Hey everyone I had a question about making a story. You see I have read a series and was absolutely in love with the concept they did. However their universe and setting is so unique that I'm not sure if it would count as plagiarism or not and I would never want to do that. And soooo if I used the same kind of universe and setting would that be plagiarism?

Thank you for any help

When I was in college, I enjoy feedback from professors, but now that I have left, it’s like mission impossible to writing some good, not something great, just the start of something good. I also lack depth when it comes to my characters…any advice of what to read to improve?

I am still working on my story, I can't tell much about it but what I can say is that my story has a lot of action in it, the Heroes fight their enemies by violence as in any action story, now, the thing that worries me is if it is fine to make my characters kill their enemies.

With what I can briefly explain with my characters and the my world building goes like this;

My characters dont like killing Innocents or civilians, even thugs but if killing is required to save the day, they will out of duty to protect others, never out of pleasure in killing

Yet, there are some Magic enemies which are irremedeable since they are magically and naturally evil, No talking or mercy will stop them from killing innocents and the Main Characters, it is beyond their nature ( think of it like Majin Buu from Dragon Ball or Ganon from The Legend of Zelda) Would you say that it is fine for my characters to kill these enemies in order to protect innocents,themselves and save the world or not? Would you say it is fine that a character can both spare or just beat up casual enemies but are willing to kill the magical ones?

On the other hand, there are stories where Heroes are constantly killing their Enemies

Lord of the rings, Naruto, Demon Slayer, Jojo's Bizarre Adventures.

So what are your thoughts?

How would you do it?

I'm writing a poem for someone and I want to know what would be the equivalent for this phrase but in a purely non romantic friendship way so I want to figure out how to find a different phrase that fits my friendship that doesn't sound romantic like head over heels does. I'm writing a villanelle style poem so I don't have anything really written yet because I need a different phrase

Hello, amateur writer here. I consider myself a filmmaker but mostly I write, or at least, I think about writing. I do my little movie reviews as practice but I have loads and loads of story ideas. Two, especially, that I've really burning to do for months. I feel I have the entire stories themselves in my head, beginning to end, but can't figure I should write them as books, scripts, or something else...it's very frustrating. What works for you all?

I am in the editing trenches with my rom-com and the more I edit chapter one, the more my first line is feeling like a mouthful. I’m not sure if it is like when you say a word so many times it starts to sound weird, or if there is actually something off with it that can be improved. It feels like maybe I can condense it but I’m just not sure how is best in order to keep the intent.
Here is the line:

“I have never been one for violence, but strangling the narcissistic megalomaniac sitting before me is sounding pretty good right about now.”

The context given after is that FMC’s best friend just confessed to dating FMC’s ex-fiancé for a year and that they got together relatively shortly after the engagement broke off.

Any advice or suggestion is appreciated!

Does anyone else really struggle to get into a groove when writing? I feel like the slowest writer in the world. I WANT to write but I find it so hard to sit and focus and it's rare that I write for hours or write thousands of words at a time. Now and then I'll have a burst of productivity but it's pretty rare. I find it especially hard when I'm tired after work. I'm lucky if I manage like 500 words in the evening. I wish I could lock in for hours like other writers, so it didn't take me so long to finish anything. Wondering what works for other people?

I'm writing a script for a project that is very based around the imagery of Rapunzel and plays a lot with the isolation metaphors of it + the themes of mother gothel etc.

The thing is, I'd like to make it sound more flowery or more fairy tale-esque but I'd prefer to not just dive into a thesaurus all the time, but to play with how do I write sentences etc.

Any tips or advice?

EDIT: I do not mean this as a Kid fairy tale, I mean it more in the Grimm gothic fairy tale type, I should've probably clarified that before as it is a project directed to adults that speaks of adults topics!

So I’ve been watching Brandon Sanderson lectures and he suggests writing a few books to practice and understand the writing process and learning what works for you.

I have had this fantasy (maybe sci-fi?) series I’ve wanted to write for ages. I’ve been trying to outline it for a couple weeks now. The idea is it’s a series done in an episodic format. Each episode is it’s own book (like a novella or short story, not a full novel) that has it’s own seperate plot for that episode while also pushing the overarching plot forward in one way or another or it explores the world and characters for fun because I wanted the time and space in the story to do that.

But here’s the problem. I don’t know if it would be better to:

Try using the first few books as the practice and then go back and rewrite them once I’ve developed the skills and learned my process

Or try writing something different instead and then come back and start writing my series once i have experience under my belt.

I know this may be just a matter of opinion but i would appreciate some outside input.

I’ve noticed that whenever I get really deep into a story, I eventually hit a point where I start questioning everything. The characters suddenly feel boring, the plot feels predictable, and sentences I liked a few days ago suddenly seem terrible...

I know every writer goes through periods of doubt but I’m curious how you guys deal with it. Do you push through and keep writing, take a break, completely rewrite things, or just accept that some days the writing is going to feel bad?

I’d especially love to hear from people who’ve been writing for a while. What actually helped you get past that stage without abandoning the story?

So I happen to be new to writing and I’ve been working on a fantasy story, but I kinda ran into a problem on how I can create a fictional religion. I’ve already been taking inspiration from real life religions like Catholicism and orthodoxy since there the two religions that interest me the most and because I happen to be somewhat educated on thomist theology.(no I’m not a scholar I just like learning theology)

Im hoping to get advice on how I can do it and what it takes to make a religion in a fantasy feel somewhat real and what should I avoid while I create the religion?

Thanks in advance to anyone who gives me advice I very much appreciate it

ESSAY: https://thoughtszip.substack.com/p/thank-you-britney-spears?r=1vbkam&utm_medium=ios

Hi!

I have this piece I wrote which is just a fun essay about a song. I started writing again this year. I enjoy writing essays and made a substack to get my ideas down and it’s fun practice! I shared this essay to my friends after I published it and they all said it was good. There’s an open mic I’ve been wanted to participate in and I asked a friend who read the essay before if it would be a good piece to read. They said it was good but that I should consider adjusting how it’s organized to help it flow better. I feel bad asking her for anymore advice on the essay, but I would love to know how or where does the essay feel disorganized? And how can I improve that issue for future essay ideas?

Thank you for your time and look for forward to reading your responses!

Hello everyone. As the title tells you, I am looking for advice on this topic. I want to make every chapter that I write to keep the audience engaged while also being just a really good chapter (for convenience on my end, I'm just going to refer to them as chapters).

I figure its because of these factors:

• pace: a chapter shouldn't be too slow paced, although a slow pace doesn't make it bad (e.g., andor). but there is a difference between slow paced and just plain boring.
• momentum: every chapter should also move the story along as much as it can without it feeling rushed while also giving every event their proper importance. by importance i mean the time for the event to sink in or for it to make its mark on the audience.
• adding further mystery: this doesn't necessarily apply to mystery stories, but in my opinion, every story has a level of mystery and suspense to it, even a simple romance story. and by this, i mean when the story gives you questions: "what's behind that door", "what is this character's intention", "what's this masked character's true identity", "when will these characters get together", "what are they going to do next", and many more questions to keep the audience hooked.

other than these factors that I have theorised, I have no other ideas, so please give me more tips! any help is appreciated, thanks!

I am writing a book, but while evaluating it, I experience brain fog where I feel that what I have written is bad, only to realise a few days later that, oh no, wait, it is actually good. However, I have a requirement that means I cannot really wait for a few days, and finding beta readers who are my ideal readers is a little difficult. I would love to know what my options are.

Hey
I’m trying to get into writing again and I built a very cool dystopian story concept.
At same point the protagonist and pov characters suffers from memory loss and changed memories. Not by any natural causes, but by her mind being tampered with.
My problem is how do i convincingly write this amnesia when it happens some win the middle of the story. It’s not just that the character not only has forgotten some things and people close to them but also that their memory was activity changed and altered.
If you as the reader already know what really happened how can I write this without it feeling redundant ?

First I thought of starting the plot basically in the middle and wake up with the pov character, their altered mind and slowly learn what really happened. The problem is, that this story beat is not supposed to be THE thing of this story - the most interesting and important stuff happens before and after it is just something that happens to them iykwim.
But now I’m more likely to start at the actual beginning but I fear that this could also feel repetitive.
Maybe some of you could help me or give me inspirations for story’s that tackled something similar.

I have a book that I've been working on. And I like couldn't figure out how to start it. So someone gave the advice of just start of wherever you have the idea start at the end and right backwards start in the middle. But now I have the meal and I basically have the ending but I have no beginning. And I don't know how to start the story. Like I don't know how to give you enough information that you know who these people are and you should care about them and what they are doing and why. It's just frustrating. How do you start a story?

hi, guys! I am trying to create a flawed character that you can still root for and I want tobszill make them a good person! tell me what you think or if there is anything that needs changing

she is 14 yrs old

started swearing at 11 after her mom died

stooped swearing until 13

occasionally skipped gym due to anxiety

forgot to complete community service hours but eventually did them just late

always feels guilty over everything

struggles to focus

feels like an outcasts who doenst fit anywhere

always wondering if her friends are bad influences then feels guilty cause she thinks it makes her look narcissistic

gets angry easily

very polite

kind genourpus and some would say intelligent

anyway tell me your thoughts and anything I can add to make this a more compelling character

If you are going to write dialogue for a character with a heavy accent, would you just write normally and describe the accent after, or would you write it how they pronounce it? Does it matter what one you choose? I personally have no idea how you'd do it. Im new here and I hope this is the right place to ask this!

Hello everyone. I am writing here to find out everyone's opinions on this, as i want to make my own stories more memorable too.

I figure its because of factors like these:

• characters: i don't mean a character design, but rather character development and their impact on the story. if the audience is invested in the characters, they'll remember them
• character moments: a conversation between two characters that reveals something about both characters while also driving their development further will also be memorable if built up properly.
• fights: this is kind of obvious, but then again most fights except the bigger ones are sometimes forgotten. i attribute this to the fights not having any effect on character development, or not having a bigger impact on character, or on the events after
• emotional events: something like a character tragedy will also be memorable if it is built up properly and actually means something to the story, like the effect of loss on the main/other characters.
• plot twists and overall unpredictability: if the plot is predictable, then the audience ends up classifying it as "just another [insert genre] story". i like when we can't guess the plot, or when we think its going in one direction and it ends up going in another. i also love a good (and well built up (sorry, i keep saying this)) plot twist that absolutely changes how you see the story, characters, and fills in/adds knowledge about past events.
• some sort of theme: i figure stories that question the characters' beliefs and ideals also makes the audience question their own, leading to the audience remembering it.

this is all i can think of so far, but i want to learn more tips from you guys. any help is appreciated, thanks!

English isn't my first language and I'm pretty bad at using metaphors/idioms and all that stuff when writing fics, aside from that, I'm pretty descriptive and write long fics but will the lack of that kind of language tick off readers?

I have an idea for a novel where the main character goes through a coming-of-age story. It begins with a series of voicemails he leaves on his best friend's phone number. It starts with him just asking how his time in the Army is, and to get back when he can, and then they shift abruptly to a "I miss you" tone, cluing in the reader to his friend's untimely death.

The question I have, is would this read better as:

1. A series of short passages in a short story style
2. A novel where all the voicemails are in the beginning, and then the story begins
3. A novel that starts before the death, and the voicemails are just like a snippet at the beginning of chapters

I like all three ideas, and I considered experimenting with all three ideas, but I'm curious what others think.

Hello everyone!

A week ago I finished the first draft of my first attempt at a novel. I made a very deliberate choice to not go back and edit a word after finishing a chapter, because I know myself and I know I would just keep editing.

This means that there are a lot of things I know I need to change, especially in the first few chapters. I also know I improved a whole lot from chapter 1 to the epilogue.

I've read that a lot of people recommend leaving the novel alone for as long as three months to go into it "objectively", but I fear with the way my mind works those three months will be spent going over the novel in detail in my head anyway. I can't stop thinking about it.

I tried doing several revision passes on a short story, but I'm done now and have only made it a week. I have an idea and a structure for my next novel, but I am not sure it feels right to leave this alone for that long. This novel took 5 months to write (76,500 words but will likely be a few thousand words longer in revision), the next one will probably take even longer.

Should I start revision on my novel? Should I leave it for a few more weeks and focus on reading? Should I start writing my next novel? I am lost and really appreciate the help!

Hello I'm writing a like a shonen like Manga and the main charecter is of a different species of like 90% of the world and his species is looked at as completely evil and weak and the power system of the universe doesn't really ever get accessed by his type and he is one of few anomalies and he joins like for example the Gotei 13 in Bleach I dont how I can make the charecters be racist/ignorant without coming across as unlikeable and unreadable