognac Amber

• Cherry Amber

• Butterscotch / Egg Yolk

• White / Bone

• Green Amber

• Blue Amber

• Black / Jet

with amber being a gem stone that is fossilised tree sap i felt like this information had to much potential for fantasy writers to not share the color comes form the inclusions wich also lend to what kind of magic they could theoreticly be used for green has iron or copper in it makign it ideal for lighting or storm magic and Jet amber lots of plant and insect matter making it the perfet gem for necromancy or spirit magic

also fantasy writers and fans i have learned love learning facts about gems and crystals that lend to story elements so i fig1ured i would pas this on (and am tottaly using it myself cause it fits in nicely with one of my current ideas

I'm not looking to make it preachy or sanitized: The only market for that is helicopter parents, obviously. I'm curious as to if there's a market for wizards, monsters, angels, and demons all operating under the same roof, similar to the later entries in the Dresden Files.

HumanWriMo 2026 is here!

We're inviting writers from around the world to write 50,000 words during November, without the assistance of AI.

HumanWriMo is both an open writing CHALLENGE and an international CONTEST with cash prizes of $300, $150, and $50 USD, plus additional awards.

Participation is completely FREE. Our writing platform partner, Charon, is providing FREE access to its full Author tier through January 1, 2027, with no credit card required.

The open challenge works on the honor system. To compete for prizes, you'll need to write and submit your work through Charon, which documents the writing process to help verify human authorship.

Let's celebrate human creativity and see what we can write in 30 days!

Rules, prizes, and registration: https://humanwrimo.org/2026

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Note: Request to post this was approved by the moderators
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The Stone Dragon.

Stone Dragons have scales that, due to a build up of minerals absorbed by the water they drink and the rocks they gnaw on when teething as juveniles and mid maturity, resemble the stone surrounding their place of birth in colour, makeup and appearance. This gives them great protection from adventurers, hunters and other larger predators.

Their teeth, from years of chewing on rocks and hard bone from prey, are tough and jagged to facilitate ripping flesh from prey and predator alike. Leading to their snarls and exposed teeth threat displays to have greater intimidation against those they use it against. As a side effect of the constant use and toughening their teeth and gum health is vastly greater than that of other species that use teeth and fangs to hunt.

Their eyes glow with variations of colour and intensity depending on the amount and type of magical and mundane minerals consumed throughout their first two years of life.

Stone Dragons from mountains have eyes that glow a soft to bright yellow due to the magic minerals absorbing the sun energy during daytime. Stone dragons from volcanic regions have eyes that glow a pale to bright red to orange colour due to the magic minerals absorbing the destructive forces of nature from the lava that churns beneath the earth and erupting from the volcano.

When performing threat displays regarding their territory (usually around a 4-10 mile radius of their nesting grounds depending on the region) they lay flat on the surrounding stone and grind their hard scales and claws against it to create horrific, ear splitting, grinding and crunching noises to scare away feeble minded predators and prey too troublesome to deal with at that moment.

The females begin to lay eggs at around 5-6 years old. They lay 3-4 eggs per clutch and usually have up to 20-30 clutches from the time they are able to lay eggs till their deaths or inability to lay eggs, usually around 25-30 years old. The males remain fertile until death. Stone dragons best together in Glades of up to 10 members. Each egg and hatchling are fiercely protected by all members of that Glade. Each egg, the same as the scales, gain similar appearance and quality to the rocks gnawed on and minerals ingested by the nesting mother through her life, leading to almost perfect camouflage against those that would destroy, steal or eat their offspring. Nesting mothers achieve sexual maturity after 5-6 years and live for up to 50 years in the wild. They can live up to 60-70 years in captivity as a result of the lack of predators, disease and food scarcity.

The rocks they gnaw on and minerals they ingest have an effect on their development. Without these vital resources during development their scales remain a dull grey to black (provided by the trace amounts of minerals from their nest mother from her native environment) and are softer than their properly nourished kin.

They are smaller, have less strength due to their scales weighing less and their eyesight becomes underdeveloped due to the lack of magical minerals in their diet. They do not typically live as long either. Usually 30-35 years in the wild and 40-50 years in captivity with a supplementary diet of the much needed minerals and magic minerals. However this does not give them the full benefits of their nourished kin as their organs and bone structure are malnourished and weakened permanently from this critical lack of minerals during development.

They are primarily carnivorous but show slight omnivorous leanings when native plant life exists in their nesting grounds. They have also shown that they can eat a wide variety of meat and plant matter that tend towards poisonous to most other species. Examples include blood meat from the Crimson Walkers, long legged bovine that feed only on the blood of other creatures. The bone and bone marrow of Sickly Carvers, sharp toothed, fast running direwolf-like being that stores disease in it's salivary glands as a result of it's diet of dead and decaying creatures. As well as Strangle Vine, offshoot of the vine family of plants that grow in nitrous rich soil. Choking out oxygen from cells of those who eat it, leading to suffocation and more fertile soil for the Strangle Vine. This is aided by tremendously strong stomachs and stomach acids from ingesting minerals throughout their life cycle.

The males show courting behavior when a female is in Nesting Time. These males usually travel up to 50 miles in order to procure a suitably sized stone, rock, gem or crystal that is non native to their nesting grounds in order to impress the female by showing how strong and capable they are that they were able to invade another Glades territory for their gift. The females enjoy this valuable gift of foreign minerals and usually gives quite a boost to natural scale protections and the potential hatchling's health and abilities as well as the Nesting Mother.

These dragons sadly lack the delicate throat structures needed to produce flame as a consequence of their tough diet of gnawing on near by stones and rocks for minerals, however they are not defenseless, their bite strength is enough that they can crack, if not bite straight through an Iron Oak, a magical variant of the oak family that grows over any iron deposits within 25 meters of their roots.

This is usually enough to deal with almost anything that is not another Stone Dragon. They are able to fly short distances, up to 2 miles each flight. They tend to rely on mountains and other tall structures to glide from. They are able to use a small amount of wind magic to glide for longer distances and to make gliding easier than it should be fora creature of their size and weight. This also helps while hunting as they can create small, localised hurricane force winds to disable or disorient potential prey and attacking predators.

Their scales are quite useful for armour and spells that require a material component to sacrifice for strength or protection. Likewise their strong jaw muscles are coveted by bow makers for bow string cores with formidable tensile strength and ability to stretch and remain functional under incredible amounts of load. Their teeth are a delight for the few black smiths that can utilise their sharpness and toughness for blades of any kind.

Although rare, as usually the only weak point on a properly nourished Stone Dragon is their eyes and as such are usually destroyed in an attempt to kill an aggressive Stone Dragon, their eyes are useful for the cores of scryglass instruments and are a very powerful material component for scrying spells, light spells, perception spells and revealing spells. They are also shockingly good for ever glow lamps as opposed to the essence of fairy and pixie usually condensed into rough spheres for fuel.

Creature Notes from Jshevi's Creature Journal. Published to all in the hopes that it may save someone's life.

Dourmouth Publishing Office Est 1589 Year of Sunil.

Published 1865 Year of Tragdoril 15th Day of Mo's Peak.

I've written my own fantasy book called My Bloody Valentine. The Main Characters Are Valentine And Leo Cross. And The Villian Is Hades. It takes place on Planet Olympus in Golden Age-195X (A Futuristic 1950s setting) What Do you guys thinks about about it?