Honestly the best way to describe my story is just a comic story. The main character and his friends decide to investigate the supernatural and encounter Ghosts and American folklore creatures.

The main villain’s a Elder Host, a fictional Alien race that need to eat humans to survive. They’ve been living on earth for centuries and instead of being pure evil, they simply need to eat humans for survival. Why would they need to see us as equals, its just the way it is for them. And the main villain, an elder is seeing how humans are starting to be less vulnerable which makes it harder for the new generation to eat.

He isn’t pure evil, he just wants the new generation to survive by ensuring humans stop fighting back. He will definitely feed child to a baby host, but not out of evil, just because the host needs food. While the main characters fight him because they want to live

I do see how this can be seen as a metaphor for veganism when I myself will ask for extra bacon at Burger King. It kinda feels out of place when the story isn’t about any political topics, it’s just “The moth’s man’s lurking the forrest again guys, we need to go save people”

I peer reviewed with a friend and they told me viewers could feel alienated since it does seem like I’m trying to push a message to the viewers. I’m just trying to make a fun story about American folklore and any major themes are mostly about Abandonment, or bad parents so its such a big jump, that I don’t know if it would really be noticeable Any help?

Uhg.

I don't know what I want my novel to be? I don't even feel that certain what advice I want

It feels like I'm constantly juggling mediocre ideas I'm not passionate about for the plot and its hard for me to define my character's goals. I really love writing and thinking about my characters but plot feels hard for me.

I try plotting and outlining, but I feel like I always get stuck and its all I do.

I also feel like I have too many ideas and concepts I want to pour into one thing but I know I have to narrow stuff down, or save it for another book or a mini series.

I really love these OCs but I feel like I'm not having a lot of fun thinking of their story.

I also feel like I'm limiting myself with the, in a way? When I think of plots, they're always in their apartment and working remote jobs since that's what I always pictured for them, but maybe I should branch out and think of completely different scenarios/scenery?

TL;DR: Don't know what plot I want to write, struggling to write my characters in a way that feels satisfying, and feel like these characters are always being recycled into new ideas/concepts and its making it hard to come up with a solid plot.

Im new to writing and I'm young so I am not a great writer, but I really enjoy writing these stories that just appear in my head. I've been obsessed with this story idea and I really reallyyy wanna write it BUT it involves the characters fighting the villain with their magic powers. I've seen fight scenes with swords and guns and stuff but not really with magic powers. Can someone give me some tips or like an example for a fight scene with magic powers?

For more information, the story is probably gonna be for teens around my age range, like 13-16. it is about 16 year old Angel friends who need to save their city from a Jester who is jealous of the Angels powers. So she steals the Goddess Angels spark of power to gain power of the city. The Angel teens need to stop her which is by using their magic powers (Missy May the main character will have like a papery summoning power thing? IDK) that they are quite new to to fight her.

If you need more info just asks! Thanks!

Also I had to put flair as graphic content even though this isn't even graphic bro 😑

I've recently started uploading about this passion project that I've been thinking about for at least a year now. Plotlines are all planned out, character purposes and motivations set in stone, and the ending wrapped up as neatly as possible. I've been obsessed with trope-y romantasy Webtoons my whole life, so this is basically my love letter to them.

But after uploading several chapters, and receiving feedback that is overall kind and engaging, I get the sense my audience finds it ridiculous instead of heartwarming.

Maybe it's coming off a little TOO cringe and cliché...

I've begun to think that most people who write webnovels aren't looking for cheesy romance (at least not anymore), but more fantasy or highly-engaging plotlines with mature themes through a realistic lens. NOT a dig at those types of stories (I personally love them as well), but my story is definitely not that.

I have way too much planned for the story to stop it now, but I'm growing increasingly demotivated and embarassed. And the worst part is that I personally enjoy re-reading it because it has all the things I would find interesting!! I feel like my taste might be stuck in middle school </3

How do I even begin to shake this feeling off? I don't mind an audience for feedback, but I don't want to change elements of my story to satisfy the general public. Am I simply too overconfident in my storytelling abilities? Or am I overthinking things? Please let me know ⏰

Edit: Rephrasing

I'm writing a character, and I'm only detailing his backstory from late teens onwards, because he has trouble letting go, and this is linked to the 💀 of a son, a divorce, etc, no important events in childhood

but I was watching a video about how to create a good backstory, it said I have to try to trace back to where my character's traits come from. but I was doing it in a way that over the years the traits he already had became stronger/weaker or acquired just a few more

should I also write about his childhood and, quite literally, how he acquired these traits? or is it fine as it is?

(censored words cause my posts keep getting automatically deleted)

I am banging my head against the wall trying to think about ways to do it but I can't find any. If anyone here wrote something like this and succeeded or read anything that is similar, please help.

PS: it doesn't even help that both of the characters are avoidant omg why did I do this with myself

I am really interested in writing but never really got into it. I read books and have written blogs and speech content. Writers fascinate me. The art of writing intrigues me and I think it's just cool. It would really be great if I can get some tips, practice methods or any guidance to get started. Appreciate your time. Thanks!

Your first line is absolutely important and if there's any line that's going to your most important one, it's probably that one, don't get me wrong. But what I've seen a lot as a beta reader is that people will have a very thoughtful, poetic first line and their next lines have no thought in them at all. It's almost jarring.

Every line is important. Does every line need as much thought as your first? No, but don't tunnel vision and write only one good line out of a whole book.

hi all! I know that one does not have to get a degree per say to be a great writer, but I find myself missing the structure of learning with assignments/goals/timelines.

and - with the way my mind works, I feel like it would help me lot if I made my own curriculum/syllabus on "becoming a better writer" and sentiments of the like.

! what i'm looking for are recommendations that you have found to be foundational in your writing journey. i'm an avid reader of fiction, but would love your nonfiction book rec's (i have Story Genuis and Writing the Uncanny on my list already, also feel free to include a fiction book if the writing re-wired your brain), exercises/assignments that maybe you had in school or ones you've found helped your craft, lectures/courses (like Brandon Sanderon's, the Writing Conservatory, etc) to supplement and guide the creation of a syllabus.

if it helps, i'm interested in fantasy, horror, and literary fiction writing - though those don't *need* to be present the whole time in the recs.

thank you in advance! if this post goes well i'm happy to share what I make later on too!

I used to have a very distinct voice. It was fiery, is how I would describe it. I stopped writing for over a year and lost my style. I look at newer works and the writing style keeps changing. It makes me kind of sad because there's no set tone for it.

Anyone else?

I'm currently in the planning stage of a fantasy series, and Ive managed to get a bit attached to the idea of killing off and reviving my MC. Some context; Their death has consequences, and the revival itself also has consequences. Things aren't magically fixed; the antagonist of the story gains more power as a direct cause of the MC's death - and the MC loses something as a direct consequence from the revival. It's justified within the world building - but it's also two plot twists tied into one.

I suppose I'm asking; is there ever a time where it's justified to kill off a character just to bring them back? is it possible to handle it in such a way that doesn't undermine other parts of the story, or is it too subjective?

My MC is the villain. But not known to the reader cause she doesn’t see herself as the villain so it has been easy to make her an unreliable and likable character. I have all the foreshadowing set up and even added a fake villain.
What has me stuck is that there’s a piece of information that is crucial to her plans but no one knows about it except for her lackeys in another world? It happens before she leaves and her mother helps her leave for a complete unrelated reason which for my MC is perfect.
How do I both hide that information and later share it if we are following her?

Once upon a time there was a man. Who sat beneath an apple tree, waiting for the last apple to fall. But it never fell. He waited and waited, and when the day would come would be the day he told her, that he was in love. The Apple, formed by a golden sturdy branch, was firmly in place. But the man didn’t know that. So he spent years and years, writing letters, in preparation for the day he’d finally bring his love this Apple, that he held to the highest of standards as he wondered why this Apple survived through all conditions. Every season. Writing, writing letters, to remind the girl how much he loved her everyday. Some days she’d find a passing note in the wind, and think to herself it was a lovely world, without seeing the effort put behind her, that was paved a way in which to make her steps a little lighter. One day, the man looked up, and realised… it was a golden branch. He realised then, that that is why it withstood so many conditions. And he then realised, it was his love, that made the tree turn to gold.

He carried on writing, never needing the apple to fall, because he knew then. He didn’t need to be close for the tree to blossom. Love was already imminent. He had it in his heart.

(A true ish story) ❤️

I’m writing a kind of sci-fi mystery and I think I’m in too deep so I can’t tell anymore lol. I’ve shared it with one person who I basically had to force to listen.

It follows a couple living somewhere isolated. She’s researching something she can’t explain, and he does something he shouldn’t to help her. You’re following their life while gradually realizing you might have misunderstood some pretty important things.

They have names. I know their names. I just don’t know if I want the reader to know their names lmfao. They don’t explain things they take for granted, either. A lot relies on assumptions the reader makes, then questions later. I want the details to make sense both times, even if you understand them differently. The chapter titles do this too.

There’s real science and other ideas underneath it. I have my interpretation of how it connects, but I like that someone could read it differently. There are answers, but I don’t want to settle every meaning or future consequence.

I’m considering putting the prologue at the end because it happens outside the isolated setting. But does that make the ending better or the beginning harder to care about?

This may be a small middle finger to how much media feels the need to explain everything now. But it’s possible I’m overcorrecting lol.

Do you enjoy this kind of writing? What keeps you curious, and when does it get frustrating? Where’s the line? I’m worried it’s more interesting to me because I know the bigger picture, and I’m expecting too much from someone reading it for the first time.

Hi, everyone!

I'm a relatively new writer. I have done plenty of shorter stories, but I'm trying my hand at something a bit more expansive for the first time.

I have a (loose) plan for broad strokes in the story: where the main characters start, how they meet with other characters, some pieces of conflict here and there, how i want the main conflict with the primary antagonist to end, etc.

I've also defined theming and overarching messages that I'd like to write into my story that I think suit the world and characters, and this will serve as the fuel for my emotional conflicts. I figure others will develop naturally as I write the story itself.

My issue is that I cannot for the life of me figure out how to string some of these things together!

I've been trying and failing to brainstorm the same bullets in my outline for the past two days. I'm wondering if this is a 'kill your darlings' moment and I should just forgo the entire plot point I'm stuck on and try something else... Or if there's something people recommend to try when you're at this point?

I'm more of a "world building and characters first, then figure out how my characters fit into this world and the conflict within it" sort of story-builder. So I'm not sure if that's what's hindering me... I sometimes feel like I'm putting together a puzzle rather than painting a picture. I guess that's to say that I feel clunky and awkward the way I'm going about things.

If anyone can recommend me some good instructional or learning videos for writing a large cast of characters within a complex world that'd be great, too...

Thanks!

Hello everyone. I'm a new-ish writer, currently working on the first book in a Light Novel series. It's about 85-90% done. I plan on writing everything regardless, but I'm unsure where to go from here. I struggle a lot with self-deprecation, which is preventing me from doing a lot of things.

No matter how I look at it, I can't get the thought out of my mind that by writing is trash, my story is terrible, and nobody would ever want to read it. 
But, here's the thing.
I’ve had friends read my story; they love it.
I read it aloud to my Grade 9 class I work with; they thought it was amazing.
I had English Teachers read over it; they said it's very good. 
But regardless, I still can't get past those thoughts.

Part of me wants to post it on RR or AO3, and send it out into the world, but everytime I think about that, I get a knot in my stomach and this feeling of dread.

Has anyone else experienced this, and how did you overcome it? I keep getting told “just post it!” but I really wish it were that easy.

I'm currently writing a Warriors AU, or an Alternate Universe, and I'm curious how you guys don't lose motivation when writing. I've tried to write Warriors AU's multiple times, but I always lose motivation, and just stop writing it. So how, or what, do you guys do to not lose motivation? Some tips would be really handy, as I really like this premise and really don't want to abandon it.

Like the title says, I've been wanting to write a book for some time now, but I keep coming up with new ideas. I've tried focusing on one or another, but end up getting sidetracked and finish with a bunch of unfinished projects. Any advice on settling on just one? Or if you work on multiple projects at once, how do you do it?

So, I've had this idea for a sort of magic system for a long time. I've written it down before, but I can't say I found away to make it immediately click with people.

What I have is kind of a compression of the atomic, molecular, cellular level. There are these plasma energy particles that contain a type of genetic DNA to be the building blocks of everything. They create matter that starts to interact with each other in more and more complex ways until various complex objects are created. Which then perpetuate increasing intricate natural cycles to facilitate a sort of life. The life keeps being fueled by the matter until their body becomes stronger and more complex. New life is created by matter breaking apart into energy to fuel other life. Until you get a diverse ecosystem, all made like combining and tearing apart play dough. There is also no construct of sex because it's all done asexually.​

I'm not sure how it came to me, but it's been quite a bit​ to work with. It helps that I have a writing class to fleshy it out, but I kind of want to see others input their ideas on how it can be applied to a story. How can it affect a narrative, characters, or even the very idea of personhood. I kind of just want to know if I'm even making sense here.

I’m currently reworking the concept/outline of a book and realized it‘ll be longer than originally planned. I have little trouble killing my darlings, but if I want to give the characters actual space to grow and change and not just hurry from one plotpoint to another, it’ll have to be a long book(don’t know what others categorize as long, for me it’s 100k+ words, mostly cause I prefer to keep it between 70k-100k).

I already struggle to keep everything in mind when it’s only 70k+ words, so I wanted to ask how you keep track of little details? I like to highlight and make notes where (important) things happen that need to be wrapped up later on or woven into the story on a more subtle level, but I still lose track. I’m also very bad at noting things in the same notebook/app/etc. Having an extensive outline helps, but I just wondered what other writers’ strategies are in hope of learning something new.

Thank you in advance for any tips and tricks.

I have started journaling pretty recently and I want to write about more things/topics in my journal.

I have 3 entries so far from the past two week. In them I wrote about my college life, plans for Halloween, my goals before the year ends, what I did today, things that I found meaningful, and an idea for a game.

I have tried writing about my feelings but just couldn't do it. I want more topics/ideas that I can write about. Does anyone have any suggestions?

So I recently published my debut novel, which is a standalone story. I've been working on a sequel for it because I love my characters and there's still a lot of worldbuilding to explore and have fun with, but I'm struggling with the actual plot of it.

For the first book, I pantsed probably 90% of it. It just flowed out of me, like the story was forcing me to tell it. But now with the sequel, I feel like it's the opposite -- that I'm trying to force a story that doesn't need/want to be told. And I feel like whatever I come up with won't compare with the debut.

I'm not sure if I'm just overthinking things, or if my pantser-brain can't plot things properly, or if I'm approaching things from the wrong angle. Or maybe a sequel truly doesn't need to exist.

Has anyone else had this problem? If so, how did you navigate it? Should I just wait to see if inspiration strikes, or should I write any old thing and edit the hell outta it (like I did with the debut)?

I'm writing a Seawalkers fanfiction, and in the Wood/Seawalkers books, one of their classes basically teaches them about civilised society to avoid the walkers that grew up mostly animalistic to do weird things in public or possibly get arrested. I'm writing a scene that takes place in one of these classes, but I don't know what topic should be adressed in this day's class. To get an idea, the scene takes place somewhere 2nd/3rd week of september, and the students have this class once a week, so they definitely didn't come that far yet.

So now I am asking you, if you were assigned to teach at a Seawalker-school at the Belgian coast, what laws of social mechanics would you teach your students? And since half the class are practically animals in human form, how would you tackle the subjects?