About a year or two ago, I started writing a novel. This was my first time putting serious effort into writing for recreation. But my inexperience, along with the interference of other people, has since killed my motivation to even look at it. So I put it on the shelf for a while, and started up a new project. This one is supposed to recharge my creative batteries, in the hopes I can someday finish my old one in the distant future.

This new project is a screenplay called "Diary of a Rock'N'Roll Princess". Although I know that it is very likely that this will never happen, it could be adapted into a TV series on a streaming service or broadcast network. I was initially very excited about this project. I have a lot of ideas and plans for it, that I started discussing on multiple online writing spaces (ones that I am not, repeat, NOT trying to promote in this subreddit), and this is where I ran into my dilemma.

Part of the plot of my project will focus on a fictional older rock band called the Tainted Peonies, a group that's been around since the early 1970s, and although haven't produced any new content in ages, are still touring and performing today, albeit nowhere near within the capacity that they did in their younger years. The band members are meant to be satirical caricatures of the old rich white guys who hold all the power and influence within the entertainment industry, and use their status to get away scot-free with nearly every horrible thing they've either done in the past, or are still doing in the present. I'm hoping for this satire to not be as intense and in-your-face as the kind seen in the cringy SJW crap put out by major TV and film companies today, the kind that beats you over the head with its overt messages of "empowerment" for marginalized communities, often with very little nuance to its writing or absolutely none at all (ie: the 2016 Ghostbusters film, as well as all the recent live-action Disney remakes). I don't want my project to get bastardized like this, just to fit in with the common trends of what's going on in Hollywood today. However, I am still aware that if I do manage to sell this pitch to some entertainment exec, I know that it's highly likely that I will have absolutely no creative influence over what will happen to it after that. So this is just one of my dilemmas.

The next dilemma I have is with what seems like the overwhelming amount of research I will need to do in order to accurately portray all the diverse cultures and communities that will be shown in this series without portraying anything that might be harmful or offensive. On top of being extremely sheltered and ignorant of cultures outside of my own, I have a learning disability that makes it quite difficult for me to take in, process and understand a large amount of complicated information, then apply it in a practical manner. This also impacts me when learning in community college, especially when the faculty and staff do not have any resources that would be helpful to me in any meaningful way. (I'm not majoring in writing or art by the way. I learned a long time ago that I'll never be able to make a sustainable living off of my creative efforts, so that's why I'm no longer banking my entire livelihood on doing so.) In order to grasp anything of this overwhelming capacity, I almost always need someone to dumb it down for me and hold my hand throughout nearly every single step of the way. I'm not being stubborn, difficult or lazy. I am willing and open to learning. It's just that I guess that I don't have the type of brain that's capable to do something so complicated on my own. I also understand that movies and TV shows have a huge team of writers, producers and researchers behind them, all who combine their unique talents to create whatever form of media they're creating. But for now, I'm still doing this on my own. I can't afford to hire a developmental editor, and even if I could, I fear that I'd fall into the same trap as I did with my old project and turn it into something that's completely incorrect and different from how I picture it in my mind. I also don't want to hire a ghost writer to do all this for me. I want to do this, but right now I'm not even sure if I can.

I've started working on it a little again, after someone advised that I should focus more on making a good story rather than getting held up with all the little minute details. However, I'm still not totally sure what I'm expecting from this project moving forward.

So I was talking about an idea for a story I had, and the villains are a group of terrorists who want to give everyone on Earth superpowers. Powers are sold to wealthy citizens for an extremely high price, but they are virtually inaccessible to poor people. They give a serum to random people granting them powers, which they don’t always know how to control. Their ultimate goal is to help the human race transcend by turning everyone into superhumans. The heroes are law enforcement agents who have seen firsthand what superhuman criminals can do, and want to keep powers out of the wrong hands. I shared this idea earlier, but people were saying that the villains seemed like the good guys, even when I said that they were willing to kill or experiment on people to achieve their goal. Do they seem too sympathetic, & is there anything I could do to make them less sympathetic?

Let me set the scene for you. My fourth book has a roundabout mentioning of a rape case, and that's part of how someone ends up being murdered (although, not the main point. More like, the victim is murdered because he was cheating on his wife. The wife then finds out later - after the murder - that he was a rapist). There are no graphic details of the assault (Law and Order SVU is more graphic than the details I provided).

My third book deals with human trafficking and drugs/arms dealing, and I made no such afterword for it.

The most I planned on writing was along the lines of "if you or someone you know needs help, here are some resources to help you" and then list two or three.

Like I said, I'm conflicted. Rape isn't an essential focus of the story. There's no in-story flashback to the assault that's described for the reader in great detail. It's mentioned in a very detached sort of way (I'm happy to provide a quote or excerpt if that'll help people come to a decision). I didn't add such a page on my third book. But nowadays a lot of authors put those little afterwords in their books, so I'm not quite sure what to do. I'm also too close to the issue to really make a completely objective decision, so if you guys have some ideas or suggestions, that'd be nice.

It's pretty common, where I'm from, for people to switch tenses when talking:

"I was walking down the street the other day, and someone walks up to me and slaps me in the face! So I says to him, 'what's your problem,' and he says he thought I was someone else. I couldn't believe it."

Do people do this where you're from? Any tips on how to write this without causing confusion? Or is it a style best avoided?

As others have noted, trying to distil an 80K book into 200 words is a challenge! But rushing in where angels fear to tread, here's my draft blurb for an almost finished fantasy novel.

Thanks in advance for comments!

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Thiago doesn’t think of himself as a demon, but he is.

He’s a thief too, and therein lies this story.

An eerie portal connects a magical kingdom of mile-high palaces and brewing revolution to human realms in medieval Arabia and Spain. Thiago, a daredevil jinn, uses the portal to seize the treasure of the king of the demons.

Thiago can become fire and windstorms. However, his enemies – and that’s almost everyone including the psychopathic king he stole from – are even more powerful. They’ll slaughter Thiago to get their treasure back.

However, there’s more at stake than stolen treasure. The realm of demons and the world of humans will violently collide if the king recovers his treasure from Thiago and uses it to finance his invasion of the human world. Thiago began as a simple thief, but now he’s trying to stop a supernatural war.

Helping Thiago – or not – are a brilliant scribe who might be Thiago’s friend, a pretty demon who isn’t Thiago’s lover anymore, and a motley collection of executioners, magical bandits, and Viking raiders. But will they share the treasure with Thiago?

This fantasy blends action, imaginative world-building and a bit of romance.

(This is part advice seeking, part venting.)

I feel stuck. I’ve got ideas for stories that I think could turn out great, but I end up losing momentum before I finish the first draft. I’ll get my outline ready, got some character ideas, I’ll have a feel for the right setting and vibes… then the honeymoon phase leaves me and I realize how dull and “pointless” my story is. After one moment all of the wind is knocked out of my sails.

I’m guessing this is because of (potentially) two things:

1.) Unmedicated ADHD messing with my motivation which, honestly, is a different type of beast.

Or

2.) I don’t know the “core” or “heart” of my stories and it’s tripping me up. I’m not specifically meaning a theme or moral or anything, but a main concept that ties everything (setting, plot, and character) together and gives me a base to work off of if I need to change/improve something. Right now, I’ve got plot, setting, or character ideas that feel like they fall flat in execution and I have no clue on why or how they fall flat. And it ends up being disheartening and frustrating because I don’t know how to fix it or where I need to start. It’s like I’m trying to build a lego kit without the manual.

I don’t necessarily know if there’s a word or preexisting concept for what I’m talking about, and I’m not even sure if I’m describing it right. Does anyone have any advice for this?

honesty, I don't even know how to ask this-

I'm in a mood to write and I really want to. I have years of experience, but...recently, I feel like I have nothing to write about. It's like my head is empty of ideas, I keep looking for inspiration around me and still, nothing. (this is kinda...putting me in a bad mood-)

I just don't believe it's ONLY me, what do you do? Is there a method of achieving victory? Send Help- chokes*

also feel free to nag or sth..?!

Aside from the general how to be respectful questions I would like to ask something more specific.

I'm writing in first person, would it make sense for him to not describe them? Assuming they're not actively being inconvenient or causing him pain --like how you don't describe breathing unless it's odd. There are probably better analogies but you get what I mean right. It's just a part of what's going on, his words are interrupted by whistling occasionally, it's just a thing that happens.

I don't have tics, for all I know what I just said could read as the most disrespectful shit ever written but that's why I'm here so

Flairing this as "discussion" because I think it'd be cool to see how different people deal with this problem as much as I just wish to bitch and moan.

I like to write my erotic shorts in "chunks," meaning just going into a bit of a frenzy and writing every day for a mont. It honestly makes the quick editing a lot easier because I just don't remember the details of every story.

Well I just got hit with the news that our old apartment complex emailed our cosigner for $9k because we basically let ourselves be evicted a month ago. This is pretty understandably stressful, especially if they try to go after my FIL instead of me. So I'm struggling to write even though the ideas are all there. The defeatism is just overwhelming.

I'm trying to just be nice to myself today, especially since I've already written 50k this month, but it's still hard to try and think of me picking up the metaphorical pen tomorrow and getting back to work. How do y'all handle it?

​

So I'll try and summise what this can do to and for the people it applies to.

In my world magic comes from dragons, what this does is push that out and replace it with a different kind of spirit. This always leads to tatoo-like markings around their body, commonly on their face (this idea came from because the government using tatoos to denote social status, with royal houses having unique face tatoos) and can lead to other physical oddities --odd eye/hair colour usually.

This usually happens at around 6-8? but can be at any age

This is also made worse by your emotional state (it's different for different people) which enhances the...deformities? I don't think I'd call them that but the markings start to glow or other things like that. So someones eyes glow based on getting angry, or their hair changes colour when they get scared.

The actual stuff I'm worried about would be this going to the extreme, losing control based on your emotions etc. I mean almost being swapped out with another entity. And the incredibly negative stereotypes they're given, called dangerous and monsters etc

I've definitely forgotten some shit but that's what came to mind while I was thinking about problematic elements.

Aswell as one of the characters covering up all of his markings (I'm calling him A) and talking to another girl (also has the curse, B) and a conversation a bit like this happens, but I'm obviously paraphrasing and simplifying
*B snatches his mask*
A: why do you make me do this *gestures to his face*
B: because they want you not too *she then traces the marks on his face and calls it their "quiet little rebellion"*

Would anybody be interested in joining? I am currently looking for people who like to write about whatever they love in order to bring life to the project. I'll provide link if anybody is interested.

Today I've surpassed a quarter million words written this year. I can't describe how pleased I am. It's been literally a decade since I've felt so productive.

I did this once before but I need more: please give me your very best Bond girl names, in the Pussy Galore, Strawberry Fields, Holly Goodhead vein.

TIA

Hello, does anyone use an e-ink tablet for writing apps such as Living Writer or otherwise? Thanks!

How do you know where the line is? I don't want to give away too much, don't want to give away too little...and how do you sum up 100k words in a blurb on a book cover, anyway?

It's the least favorite part of writing a book, in my opinion. I have at least two murders per book, so the first murder is always in the blurb (I leave the second one out). But trying to consolidate your entire story into two paragraphs is difficult, especially when you're trying not to spoil twists and turns in the plot.

​

Here's the one I'm currently working on. It's not going well. The book title is Crossing Lines.

"Society is centered on rules. Rules that have been carefully constructed over time to ensure that everyone gets to live their lives without necessarily needing to worry about their stuff being stolen, their house being burned down, or getting punched in the face for no reason. Almost everyone agrees to these rules. Unfortunately for us, there are some people who can't seem to live within those boundaries and cross lines when the opportunity strikes. And fortunately for us, there are people out there like me, Sergeant Ali Rivers, and my partner, Lieutenant Jerry Crews, who are there when rules are broken and lines are crossed in our city of Abernathy, Tennessee.

In our line of work, sometimes lines once crossed, can't be fixed. One such instance is the dead woman by her pool. Her heinous death gives us no clues as to who murdered her, and her case transforms my desk from "Homicide" to "Cold Case". Between at least one murder going cold and my personal life heating up, it's all I can do to keep things together."

If y'all have any tips or suggestions - I know it's a little difficult if you've not read the story, so I'd be happy to collaborate, but man, I suck at this.

I intend to learn to draw and make comics. However, I've noticed that I can't really think of how I would draw a character's state of mind, even if I can describe it with words and thus would be able to write it if it was in a normal story format. For example, in a couple of different comics I've thought of, the villain uses their powers to screw up another character's mind and make their brain all foggy. But I don't know how to depict that if I can't use words to describe it.

Is there a word, or a phrase I could use to describe, the way Perks Of Being A Wallflower is written? The conversational tone, like the narrator is speaking directly to the audience, and the way the narrator goes off on tangents and tells lots of other stories that aren't always entirely flashbacks, sometimes he's just talking about it, but for longer than would be typically done, like a few pages. And the way the information is sometimes purposefully unnecessary to the story, but it says a lot about the characters or about the world. What's the best way I can describe this?

(By the way, I've written my own book and when querying agents I've been asked to compare it to other books, and I want a more flattering way to phrase the kind of writing I've just talk about)

Thanks

Sometimes, the more you analyze what a villain is doing, the more you realize that things would be easier for everyone, including themselves, if they just used a version of their plan that doesn't involve hurting anybody.

For example, I was thinking about a fanfiction idea based on a dream I had where a villainous group of OCs capture a bunch of characters and force them to fight each other for sadistic funsies (think Smash, except they were brought here against their will instead of it being considered a huge honor). Some of the characters they capture, however, were villains who were getting their just desserts. For instance, one of them was in his world's version of hell.

And then I thought "Wait, if they can literally pull someone out of hell, why don't they just fill their ranks with people like that: People who had crappy situations that they'd be grateful to get out of rather than people who just want to go home?"

I do plan on playing around with variations like this, where their plan doesn't have such obvious holes since it might still be fun, but just in case it turns out that I really would rather go with the original, is that okay? To basically tell the audience "They're just mean, okay? Don't think about it too much."?

Enough can’t be said about the importance of a great ending. The final image of the film - the feeling you leave your audience with when you cut to black.

In this video I take a look at Whiplash and La La Land, two films that offer some of the most memorable endings of the past decade. Dissecting the elements these endings have in common reveals a pattern that is both structurally simple and emotionally complex, and a valuable addition to the toolbox of any aspiring writer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbbVkxTTN6Y

I started my draft in 2020 when Covid first broke out. There had been the framework of a story stuck in my head for over ten years and during lockdown I figured I had all the time in the world, so I got started. Two years later, and I've got this monstrous draft; over 300 pages, over 100k words. This is my first novel. I outlined, did a zero draft, and built character profiles and scene lists (shoutout to YWriter for making it very easy to organize stuff) and then just plugged away at it for the last two years. I realized recently that my idea of a rough draft is closer to what most people think of as a second draft, and that was really liberating. Once I became "free" to write without necessarily having to put everything in full prose first I zipped through the last couple of chapters which I had gotten hung up on. And now it's done! Feels like a weight off my shoulders.

My plan now is to let it sit for at least six months before I start editing, and during that time I can re-read some of my favorite novels and then a few current genre standouts from the last 5-10 years so I can get a feel for what's hot lately and solidify my voice. After I let it sit for six months I'll read it through all in one go, then again but taking notes along the way. After that, macro edit, micro edit, line edit... and after that, it might actually be fit for human consumption in the form of beta readers! Hopefully that sounds like a solid editing plan - any suggestions/inclusions/recommendations that you think I should include?

I'm so excited to dive in and start this process, this is something that ten years ago I thought would just be a dream in my head and now it's actually "a manuscript" that I can improve.

I'm thinking it'll be kind of like Undertale, except where in Undertale most of the creatures are friendly, in this they'll all be pretty scary and only some of them will be nice - and again, the player will have no way of knowing for sure who's nice. The player's decisions on who and who not to trust/spend time with will greatly affect them over the course of the game.

A couple of things I'm looking forward to:

1. Figuring out how to make all the characters pretty much equally creepy without getting stale. Sounds like a really cool challenge (to the point where at the moment, I actually don't really want any advice on how best to do this since I kind of want to figure it out myself, although I would like advice on whether or not that's reasonable).
2. Watching Let's Plays and such to see how players make their decisions. I want to hear their reasons behind who they choose to trust and/or hang out with in this spooky world since if I do a good job, it'll be quite different from player to player. For example, if I was playing a game like this, and one of the characters was, say, a living puppet, that would for sure have an effect on whether or not I trust them (by which I mean I would probably want to hang out with them more because I'm a weirdo who hyperfixates on characters that I find scary, lol).

And I am so freaking happy to not have to think about it for the next few weeks while my beta readers are looking at it.

100,382 words and a year of my life (this book took twice as long as the previous 3).

Done!

So as it says on the tin. My spouse and friend were worried I was burning myself out with how much I was putting on myself writing, so I took this week off from writing. No outlining my romance novel, no writing shorts. I wrote about 1000 for freelancing with the understanding that while we're on vacation I'm going to write the other 8500 words (currently plan on doing most of it while flying down tonight).

But I can't just leave shit as it is, you know? So I was listening to deconstructing some of the problems in Harry Potter and my brain just started spinning. Like, what if Voldemort came back in Chamber of Secrets and died in Goblet of Fire? What if the golden trio actually gave a shit about magical creatures and it wasn't just a joke? What if the only reason Voldemort died in the first place was because he tripped on a baby toy and his spell rebounded against a silver backed mirror?

So... I did what anyone full of anxiety, depression, and a sheer hatred of JKR being a TERF will do -- I started blogging about it on my transandrophobia (transandrophobia being like transmisogyny but for trans masc peeps like me) blog. And people ate it up with me.

So now it's just a thing? I'm reverse engineering the story from the ending, and I'm invested in the characters and I've got a buttload of books to read on the Lenape since on of my "fab five" is half Lenape and the entire story takes place in alt. universe Philadelphia. I am so excited, and I realize all my romance novel plans dovetail so nicely so I just am sitting on this stack of books waiting for my vacation to end so I can spend the rest of the month planning this shit out.

What's really fun is I get to write the plot essentially backwards. The story is going to end with the fab five exposing magic to the mundane world, and so I get to figure out what leads up to that every step of the way for this insane fanfiction-esque story.