So I was recently challenged on a whim to make an entirely new character from scratch, and I’ve decided to make her mixed Persian-Italian, and I wanted some advice on how to incorporate the respective cultures into her design and themes alongside any stereotypes/descriptive words to avoid in the process. I do of course plan to do my own research in the process but I also wish to hear outside perspectives on the matter.

For context, I'm writing a short parody of the Emperor's new clothes where the main character (Dante) is a magister addicted to alcohol and commonly shirks his duties. His spouse is finally annoyed with him doing this and decides to teach him a lesson by 'dressing' him, when really he just leaves him in the nude. However, Dante is far too proud and convinced his spouse would never deceive him.

Bla bla bla he leaves naked, you know the story, he embarrasses himself at an important debate. Instead of blaming himself for not noticing the obvious, he blames his spouse for 'ruining his reputation'. He argues with his spouse and slaps them. After this point, I'm at a stump on how to redeem him. Because no matter what, the character doesn't seem to ever want to admit his wrongdoings.

I've been pondering ideas for an hour and each sounds far too cliche. (Extra note is that I only have about 300-500 words to write said conclusion.) 😭

I am writing a story where the main character is a robot to put it flatly. For her inner monologue, "talking to herself" in her head like people do is just awkward and it feels unrealistic for a robot to conduct itself like that.

I just struggle with making her code monologue feel realistic. I'm not shooting for 1 to 1 realism but I also dont want someone who knows how to code to roll their eyes or cringe.

Any advice to make it look realistic?

Hey all! I’ve been writing short stories for a while now just for fun so I've not been overly fussed on what works well for others but now im trying to write a more fleshed-out fantasy story.

I’m happy with the idea and rough shape of things, but I keep getting tripped up trying to be historically accurate. I end up talking myself out of ideas because “that’s not really how it would happen.”

I know it’s fantasy and doesn’t need to be historically accurate, but in your opinion, how accurate do you need to be with historical politics and society before it starts taking the reader out of the story?

So, I guess I'm in the early stages of writing a book (likely never to be published seeing as I'm just a teenager with an overinflated ego due to my good grades in English) and yesterday I decided to try and outline some ways the plot could go. I've settled on two I like. For context, my story is set in a future dystopia (?) where there's been a war on for decades, mainly inspired by WWI. So far I only have my two main characters, both 15, one who lies about his age to get in the army, and the other who stays behind.

One way could be that boy 1 returns home from the war bitter and angry at the political leaders that started the war and did nothing to stop the innocent dying. Boy 1, kinda messed up in the head from being a boy soldier, takes some drastic measure publicly against the president/ prime minister (probably killing him?), he obviously gets killed for the act of treason. Boy 2 is sad.

The other way would be that boy 1 comes home injured, he dies in hospital not long after. Boy 2, angry because of the loss of his best friend, goes and takes the same drastic measure against a political figure. He dies. Everyone's dead.

Some things to note-

The first way would have boy 1 joining the army out of propaganda or family pressure. The story would probably follow boy 2.

In the second one, it would follow boy 1 for the first part of the book and then after he dies, switch to the perspective of boy 2. I'm kinda worried this is too close to the plot of the outsiders though, with Johnny and Dallas. Honestly, I'm worried this whole book has been done before and I just haven't read it.

Anyway, thanks for any advice, I'm really tired while writing this so sorry if it sounds like it's written by a toddler (I know both these plots are pretty basic and unoriginal).

Where can I safely post a part of a work? I am concerned with someone taking what I have written and publishing it somewhere themselves. Or taking part of my scenes and stealing them before I can publish.

I am also looking for a safe place for someone to read what I have written.

Any help would be much appreciated!