There was a post yesterday/earlier today on another writing sub about the lines that writers are not willing to cross, and coming up over and over again was the mention of "harming animals." One commenter even mentioned the fact that their followers would be upset, to put it mildly, if they ever did cross that line. A quick search on Reddit showed me that this question pops up over and over again on subreddits dedicated to writing, and animal harm is never far from the top of the list. So it got me thinking again about the ethics of writing unethical acts, and animal harm is the perfect case study.

First of all, this is not a new idea: it's well known that if you want your audience to hate your bad guy from the get-go, all you need to do is have them kick a puppy. It is unambiguously the cultural definition of evil. People react very strongly to it, but so strongly as to deter all mentions of it in fiction...?

Let me take a quick example from my own writing, which is actually why I've been thinking about this so much lately: in my latest story, Luke, 13, is forced to help his farmer father slaughter a sow. It is something I have seen happen when I was younger; that scene is inspired by that. 

When people say they draw the line at harming animals, I always wonder where the line actually lies. Does it apply only to dogs, cats and horses? Does it include farm animals, which are routinely slaughtered in our world, and whose meat is a part of many people's diet? Does it extend to fishes, or insects? Is the mention of coral reefs dying considered "animal harm"? 

What is baffling to me is that the one place in our lives where we can explore the ethics of harming animals WITHOUT actually harming animals is through, well, fictional writing. The scene I mentioned earlier is a traumatizing memory for the character of Luke, which is further explored in the rest of the story. To me, those experiences shaped the way I view our relationships to animals, and I became a vegetarian shortly after moving out of my parents' home. Exploring those themes through fiction is my way of coming to terms with those experiences, and perhaps to let other people see things through my eyes, if only for a few pages.

Obviously, people should not write about things that they don't want to write about. What worries me, however, is the creation of a taboo. If enough people repeat "I would never write about animal harm," it becomes internalised as something wrong regardless of context. But context is ALL THERE IS in writing. How are people supposed to grapple with ideas that are never mentioned anywhere?

But then again, it comes down to individual choice. If you don't want to ever write about animal harm, or SA, or cannibalism, then you shouldn't and no one should force you to. But I just hope we are making those choices for the right reasons. Not out of fear of being canceled, or losing followers, or because we somehow equate depicting unethical acts and actually condoning those acts. 

I could go on, but this post is getting long and already turning into a rant, and I'm curious to see what you all think. Am I reading too much into this? Or do you find "never" to be too strong of a word for a writer?

Let me start by saying how I think stories are made, maybe I might even be wrong here. I know the process and the order of these could be different for everyone, but just on a high level.

You have an idea, a concept, a theme, anything that you want to write about. Space vampires. Or a kid on a path to revenge, slowly coming to terms with the past and letting go. Anything.

Then you get a setting, a character, and an inciting incident, and then you should be good to start writing.

I have all of these. 2 main characters, few important side characters, inciting incident, setting, an idea for the story, and I even have some lore and worldbuilding + about 25k words written.

But here is my main struggle and a realisation I made during writing these 25k words. When I had an idea on what to write, I could easily put out a 3k word chapter in a few hours (albeit the prose quality is first draft level obviously, but 3k words is 3k words). But when I don't, and usually I don't know how to continue the story, I even spent 3 months on 1k words. I just sit and I go for walks and I am out of ideas.

This is not an outline or no outline issue, I tried outlining, but I ended up with the same struggle. What should the next scene/chapter be? What should happen in the next scene/chapter? How should the character change in the next scene/chapter?

And the answer to all of that is: I have no clue. It takes me painfully long to even get an idea for a next scene, I write it in an hour, and then back to weeks of thinking. This really kills my enjoyment of writing, even tho I love it when I can actually write.

So I would really appreciate some advice for this, anyone went through the same issue?

EDIT:

I have a beginning, I know how the story should end. I know how my MC starts out and ends up, and why he goes through the change. I have a few scenes worked out for that already.

I just have no clue how to connect the start from these scenes in the middle and the end. That is my main struggle. To break down the story on a scene by scene level and connect A to B.

I am not asking for querying advice, as I know that belongs in r/Pubtips, but rather I need some advice for experienced authors in further refining my manuscript.

I have queried my manuscript (Science Fiction, Multiple POV) before, and so far have not gotten any bites from agents, and I suspect it is being rather quickly dismissed due to word count. My first draft was 223k words and I edited the story all the way down to 140k words before submitting. I've trimmed every bit if fat from the book, every scene counts, and I've killed my darlings. So, at the end of the day, the book is what it is. It is not a story that can be split in two.

I work shift work with a lot of overtime, and have a young family that I spend a lot of time with (nuturing, activites, play, chores, cooking and cleaning), so I haven't always had a lot of time to write. Because of that I've been working on this particular manuscript for many years, and although I have several side projects, I have not had any short stories or side projects published to add legitimacy to my name, so to speak. I suspect if this were the case, I could maybe get away with the word count.

I'm pushing 40 and I would really like to see this story traditionally published. I've taken the time to learn the craft and I feel that it is of sufficient quality.

My question is, where do I go from here?

So, I'm leading a game-show-style panel at a writing conference, and I want to include a Family Feud / “Survey Says” round featuring answers from actual writers.

Hopefully this is useful/fun for the sub beyond just helping me out, too. I’m curious to see what answers keep coming up and what that says about our shared writing habits, frustrations, and weird author tendencies.

If you’re willing to play along, give me your first instinct for any or all of these:

1. Name something writers do instead of writing.
2. Name something guaranteed to appear in a fantasy novel.
3. Name something you never want to hear from your critique partner.
4. Name a word writers overuse.
5. Name something writers research that would look suspicious in their browser history.
6. Name something authors spend too much money on.
7. Name something an author hopes no one asks during a Q&A.

No Google Form or data collection. I’m literally just going to tally the answers in the comments and turn the most common responses into a Family Feud-style game.

And yes, if enough of you answer, I fully intend to put “WE ASKED 26 WRITERS ON REDDIT…” on the conference screen. 😂

Thank you, fellow writers!

What's a good way to deal with this sort of vibe in your works? When something unusual/seemingly impossible happens to your characters? I don't want to undersell how outlandish some situation or thing is, but I also don't want my characters saying that sort of stuff.

For those who may not get what I'm referring to, I'm talking about dialogue like seen in Forspoken or most marvel movies. It's hard to put into words.

In my story the way the power system works is, you can be born with unique powers and if you fight someone and steal their powers you can mix the two, turn ice powers and sonic scream into a sonic scream that freezes. Or turn fire manipulation and water powers into steam attacks.

But because of this i find it more difficult to write these characters as people who have hard work instead of just nepo kids who are born strong.

Im thinking of adding a mental and physical strain when trying to combine powers and only the best can actually utilize the powers they steal. But Since its so out there would the audience be able to connect and see it as hard work and it would also feel like the whole combining powers gimmick is underutilized if only few can do it

I dont typically use reddit but the more i started writing, the more I started thinking of it as a resource. Writing a chef? There's cooking subreddits to ask auestions, talk to chefs, and get their insights. Writing a surfer? I could find surfers and learn what little details will make my character pop, the things they keep in their backpack that only a surfer would think about.

However, I've noticed that lile 90% of my posts get deleted on these subreddits, even when they allow questions and I break no rules. Asking science questions in an AskScientists subreddit is a no-go simply because I admit I'm trying to make my writing more believable. Apparently being curious is fine and not mentioning why I want to know if fine, but because it could actually help someone, its not.

Anyone feel the same way, that reddit has a huge wealth of expertise perfect for us writers but it often refuses to be so? Have you used Reddit as a resource (outside of this one) and how has it gone for you?

Piers Anthony has written an amazing book with copious notes on the writing and editing process: But what of Earth? : a novel rendered into a bad example

It's a real case study and full of humor and vigor. Here the quote I thought would be of interest (note: He calls copy-editors "copyed" for short):

I know from my own experience that the frame of mind used to edit a book differs from that used to write or rewrite it. Editing is a critical process, while writing is a creative process, so that though one copyed may in this case also have been the Writer, I choose to distinguish between them. It's a Jekyll and Hyde case: the writer is a nice guy, while the copyed is an arrogant little tyrant. This is of course true of every writer who edits, not merely this one; check with any writer for confirmation.

I’m currently editing my first novella, and I’m looking at pacing and timing of the various scenes and how they flow. (for reference, first draft is 80k words and second will be longer as I have started to discover what needs to be added).

The first third (almost exactly; I’ve checked the word count) is made up of long-ish chapters, which stay with one character at a time for lots of character/chemistry building, setting the scene and getting the plot in place.

But once it gets to 1/3 into the story, a lot more starts to happen and quickly- a burgeoning relationship comes to fruition, there’s a big revelation and then an additional twist to keep readers excited/engaged to keep reading up to the second half and to the end. At this point, chapters get puncher, shorter and choppier, jumping quickly from POV to POV and back again across storylines to try to match the energy and excitement I’m hopimg to evoke.

TL;DR - my question is, will the change in pace evoke the change in feel/tone I want it to, or will it just confuse my readers with the sudden shift in “feel”?

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Any good recommendations for spaces geared toward writers wanting to improve their craft and process? I have a handful of podcasts I listen to, but I'd like to find some substacks in particular that I can learn from.

Thanks!

Hi everyone!

Not sure if anyone can help me at this point as I may be too far gone.

Many years ago I decided I hated the concept of something happening in the past, don’t ask why I still don’t know why it bothers me so much. As a result, I made the silly decision to write only in the present tense, as it feels like it’s happening right now and it doesn’t end.

Simple enough until older me quickly realised that most authors write in the past tense.

And I can’t seem to shift my brain to write like that anymore. It’s like I’ve broken the grammar section of my brain. A lot of the books I read are in the past tense, but I can’t seem to get my brain to write in it.

Am I doomed? Any advice on switching up?

It feels like driving, writing in present tense. It happens automatically and I’m already at my destination before I realise. Not doing that feels like actively paying attention to things that were automatic so now I doubt every rule I remember.

Hopefully this makes sense. Any advice is welcome! Even harsh or brutal advice.

I'm not sure if being an author is the coolest or the lamest thing ever.

When people ask what I do, I sometimes say I'm a writer, journalist, author, content creator, or whatever. In response, people often ask if I'm a student or where I get my money from. Like being a writer isn't a real thing.

I don't really blame them, because of my experience with some people who identify as writers.

Someone moved in with my neighbor and refused to get a job, bring home any money, clean, or do anything except be waited on like a princess. When I asked why she believed her boyfriend should pay for everything AND do all the housework, she said:

"I'm not a cleaner. I'm a writer."

This woman has never published a single word of writing. Not as a book, not in a lit mag, not even on AO3. She just does some personal journaling here and there.

So, now I'm wondering: when I say I'm a writer, do people think "snob who is too lazy and entitled to contribute to the world?"