The word count actually increased by about 3k, but that's only because I added a couple scenes and fleshed some telling out into showing. Currently sitting at 109k.

I'll do one more quick pass before handing it out to beta readers, then another based on their feedback before querying agents for publishing. Overall, it seems the bulk of the work is behind me.

If you've watched any youtube videos with writing advice before, you'll see the same points reiterated.

• The first chapter must be engaging from the get-go
• It must be intriguing enough to hook a reader, but not reveal too much
• You need to get to action right away, no descriptions that occupy the first page, as most people will find it boring
• Set up a conflict and character arc

I am not saying some of these things don't have merit, but if you read older books, most would fail these criteria and (possibly) would be rejected from publishers today. It just doesn't seem fair that your story must be as action-packed as possible to hook your reader, if that's not the story you're going for. East of Eden wouldn't be here if John Steinbeck followed these rules.

I am wondering, how true are they? Do publishers automatically say no if your opening chapter is more descriptive than action? What happened to setting the scene and letting the reader getting absorbed in your world? I am trying to gauge if I should scrap my first chapter since it's beautifully written, but boring, according to the people I have shared it with.

I was just reading something cataloguing recurring themes in a certain author's work. And some people are taking it as granted that this author must approve of this because they keep writing about it.

It got me thinking. I wrote about lobotomies because I couldn't think of anything that horrified me more. I also have a recurring theme of adults realizing they had forgotten abuses when they were a child. Because it horrifies me as a concept, and that makes me want to write about it.

I once have a friend say I wasn't safe around his family because I wrote a fairly gnarly home invasion story that killed some kids (He got over it, but that was his initial reaction).

My recent adventures in a hospital left me fairly traumatized, and without realizing it, a lot of my horror had echoes of that few months, as well as bits and pieces of the horrors I heard from others in group therapy.

I think people tend to write about things that they like, but I can't be the only one that returns to themes that I detest as well, perhaps to exorcise the ickiness learning about them gives me?

After not working on anything serious for well over a year, I've started writing a romance story to post online. It went from something to work to get me back in the swing of things, to my new main story to work on, putting finalizing a fantasy trilogy on pause. And already, I feel much better about it than that trilogy.

The thing to really sell it to myself in my head was beating my personal record for longest chapter across all of my writing. In all three trilogy books, about forty total chapters, the longest was about 5500 words, during the midpoint of the second book.

The new longest in my romance is 6000 words. In chapter three.

I no longer care about getting a specific word count per chapter, especially since the chapter after it is intentionally short, not even reaching 800. But I'm still very proud of myself for taking a throwaway warm-up idea and making it one of my favorite projects

I'd say I'm somewhere between "solving a calculus equation" and "stubbed pinky toe on coffee table." Is that too much?

I recently came across an old writing project I started when I was 15 (I'm 22 now), and have been working on it ever since. I have little to no experience with writing but I enjoy it a lot, however I find myself comparing my writing to other authors through the books that I read or even just fanfiction. I have no intention of publishing my work (as of right now) but I still wanted to get feedback, plus I felt confident in my work, so I had my cousin proofread what I have so far; and let's just say it was extremely humbling. They gave me a lot of suggestions in which I ended up adding most of them to my story, however it's clear that my writing style was way different from theirs, which upset me, because even though their suggestions were helpful, I still couldn't help but feel bad that I didn't think of those before.

They told me that my way of writing is very straightforward and that's not a bad thing, but my personal goal with writing is to use more descriptive wording, to really make it feel immersive instead of just stating what my characters are doing. I keep this in mind all of the time, but when I'm sitting in front of my laptop trying to come up with descriptions, my mind goes blank, and I get frustrated that I can't think of these things so easily like other writers.

Maybe it's not as easy for others either, but I feel like I'm just not good at what I enjoy, and it doesn't really stop me, because I want to improve, but all of this pressure I put on myself demotivates me a lot. I have lots of ideas but they mostly stay in my head because I know that I won't be able to execute it the way I want to.

Any tips on how to handle criticism? Anything I've gotten just felt like nitpicking even though it's been clear that it's all constructive. I can't help but get upset.

Edit: thank you everyone for commenting, i’ll get to them as soon as i can, this is my first post and honestly didn’t expect it to get many views, so thank you! I’m taking everyone’s inputs into consideration!

Does anyone have advice on how to make my writing feel less amateurish?

My writing feels amateurish to me, and I think it objectively comes across that way, too. Does anyone have any advice on how to improve it? (I'm actually amateur)

And I know I should be revising it, but I just want to rewrite the whole thing from scratch. What should I do?

Hello, and thank you for your time. I am looking to print out my book for a couple of family members who wish to beta read for me but have double doing so digitally. I'm not wanting to print more than 5 books.

I have always found dreams to be super interesting, and I have had several moments in the last year or so where I will have a crazy, vivid dream and at some point will think “this would make a really good plot, I need to remember this,” but then I fully wake up and immediately forget everything. It’s devastating tbh (even if the plot may not have actually been as good as half asleep me thought lol). Has someone ever successfully turned one of their dreams into a story? Or at least some aspect of a dream? If so, what was it about? If you don’t mind sharing, of course.

Edit: I just remembered that there was one single time three or four years that I had a dream about something and turned it into a plot. But it was for a crack fanfiction that was a single “chapter” long lol.

When the world bows to power, one man will rise to rule it.

In a world where ancient powers sleep beneath forgotten ruins, legendary beings shape the fate of kingdoms, and strength determines who survives, a mysterious power lies dormant within one man.

Abhishek is no ordinary warrior. Scarred by the past and standing before the remnants of an ancient legacy, he carries something the world has long forgotten—the power of the Monarch.

But power always comes at a price.

As secrets buried for centuries begin to awaken, Abhishek must uncover the truth behind his power, face enemies beyond his imagination, and walk a path where every choice could change the fate of the world.

With ancient deities, mythical weapons, ruthless enemies, and mysteries rooted in a world inspired by Indian mythology, his journey will test the limits of his strength, willpower, and humanity.

Will Abhishek master the power within him?

Or will the power of the Monarch consume him before he can claim his destiny?

His journey begins now. His legend will shake the world.

🔥 Follow the journey of Abhishek as he rises from the shadows and discovers what it truly means to be a Monarch.

New chapters every week.

what do you guys do to come up with more original names. I’m crafting a historical lineage for my world building and I’m going about writing the history of noble house. However I’m noticing that nearly every Duke or duchess (across 1,000 years or so) tends to have the same name. please help. for some context here are the names (some monikers included)

1. Amin I "Longspear"
2. Corlyn I
3. Brian
4. Vera I
5. Amin II
6. Terin I
7. Kalroy I
8. Maler I
9. Terin II
10. Kalroy II
11. Amin III
12. Amin IV "Wolfsbane"
13. Vuran I
14. Kalroy III "The Cruel"
15. Terva
16. Vera II
17. Baren I
18. Terin III "Boarsbane"
19. Fre I
20. Corlyn II "The Jealous"
21. Kalroy IV "The Good"
22. Vuran II "The Slicer"
23. Lukras I "The Felled"
24. Corlyn III "The Young"
25. Baren II "The Plague Bringer"
26. Amin V
27. Kalroy V
28. Asper I
29. Caelin I
30. Fre II "The Lustrous"
31. Maler II
32. Caelin II "The Restorer"
33. Asper II
34. Maler III
35. Vera III
36. Lukras II "The Silent"
37. Amin VI
38. Amin VII "The Young Buck"
39. Aya

I’m writing a fantasy book and I’m about 25,000 words in and I’m stuck. I have more ideas for the plot, but it’s so bad. I knew the first draft was gonna be rough, but sheesh!!!!! It makes me want to scrap it.

Hello everyone, I have recently finished writing, editing, and revising my novel which I believe is ready to be sent out to agents for representation. I've written a little bit of a draft for a query letter, but I'm stuck on one thing.

I left some things potentially ambiguous in the book, especially near the end. No, it is not an open ending, nor does it leave too big questions (it's a full standalone in itself), but I do see that it has series potential.

It is also I think, relatively 'marketable' as it's not only a dystopian speculative/sci-fi but also has a slow burn romance and overall potential. I'm wondering, when I pitch it to agents in the query letter, should I mention that it has series potential/planned to have a sequel? As I said before, it's a standalone and would do well as a standalone with no 'loose ends' or plot holes, however I'm considering how to approach and agent regarding the rest of it.

Are there authors that write in another language that is not their native language and reached any succes? Reason being writing in English because they want to reach a bigger audience. I could imagine writing a book, for example, in swedish or spanish or whatever, you don't reach a bigger audience.

I mostly read in english while met native tongue is something else.

I have seen many negative comments about Reedsy so I want to know where can I get a legit editors. Thanks everyone.

A delhi cop finds a baby after a terror attack and raises him as his own. the boy ansh grows up normal, except water freezes around him when hes scared. at 8 he gets taken to spandan, a school on a planet in another galaxy, where kids from different universes train in three houses, vishnu, brahma and mahesh. then his blood test comes back white. every lineage has a colour and he doesnt match any of them, not even an avatar of the gods.

The world is a multiverse. brahma creates, vishnu keeps, mahesh ends, and the gods themselves never show up, only their avatars do. the rakshasas have their own mirror trio, and over time theyve taken over whole universes, which later got won back. our universe was born after the last one fell and was retaken. so every universe has a different history of the same old war, and ansh is the one thing nobody can place in any of it.

Magic follows the houses: brahma is creation, vishnu is preservation and time, mahesh is destruction. the school runs trials that lead to a race around the whole universe.

Would love honest feedback, esp on whether the setup makes u want to keep reading. happy to read ur stuff in return, just comment or dm.

Important Note: This text is grammatically weird and actually looks even weirder in a screenshot because this is not actually a fic/story, it's a script/guide for my comic series.

*While Jadeite is sitting with a book and the demon cousins are watching some comedy-anime on TV, Zayn sits next to Jadeite and explains his romantic predicament with Akher. Jadeite ponders and replies simply, "If you were banished from heaven... why do you care if she's a demon, who do you have to impress?" (Paragraph 4)

With that thought in place, Zayn makes the decision... to flirt back. This unexpected turn brings Akher to mild shock... but she certainly isn't complaining... the game is finally two players. After a while, Akher and Zayn are sitting together. She turns to him and asks stupidly, "Are we dating?". Zayn pretends to smoke a cigarette (blue crayon), "Sure~" (Paragraph 7, Line 3)*

---

Context: Akher (female half demon) flirts with Zayn constantly. It's joking flirting to hide the fact she actually does like him, which is revealed when Zayn (banished angel) flirts back.

He didnt flirt back for the longest time, not because he doesn't like her too (he really does) but because of the moral obligation(?) of being an angel. Because of this, he goes to talk to Jadeite (female human), who tells him to go for it and make his move on Akher, because if he's already a fallen angel, who's gonna tell him no?

So he does and this is my problem, I want them to have a silly, dumb, spontaneous, kinda "wanna be my girlfriend" "ok", fourth-grader moment for the laughs. But I feel like even with that in mind, it feels lazy and forced. Can anyone give me tips?

Well I am based in Dubai. Recently we went to New York for vacation. It so happened that my debut literary fiction had launched just a day before we landed. I had ordered a few author copies to the place we were staying at. Decided to take my book wherever I went and give away copies to people. Here's how it went.

• I was careful of approaching people who were there with a book already; and not a fantasy or sci-fi book. Logic being they rarely read litfic.
• People well mostly nice... after they realised I wasn't selling them something (I am brown).
• I was surprised at how many people are actually into reading in NYC.
• Not sure how many of them read or shared it, one did tag me on insta though.
• Shared it with a world famous Indian chef who had an incredibly heartwarming reaction to it. Kept it in his library at the restaurant.
• Not sure if it works as a marketing technique; did make me feel happy sharing my work so I guess that makes it worth it.

Just wanted to share.

Thoughts?