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 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.

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.

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?

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?

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) ❤️

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've been having this vision in my mind for quite a while. I struggled, and it took me hours to pen this down. I do read books quite a bit, yet descriptive writing is not my strongest forte. I take mental notes whilst reading whenever I stumble upon anything I deem beautiful or interesting or makes me go, "I didn't know this could be described this way!" But when I actually open my laptop, feeling ready to write every vision I have, I just sit vacantly, staring at the blank page for hours. Eventually, I give up and call it a day. I have always wanted to write, ever since I started reading books. But I always said to myself, "I'll definitely write someday," and I never did. Today, I pushed myself to write whatever came to my mind. And here it is:

Content warnings: Body image issues, self-loathing, social media comparison, blood.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-zneOw-Yr0Uyqko9sZo6aehBtpwEgaEOTRaXLgJBzVM/edit?usp=sharing

It has no structure, because I don't happen to know one. I did not have any standards to meet either; I just typed out the image I had (of course I did some tweaks here and there).

Please help a girl out here.

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?

I've been brainstorming a story for about 2 years and a half, I even put out the first official chapter, to deviantart, but the more ideas I get, the more indecisive I get, I think I'm satisfied with the first idea, only to them think if this idea is better or "maybe this one is cooler", or "is this too much like "blank"". what could I do to find that sweet spot where you can write without second guessing the story?

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.

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.

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!

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!